Perhaps it ill becomes us to censure the dead, but the whole unfortunate affair arose from a direct disobedience of orders on the part of Fetterman and his men. They paid the penalty for their lapse with their lives; and so far, at least, they made what atonement they could. A year later opportunity was given the soldiers at Phil Kearney to exact a dreadful revenge from Red Cloud and his Sioux for the slaughter of their brave comrades. ----- Footnote 9: Killed on Lodge Trail Ridge Footnote 10: Published by the United States Senate in 1887. Footnote 11: At the burial of Sergeant Bowers, Captain Brown, who had known him during the Civil War, pinned his Army of the Cumberland badge upon his breast, and this was found when the remains were reinterred in 1878. Footnote 12: PHIL KEARNEY GARRISON, at date of massacre, from “Post Returns”:— Wood Party, besides teamsters 55 men Fetterman’s Party (two citizens) 81 men Ten Eyck’s Party (relieving) 94 men Helpless in hospital 7 men Roll-call, of present, all told 119 men Total officers and men 356 men Ninety rifles worn out by use on horseback. Citizen employees used their private arms. Information furnished by General H. B. Carrington. Footnote 13: “AB-SA-RA-KA, Land of Massacre,” by Mrs. Carrington, of which Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to General Carrington as follows: “What an interesting record is that of Mrs. Carrington! I cannot read such a story of devotion and endurance in the midst of privations and danger, without feeling how little most of us know of what life can be when all the human energies are called out by great enterprises and emergencies.” Footnote 14: The Indians, where possible, remove the bodies of their slain. They did during this campaign, as few dead Indians ever came into possession of the troops. Footnote 15: Once, while loading the bodies in the wagons, a nervous sergeant mistook one of the pickets for Indians in the rear, and gave the alarm. His detail was sharply ordered by the general to “leave their ammunition and get back to the fort as best they could, if they were afraid; for no armed man would be allowed to leave until the last body was rescued.” CHAPTER THREE The Thirty-two Against the Three Thousand I. The Improvised Corral on Piney Island Red cloud, who had been one of the subchiefs of the Sioux, gained so much prestige by the defeat and slaughter of Fetterman’s men that he became at once the leading war chief of the nation.[16] The angry braves, flushed with conquest and eager for blood, hastened to enroll themselves by thousands in his band.