Background
His father was a career Army officer of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent.
His father was a career Army officer of Pennsylvania Dutch (German) descent.
After the war, he chose to remain in the Regular Army and was assigned as a captain in the Second Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment.
Fetterman and his command of 80 men were killed in the Fetterman Fight. Fetterman was probably born in New London, Connecticut, although this is uncertain. Fetterman enlisted in the Union Army on May 14, 1861, in Delaware, and was promptly commissioned a first lieutenant.
He served with the First Battalion of the United States 18th Infantry Regiment throughout the war and was twice brevetted for gallant conduct, finishing the war as a lieutenant colonel of Volunteers.
In November 1866, the regiment was stationed at Fort Philosophy Kearny, tasked with protecting immigrants traveling to the gold fields of Montana Territory along the Bozeman Trail. Fetterman allegedly boasted that with 80 soldiers, he could "ride through the Sioux Nation".
On December 21, 1866, a large band of Cheyenne and Sioux – which included Crazy Horse – under the leadership of Red Cloud attacked a wood train near the fort. Despite his unfamiliarity with frontier conditions and the methods of Indian fighting, Fetterman took command of a composite reaction force consisting of the former battalion quartermaster, Captain Frederick Brown, 2nd Lieutenant
George Grummond, 49 enlisted troops of the 18th Infantry, 27 men of the 2nd Cavalry, and 2 civilian scouts, ironically totaling 80 mentor
Ignoring his orders not to venture beyond Lodge Trail Ridge (out of sight and support distance from the fort), Fetterman pursued a small band of Sioux and was lured into an ambush. He found himself facing approximately 2,000 Indians. Within 20 minutes, Fetterman and his command had been wiped out.
The Fetterman Massacre, as the encounter became known, was second in notoriety only to Custer"s disastrous defeat in 1876.
lieutenant led to the dismissal of Fetterman"s commanding officer, Henry B. Carrington, who was initially blamed for the disaster, but was eventually exonerated. Fetterman"s grave is in the National Cemetery at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.
He had never married and left no heirs. His pension was sent to his mother.
In 1867, the army designated a new outpost in the Dakota Territory as "Fort Fetterman" in honor of the slain officer
There is also a Fetterman Street and Fetterman Drive in Laramie, Wyoming. The actor Robert Fuller played the role of Fetterman in the episode, "Massacre at Fort Philosophy Kearny", which aired on October 26, 1966, on National Broadcasting Company"s anthology television series, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre.