The Wagon Box Fight on August 2, 1867, was a battle between twenty-six U.S. Army soldiers and six civilians who were attacked by several hundred Lakota Sioux warriors. It was one of the few times in history that American Indians charged in mass against a fortified position, as is so often depicted in fictional movies. It was the last major engagement of Red Cloud's War, but the treaty that officially ended the war wasn't signed for over a year afterward.
The soldiers and civilians were part of a summer wood-cutting crew that was tasked with supplying Fort Phil Kearny with firewood. The Fort went through enormous volumes of firewood during winter, and all nearby timber had already been used for the construction of the fort as well as firewood. The work party was well over ten miles away from Fort Phil Kearny in the summer of 1867.
Hay cutters and wood gatherers had been a favorite target of the local Indian warriors since Fort Phil Kearny was established one year earlier. The Indians had conducted many small raids, killing several dozen soldiers and civilians, and driving off hundreds of head of livestock for their own use. Also, Indian warriors had completely wiped out a party of 81 Soldiers the previous December in an action known as the "Fetterman Fight" or "Battle of a Hundred Slain".
To protect against raids near the pine forest, the civilian contractors had constructed a corral. It consisted of 14 wooden bodies of wagons, which were removed from the chassis and placed on the ground in an oval 60–70 ft (18–21 m) long and 25–30 ft (7.6–9.1 m) wide. Both soldiers and civilians in the wood-cutting details lived in tents outside the corral of wagon boxes, but could retreat to it for defense.
The first assault on the wagon box corral came from mounted warriors from the southwest, but the raiders encountered heavy fire from the soldiers using the new breech-loading Springfield Model 1866 rifles and lever-action Henry rifles. The attackers withdrew, regrouped, and launched several further attacks on foot. The battle continued from about 7:30 a.m. until 1:30 pm. The defenders had plenty of ammunition and were well-defended from arrows behind the thick sides of the wagon boxes.
By the time the Indians withdrew, the party behind the wagon boxes suffered 7 killed
2 wounded. Indian casualties are disputed but probably numbered about 60.
Dimension:
563 x 587
File Size:
75.6 Kb
1 person likes this.
, P61 Black Widow reacted this
