Across the Fence: Portugee Phillips and a horse named Dandy

December 21, 1866: eighty troopers and Capt. William J. Fetterman lay dead on a battlefield a few miles from Ft. Phil Kearny, Wyoming. Capt. Fetterman's disregard for the orders of his commanding officer, Col. Henry B. Carrington, to rescue the wood gathering party that was under attack and not engage or pursue the enemy, resulted in the detachment riding into an ambush of over a thousand Sioux under the leadership of Red Cloud.

Women and children at the fort were hurriedly escorted into the more secure ammunition magazines and the remaining 160 troopers hunkered down, surrounded, outnumbered...