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69-564: This was the last major engagement of the war, although Lakota and allied forces continued to raid European-American parties along the Bozeman Trail . The area has been designated as a Wyoming State Historic Site and is marked by a memorial and a historic plaque. In July 1867, after their annual Sun Dance at camps on the Tongue and Rosebud rivers, Oglala Lakota warriors under Red Cloud , other bands of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne , and

138-649: A battery formation with other artillery pieces, such as long-barreled guns, mortars, and rocket artillery . The term "howitzer" originated from the Czech word houfnice , meaning "crowd", which was later adapted into various European languages. Developed in the late 16th century as a medium-trajectory weapon for siege warfare , howitzers were valued for their ability to fire explosive shells and incendiary materials into fortifications. Unlike mortars, which had fixed firing angles, howitzers could be fired at various angles, providing greater flexibility in combat. Throughout

207-473: A licorne , which remained in service for the next 100 years. In the mid-19th century, some armies attempted to simplify their artillery parks by introducing smoothbore artillery pieces that were designed to fire both explosive projectiles and cannonballs, thereby replacing both field howitzers and field guns. The most famous of these "gun-howitzers" was the Napoleon 12-pounder , a weapon of French design that

276-408: A 105 mm howitzer of the same weight could fire 15 kg shells. This is a matter of fundamental mechanics affecting the stability and hence the weight of the carriage. As heavy field howitzers and light siege howitzers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries used ammunition of the same size and type, there was a marked tendency for the two types to merge. At first, this was largely a matter of

345-464: A council at Fort Laramie , which Lakota leader Red Cloud attended. The U.S. Army wanted to negotiate a right-of-way with the Lakota for settlers' use of the trail. As negotiations continued, Red Cloud became outraged when he discovered that a regiment of U.S. infantry was already using the route without receiving permission from the Lakota nation. Thus Red Cloud's War began. It was impossible for

414-527: A detachment under William J. Fetterman at the Fetterman Fight near Fort Phil Kearny on December 21, 1866, civilian travel along the trail ceased. On August 1, 1867, and August 2, 1867, U.S. forces resisted coordinated attempts by large parties of Lakota and Cheyenne to overrun Fort C. F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearny in the Hayfield Fight and Wagon Box Fight . The strikes and attacks on

483-472: A favorite target of the local Indian warriors since Fort Phil Kearny was established one year earlier. The Indians had conducted dozens of small raids, killing several dozen soldiers and civilians, and driving off hundreds of head of livestock for their own use. The soldiers were on the defensive, suffering a lack of horses and trained cavalrymen, and limited by their muzzle-loading Springfield Model 1861 muskets, which were essentially obsolete by this time. But

552-588: A few Arapaho resolved to attack the soldiers at nearby Fort C. F. Smith and Fort Phil Kearny . These would be the first major military actions of 1867 against U.S. government forces in the area, following up the Native American successes in 1866, including the Fetterman Fight . Unable to agree where to attack first, the Sioux and Cheyenne force — variously estimated at between 300 and 1,000 men — split into two large bodies, moving against Fort C.F. Smith, and

621-465: A fight against a mobile opponent, whether on horseback or on foot, they were ineffective weapons against a well entrenched or fortified enemy. To protect against raids near the pine forest, the civilian contractors had constructed a corral. It consisted of 14 wooden bodies of wagons, which were removed from the chassis and placed on the ground in an oval 60–70 ft (18–21 m) long and 25–30 ft (7.6–9.1 m) wide. Both soldiers and civilians in

690-407: A fixed angle and were entirely dependent on adjustments to the size of propellant charges to vary range, howitzers could be fired at a wide variety of angles. Thus, while howitzer gunnery was more complicated than the technique of employing mortars, the howitzer was an inherently more flexible weapon that could fire its projectiles along a wide range of trajectories. In the middle of the 18th century,

759-422: A number of European armies began to introduce howitzers that were mobile enough to accompany armies in the field. Though usually fired at the relatively high angles of fire used by contemporary siege howitzers, these field howitzers were rarely defined by this capability. Rather, as the field guns of the day were usually restricted to inert projectiles (which relied entirely on momentum for their destructive effects),

