On 6 December Red Cloud baited Carrington and Fetterman with a fake raid on a wood train and stung them badly. By 21 December ha was ready for the main event. He hid between 1.500 and 2.000 warriors behind Lodge Trail Ridge and laid an ambush on Peno Creek, only three miles from the fort. Crazy Horse and Hump led two small parties of decoys close to the fort as another band struck at the wood train. The pickets on the walls of Fort Phil Kearny, as usual, fired warning shots. Carrington pormptly ordered out Captain James Powell to escort the woodcutters to saftey. But Fetterman wanted his taste of glory. He demanded the command on the basis of his brevet seniority, and he got it. Carrington gave him clear and strict orders. He was to go to the aid of the wood train only. He was not to pursue the raiders beyond Lodge Trail Ridge under any conditions. Privately, of course, Fetterman considered Carrington much too cautious for his own good. He selected two firebrands, Brown and Lieutenant Georg W. Grummond. The latter had almost been killed in a skirmish but had, seemingly, learned nothing. He left behind in the fort his bride of only a few month. The overconfidence of these brash officers should have shocked the cautious Carrington into replacing them or revocked his orders. But he could not. His thoughts were on the safety of the trapped wood-cutting crew. As if it were a picnic, or a hunt, two civilians casually joined the detachment just to try out (on live targets) their new rapid fire Henry repeating rifles.

"Fetterman Battlefield" (in the back on right side, the Massacre Hill)

Fatterman fancied himself a strategist as well as an Indian fighter. He did not head directly for the embattled woodsmen, but curved around to the rear of the marauders both to force and fight and to cut off their retreat. He was damned if he would let the redskins cheat him of his moment in the sun. The Indians countered in their usual fashion, Crazy Horse disengaging a few decoys. Fetterman fell for the trap, lock, stock and barrel. Either forgetting or, more likely, ignoring Carrington's orders, he galloped his force over Lodge Trail Ridge and out of sight of the fort. In the far slope, quiety awaiting him were Red Cloud and his main force, concealed in gullies. Once Crazy Horse gave the signal, the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapahos fell on the 81-man force. It was could on the slope which came to be called Massacre Hill. Men and mounts slipped on ice and snow which soon became red with blood. Fetterman's trapdoor Springfield were dependable; they almost never jammed. And they were accurate. But, at such close range, the detachment could not have survived had they all carried Henry or Spencer repeaters instead of the single-shot arm. Grummond, in the lead, was shot early on. Within an hour, every man was either shot down or was a suicide. ... The Army called it the "Fetterman Massacre" because the rash lieutenant lost every man of his command. The Indians called it the "Battle of a Hundred Slain". This was the Army's worst defeat, so far, in the West, and only the second engagement in its history in which there were no survivors. Some Indians even said that their total of dead and wounded was 200, but it is doubtful that Red Cloud lost the 60 dead claimen by the Army. (9)