Absaraka, Home of the Crows: Being the Experience of an Officer's Wife on the PlainsOn July 17, 1866, two soldiers and six wagoners were killed by Sioux Indians. In the next two weeks, fourteen more men died in Sioux attacks. The attacks continued through the summer and fall. On December 21, disaster struck. Recklessly pursuing Indians across a wooded ridge, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his company fell into an ambush. It was the worst military blunder of the Indian Wars before the Battle of the Little Big Horn ten years later. Margaret Irvin Carrington, like many officers' wives, kept a journal of her stay in the outposts of the West. She recorded her impressions of the scenery and the inhabitants of Absaraka, in present-day Wyoming, Montana, and the western Dakotas. As the wife of the commander of Fort Phil Kearny, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, she experienced the sequence of events and the heightening of tensions that led to that bloody December day. She could not have known that her journal would come to such a shocking climax, with her husband's career at stake. |
Other editions - View all
Absaraka, Home of the Crows: Being the Experience of an Officers Wife on the ... Margaret Irvin Carrington No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
Absaraka arms attacked band Battalion Big Horn Mountains Big Horn River Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Brevet Major Brown buffalo C. F. Smith camp Captain Fetterman Captain Ten Eyck Caspar cavalry Cheyenne chief Colonel Carrington command companies corral crossed Crows December dians duty east February 19 feet fight fire Fort C. F. Smith Fort Caspar Fort Kearney Fort Laramie Fort Reno garrison grass Grummond guard headquarters hills hundred Indians Infantry in 1868 July June killed labor ladies Laramie Lieutenant 18th Infantry Lieutenant Bingham Lieutenant Wands Lodge Trail Ridge Major Bridger massacre miles Montana morning mules nearly night o'clock officers party passed Peno Creek Phil Philip Kearney Phisterer picket Piney plains pony Powder River ranche Red Cloud regiment Reno rifle road route Second Lieutenant sent Sioux snow soldiers soon squaws supplies timber tion Tongue River Tongue River valley trip wagons yards