"Fetterman fight dec 1866." Topic

A local young wargamer of 13 want to play this battle.
He ask:

a) How many indians had shooting guns? (Percent)
b) the amounts were more than 2000 indians and 100 soldiers with some civilians?.
c) It's true that the indians killed the Regiment dog?
(don't know if there were even a dog there).
d) How many soldiers had repeating rifles?.

Would apreciate your guidance for him.

Amicalement
Armand

I live 15 miles from the site. Probably NO repeaters.

Very Hilly with LOTS of cover and concealed approaches. I suspect that few Indians had guns.

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Armand,
There were 80 soldiers including the two civilians who went with the column.
Lieutanant Grummond commanded 27 cavalrymen who were armed with Spencer carbines. These held seven shots and were repeaters.
The two civilians carried Henry rifles which were 16 shot lever action repeaters.
The 49 or 48 infantrymen were armed with muzzle loading rifles…..too bad for them.
Indian numbers are completly guessed at but may well have been 1400 to 2000 or more.
The number of indians armed with rifles is again only a guess, but at this time the number was probably very small. In later years it ould increase substantially.
The Indians definitely talked about killing a dog that was with the soldiers but I don't know that it was the regimental dog. I'm not sure that there was a regimental dog. My guess is that the dog was a pet of one of the soldiers, possibly of an officer.

I also would like to thank you so much for the many links to really cool pictures and sites that you post. They are very much appreciated.

Thanks for the insight. I have not had the chance to sutdy it yet. I've wlaked the ground a few times

Here's a link to a scenario that I wrote for it. Could give a starting point for others:

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Sir Godfrey and Saber 6, thanks for your kindness.
It's a pleasure to be usefull here.

MC Le SingeDew many thanks!. The boy went mad with the pics and details of your game!.

One of the young warriors who led Fetterman's troops into the ambush set by Red Cloud was Crazy Horse.

Thank you. That is very gratifying. When I was starting out in this hobby long ago, information on gaming the Indian wars was very hard to come by. Glad to have been able to help.

I read a book on the Fetterman fight that estimated that something like 20,000 arrows were fired by the Souix. May have been more…just can't recall the details.

IIRC Dee Brown gives a figures of X0,000arrows but at other points in the book says
*each warrior carried 20 arrows
*every warrior used all of their arrows
*there were Y000 warriors

And it is clear that the huge number of arrows was an extrapolation of those three data points.

Folks with Ten Eycke said that the ground was littered with arrows and each corpse, including the dog, but excluding the bugler had many many arrows, most of which had been loosed while the victim was already down.

The bugler is said by native sources to have fought very bravely and as a result was not mutilated like the others.

Are we sure about Crazy Horse? I seem to recall its a myth & he was nowhere near the battle?

Though my main focus is on the Southern Plains, a quick look in my library has the following sources that say Crazy Horse was at the Fetterman Fight:

Dee Brown: "The Fetterman Massacre"
Dee Brown: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
Gregory F. Michno: "Encyclopedia of Indian Wars"
Joseph M. Marshall III: "The Journey of Crazy Horse"
Robert M. Utley: "The Indian Frontier"

I think the myth you may be referring to is that for years Red Cloud insisted that he led the Indians in the battle, but many warriors who were there said that he wasn't present in the camp & had gone North to recruit more warriors.