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O’Dell Talks about Peno Creek Skirmish December 6
On December 6, the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association held a program on the Peno Creek Skirmish, which preceded the later, more well known and much more deadly Fetterman Fight on December 21.
The talk was given by Kevin O’Dell (MS, Industrial Archaeology). Dave McKee, President of the FPK/BTA welcomed the crowd and introduced O’Dell.
McKee said that O’Dell owns a small contract archaeology firm in his hometown of Sheridan. He has been conducting professional archaeological fieldwork in Wyoming since 1999. His research interests include military archaeology and the application of geophysical surveys in archaeology. McKee added that since 2012, O’Dell has digitized and indexed over 100,000 pages of military records related to the 19th-century U.S. Army and the Bozeman Trail.
The Skirmish on Peno Creek happened on December 6th, 1866, 159 years ago. Lakota warriors including Yellow Eagle, High Back Bone, Red Cloud, and Crazy Horse, engaged the army forces at Fort Phil Kearny under the command of Colonel Henry Carrington in a running fight that would serve as a prelude to the decisive Fetterman Battle two weeks later.
O’Dell opened his talk with an overview of some of the events at the Fort that foreshadowed the battles to come.
He said that during the time the army was creating several new regiments, including the 7th Cavalry. He said all the units stationed out here did not have their full complement of officers, and Carrington was down 2/3 or his officers.
He had slides on the officers that were a part of the Peno Creek Battle.
He added that due to the officer shortage, many of them did double duty at the Fort.
After the brief engagement in November, O’Dell said that Carrington changed up the pattern of his warfare against the Indians.
On that December Day, Carrington took about 30 men, plus or minus, to help the besieged wood train, and push the warriors back to the head of Peno Creek.
He said there were several accounts of the battle, but they were often contradictory. He said that after the battle, Lt. Bingham and Sergeant Baer were found. Baer was dead, and Bringham was badly injured. He was put on a horse and carried back to the fort, but he died on the way.
Due to their wounds, both men missed the Fetterman Fight on Dec. 21, where it is a good bet that they would not have survived.
O’Dell talked about searching for the battlefield, and showed some slides of artifacts he had found, and a map of where they feel the battle took place.
Map showing where some artifacts were found.
Fort Phil Kearny Regulars had a display of weapons that would have been carried by the soldiers.
Around 25 people attended the event.