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828-611: A similar number, mostly Sioux and possibly including Red Cloud, headed toward Fort Phil Kearny. In addition to guarding emigrants on the Bozeman Trail , major tasks occupying the 350 soldiers and 100 civilians at Fort Phil Kearny included gathering wood and timber from a pine forest about five miles from the Fort and cutting hay for livestock in prairie areas. These jobs were performed by civilian contractors, usually armed with Spencer repeating rifles and accompanied and guarded by squads of soldiers. The hay cutters and wood gatherers had been

897-520: A small group of well-equipped professionals holding off a much larger but poorly equipped force. The new, faster-shooting rifles are cited as the principal reason for their success. Estimates of casualties among the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors range from "an unlikely low of two to an absurd fifteen hundred." Captain Powell estimated that his men killed 60, a "wildly exaggerated" estimate in the opinion of historian Keenan. Historians Drury and Clavin said that

966-483: A strong defensive position. He had learned that Indians with bows and arrows could not overwhelm whites armed with breech-loaders inside a fortification." For the remainder of 1867, the Lakota and their allies concentrated on small-scale, hit-and-run raids against parties along the Bozeman Trail. Wyoming has designated the area as a state historic site; a large plaque explains the details of the fight. The fight

1035-552: Is depicted in the 1951 Western film Tomahawk . 44°33′32″N 106°53′54″W  /  44.55889°N 106.89833°W  / 44.55889; -106.89833 Bozeman Trail The Bozeman Trail was an overland route in the Western United States , connecting the gold rush territory of southern Montana to the Oregon Trail in eastern Wyoming . Its important period was from 1863 to 1868. While

1104-583: The American Natives had used since prehistoric times to travel through Powder River Country . This route was more direct and better watered than any previous trail into Montana. Bozeman's and Jacobs's most important contribution was to improve the trail so that it was wide enough for wagons. But there was a major drawback — the trail passed directly through territory occupied by the Shoshone , Arapaho , and Lakota nations. Decades before

1173-527: The National Register of Historic Places . One segment of the trail in Montana is also listed. Howitzer The howitzer ( / ˈ h aʊ . ɪ t s ər / ) is an artillery weapon that falls between a cannon (or field gun ) and a mortar . It is generally aimed lower than a mortar but higher than a cannon. With their long-range capabilities, howitzers can be used to great effect in

1242-676: The Oregon Trail , then the major passage to the West Coast. Before this, most access to the southwestern Montana Territory was from St. Louis via the Missouri River to Fort Benton . Thence travelers went by the 'Benton Road,' around the Great Falls and through the Chestnut, Hilger and Prickly Pear valleys (current site of Helena and Broadwater County, Montana ). The overland Bozeman Trail followed many north–south trails

1311-476: The Soviet deep battle doctrine. In modern times, the distinctions between guns and howitzers have become less pronounced, with many artillery pieces combining characteristics of both. Contemporary howitzers are often self-propelled , mounted on tracked or wheeled vehicles, and capable of firing at high angles with adjustable propellant charges for increased range and accuracy. The English word howitzer comes from

1380-798: The 1860s, artillery officers discovered that rifled siege howitzers (substantially larger than field howitzers) were a more efficient means of destroying walls (particularly walls protected by certain kinds of intervening obstacles) than smoothbore siege guns or siege mortars. Thus, at the same time armies were taking howitzers of one sort out of their field batteries, they were introducing howitzers of another sort into their siege trains and fortresses. The lightest of these weapons (later known as "light siege howitzers") had calibers around 150 mm and fired shells that weighed between 40 and 50 kilograms. The heaviest (later called "medium siege howitzers") had calibers between 200 mm and 220 mm and fired shells that weighed about 100 kilograms (220 pounds). During

1449-541: The 1880s, a third type of siege howitzer was added to inventories of a number of European armies. With calibers that ranged between 240 mm and 270 mm and shells that weighed more than 150 kilograms, these soon came to be known as "heavy siege howitzers". A good example of a weapon of this class is provided by the 9.45-inch (240 mm) weapon that the British Army purchased from the Skoda works in 1899. In

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1518-541: The 18th and 19th centuries, howitzers evolved to become more mobile and versatile. The introduction of rifling in the mid-19th century led to significant changes in howitzer design and usage. By the early 20th century, howitzers were classified into different categories based on their size and role, including field howitzers, siege howitzers, and super-heavy siege howitzers. During World War I and World War II , howitzers played significant roles in combat, particularly in trench warfare and artillery-heavy strategies such as

