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Thread: This Day in History |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
December 21 1866:
Determined to challenge the growing American military presence in their territory, Indians in northern Wyoming lure Lieutenant Colonel William Fetterman and his soldiers into a deadly ambush on this day in 1866. Tensions in the region started rising in 1863, when John Bozeman blazed the Bozeman Trail, a new route for emigrants traveling to the Montana gold fields. Bozeman's trail was of questionable legality since it passed directly through hunting grounds that the government had promised to the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. Thus when Colorado militiamen murdered more than two hundred peaceful Cheyenne during the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, the Indians began to take revenge by attacking whites all across the Plains, including the emigrants traveling the Bozeman Trail. The U.S. government responded by building a series of protective forts along the trail; the largest and most important of these was Fort Phil Kearney, erected in 1866 in north-central Wyoming. Indians under the leadership of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse began to focus their attacks on Fort Phil Kearney, constantly harassing the soldiers and raiding their wood and supply parties. On December 6, 1866, Crazy Horse discovered to his surprise that he could lead a small detachment of soldiers into a fatal ambush by dismounting from his horse and fleeing as if he were defenseless. Struck by the foolish impulsiveness of the soldiers, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud reasoned that perhaps a much larger force could be lured into a similar deadly trap. On the bitterly cold morning of December 21, about 2,000 Indians concealed themselves along the road just north of Fort Phil Kearney. A small band made a diversionary attack on a party of woodcutters from the fort, and commandant Colonel Henry Carrington quickly ordered Colonel Fetterman to go to their aid with a company of 80 troopers. Crazy Horse and 10 decoy warriors then rode into view of the fort. When Carrington fired an artillery round at them, the decoys ran away as if frightened. The party of woodcutters made it safely back to the fort, but Colonel Fetterman and his men chased after the fleeing Crazy Horse and his decoys, just as planned. The soldiers rode straight into the ambush and were wiped out in a massive attack during which some 40,000 arrows rained down on the hapless troopers. None of them survived. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
General Interest: Just 20 years ago
1988 : Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Scotland http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52293 |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
22 December, 1894 : Dreyfus affair begins in France
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5621 |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
December 22 1884:
A central player in the violent Lincoln County War of 1878-81, the cattleman John Chisum dies at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Born in Tennessee in 1824, Chisum moved with his family to Paris, Texas, when he was eleven years old. For several years he worked as construction contractor, but in 1854, he decided to go into the cattle ranching business. By 1875, Chisum was running over 80,000 head of cattle near the Pecos River in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Inevitably, such a large herd ranging over a vast and isolated area attracted the interests of rustlers, and Chisum claimed to have lost nearly 10,000 head to thieves. Fed-up, Chisum joined forces with two other New Mexico cattle kings to do battle with the small cattlemen and merchants they believed were behind the thefts. In particular, the big ranchers targeted two Irishmen who owned a large general store, called the House, in the town of Lincoln. Besides giving aid to the rustlers and small ranchers that Chisum despised, the House also managed to gain control over most of the government contracts for supplying beef to Army posts and Indian Reservations, undercutting the ability of the big ranchers to sell their cattle directly to these buyers at high profits. When a deputy sheriff under the control of the House murdered one of Chisum's allies in 1878, the Lincoln County War erupted. The battle was about more than that murder, though-it was a struggle for economic and political control of the region. Chisum and the big ranchers turned their cowboys into gunslingers-including a friendly young man named William Bonney, better know as Billy the Kid. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
December 23 1829:
Embarking on the second of three wide-ranging exploratory journeys in the West, Prince Paul Wilhelm of Wurttemberg leaves St. Louis and heads up the Missouri River. |
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Former Member
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World War II, Dec 24, 1942 :
French Admiral Jean Darlan is assassinated http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6653 |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
December 25 1776:
Future President General George Washington leads his small and bedraggled army in a daring raid on British and Hessian troops at Trenton, New Jersey, during the American Revolution. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
1946 : Bugsy Siegel opens Flamingo Hotel
http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=57342 |
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