Wagon Box Fight

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Wagon Box Fight


caption=Monument at the scene of the fight
partof=Red Cloud's War
date=August 2, 1867
place=near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory, Bozeman Trail
result=U.S. victory
combatant1=United States
combatant2=Sioux Indians
commander1=James Powell
commander2=Red Cloud
strength1=31 soldiers
strength2=1,000-2,000
casualties1=5 killed
2 wounded
casualties2=50-150 killed
120 wounded (various estimates)

The Wagon Box Fight was an engagement on August 2, 1867, during Red Cloud's War between the U.S. Army and Lakota (Sioux) Native Americans in the vicinity of Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming.

Background

In July 1867, after their annual sun dance, bands of Oglala Lakota under Red Cloud and the other Powder River Sioux joined with Northern Cheyenne at their Tongue River and Rosebud River camps, where they resolved to destroy nearby Fort C.F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearny, against which they had been engaged for a year to prevent travel on the Bozeman Trail. Unable to resolve which to destroy first, the bands split into two large bodies, with approximately 500-800 Cheyenne and Sioux moving against Fort C.F. Smith and the rest, possibly including Red Cloud, headed to Fort Phil Kearny.

The fight

On August 2, 1867, Capt. James Powell with a force of 31 soldiers from the U.S. Army's 27th Infantry survived repeated attacks by one to two thousand Sioux warriors under the leadership of Crazy Horse and High Back-Bone and a smaller party of Cheyenne warriors under Little Wolf near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory, along the Bozeman Trail. Red Cloud's presence at the battle remains in doubt. One of Powell's junior officers at the battle, Lt. John C. Jenness, reportedly saw Red Cloud at a distance through field glasses, but such an identification is questionable. [Keenan, Jerry; (2000:33) "The Wagon Box Fight: An Episode of Red Cloud's War", Savas Publishing. ISBN 1-882810-87-2]

Powell's defenders, acting as guards for civilian crews cutting wood for the construction of the fort, had been sent out early in the morning. Two men went to look for game, but instead spotted a huge force of Sioux. Powell's men took refuge in a corral formed by laying 14 wagons end-to-end in an oval configuration. The battle lasted five hours, with Powell losing five men killed and two wounded. Powell reported killing 60 Indians and wounding 120 (although published accounts have put the number of casualties as high as eleven hundred). The disproportionate casualties, and the soldiers survival, was primarily due to the recent issue of Springfield Model 1866 "Trapdoor" .50-caliber breech-loading rifles, that had been supplied as a direct result of the Fetterman massacre. Indian attack strategy had been based on the long reloading time of muzzle-loading weapons. The fight lasted throughout the day until a relief force from Fort Phil Kearny finally arrived and the attackers withdrew.

The day before, on August 1, the second group had struck at Fort C.F. Smith and suffered an almost identical repulse in the Hayfield Fight.

External links

* [http://www.philkearny.vcn.com/wagonboxfight.htm Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com/~nalakota/wotw/military/wagonboxfight_wotw07301928.htm A detailed, first-hand account of the fight]
* [http://wyoparks.state.wy.us/Wfslide.htm Wyoming State Parks - Wagon Box Fight details, list of participants]
* [http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/custer7.html Wyoming Tales and Trails - Good information and Photos]
*

References