Troops at Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory, 1888, Exhuming Bodies of Soldiers Killed in the 1866 "Fetterman Fight"

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Artifact Overview

In 1866, members of Lakota (Sioux), Tsistsistas (Cheyenne), and Hiinono'ei (Arapaho) tribes wiped out Captain Fetterman and his command near Fort Phil Kearney, blunting U.S. efforts to establish outposts in the Powder River region of Wyoming and Montana. The soldiers' bodies were interred at the fort but were left when the military abandoned the post two years later. In 1888, U.S. troops returned to exhume the bodies.

Artifact Details

Artifact

Photographic print

Subject Date

1888

Location

Not on exhibit to the public.

Object ID

30.803.14

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford. Gift of George Dalgleish.

Material

Paper (Fiber product)

Technique

Gelatin silver process

Color

Black-and-white (Colors)

Dimensions

Height: 3.75 in
Width: 5.875 in

Inscriptions

caption on front at bottom: Photo by T. Dalgliesh, 188[?] / [. . .] KENNY LIFTING SOLDIERS MASSACRED AT FT. PHIL KARNEY [sic] WYO TER, 1876 [sic] handwritten on back: Soldiers from Ft. McKenny lifting bodys [sic] of soldiers killed by the Indians on Lodge Pole trail. I took 7 arrowheads out of one box (or coffin) owing to the alkili [sic] in the soil had all turned red.