Product Description

With eighty men I could ride through the entire Sioux nation. The story of the Fetterman Fight, near Fort Phil Kearney in present-day Wyoming in 1866, is based entirely on this infamous declaration attributed to Capt. William J. Fetterman. Historical accounts cite this statement in support of the premise that bravado and contempt for the forts commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, compelled Fetterman to disobey direct orders from Carrington and lead his men into an ambush by an alliance of Plains Indians.In the aftermath of the incident, Carringtons superiors positioned him as solely accountable for the massacre by suppressing exonerating evidence. In the face of this betrayal, Carringtons first and second wives came to their husbands defense by publishing books presenting his version of the deadly encounter. Although several of Fettermans soldiers and fellow officers disagreed with the womens accounts, their chivalrous deference to womens moral authority during this age of Victorian sensibilities enabled Carringtons wives to present their story without challenge.In this fascinating book, Shannon D. Smith reexamines the works of the two Mrs. Carringtons in the context of contemporary evidence. Fetterman emerges as an outstanding officer who respected the Plains Indians superiority in numbers, weaponry, and battle skills. both challenges standard interpretations of this American myth and shows the powerful influence of female writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.