1587-485: The 77 mm field gun adopted by the German Army in 1916 ( 7,7 cm Feldkanone 16 ) were often provided with carriages that allowed firing at comparatively high angles, and adjustable propellant cartridges. In the years after World War I, the tendency of guns and howitzers to acquire each other's characteristics led to the renaissance of the concept of the gun-howitzer. This was a product of technical advances such as

1656-566: The Bozeman Trail cut through the plains of present Wyoming, the expanse "... was made busy by Crows and white trappers and traders ...". According to the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 , most of the Bozeman Trail ran across native Crow territory established by treaty. "For the Crows, the Bozeman Trail introduced them to a relationship [emigrants and army personnel] that would profoundly affect the tribe in coming decades". To complicate

1725-544: The Bozeman Trail to successfully drive about 1,000 head of longhorn cattle into Montana. The U.S. Army unsuccessfully tried to turn Story back to protect the drive from Native American attacks, but Story brought cattle through to the Gallatin Valley and formed one of the earliest significant herds in Montana's cattle industry. The U.S. Army established Fort Reno , Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C. F. Smith along

1794-521: The British Army replaced both the 18-pounder field gun and the 4.5-inch howitzer . During World War II , the military doctrine of Soviet deep battle called for extensive use of heavy artillery to hold the formal line of front. Soviet doctrine was remarkably different from the German doctrine of Blitzkrieg and called for a far more extensive use of artillery. As a result, howitzers saw most of

1863-816: The British call them guns. The British had a further method of nomenclature. In the 18th century, they adopted projectile weight for guns replacing an older naming system (such as culverin , saker , etc.) that had developed in the late 15th century. Mortars had been categorized by calibre in inches in the 17th century, and this was duplicated with howitzers. U.S. military doctrine defines howitzers as any cannon artillery capable of both high-angle fire (45° to 90° elevation) and low-angle fire (0° to 45° elevation); guns are defined as being only capable of low-angle fire (0° to 45° elevation); and mortars are defined as being only capable of high-angle fire (45° to 90° elevation). The first artillery identified as howitzers developed in

1932-513: The Crow, who also brought information about the location of Lakota camps. The Crows were all but pleased to see a part of their treaty-guaranteed land taken over by hereditary enemies, the Arapahoes, Cheyennes, and Lakotas. Despite resentment against the traffic on the Bozeman Trail, "the Crows still acted as allies of the harassed troops" in the forts. Later, by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie ,

2001-592: The Czech word houfnice , from houf , 'crowd', and houf is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word Hūfe or Houfe (modern German Haufen ), meaning 'crowd, throng', plus the Czech nominal suffix -nice . Haufen , sometimes in the compound Gewalthaufen , also designated a pike square formation in German. In the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s,

2070-515: The Dutch word houwitser , which led to the English word howitzer . Since World War I , the word howitzer has been changing to describe artillery pieces that previously would have belonged to the category of gun-howitzers – relatively long barrels and high muzzle velocities combined with multiple propelling charges and high maximum elevations. This is particularly true in the armed forces of

2139-454: The French invention of autofrettage just before World War I, which led to stronger and lighter barrels, the use of cut-off gear to control recoil length depending on firing elevation angle, and the invention of muzzle brakes to reduce recoil forces. Like the gun-howitzers of the 19th century, those of the 20th century replaced both guns and howitzers. Thus, the 25-pounder "gun-howitzer" of

Wagon Box Fight - Misplaced Pages Continue

2208-484: The Government's figure of 60 dead was "probably inflated." The Wagon Box Fight was the last major engagement of Red Cloud's War. Possibly the results of this battle, and the similar Hayfield Fight near Fort C.F. Smith a day earlier, discouraged the native warriors from attempting additional large-scale attacks against government forces. "This was the last large charge Crazy Horse ever led against whites occupying

2277-807: The Hussites used short-barreled houfnice cannons to fire at short distances into crowds of infantry , or into charging heavy cavalry , to make horses shy away. The word was rendered into German as aufeniz in the earliest attested use in a document dating from 1440; later German renderings include haussnitz and, eventually haubitze , from which derive the Scandinavian haubits , Polish and Croatian haubica , Estonian haubits , Finnish haupitsi , Russian gaubitsa ( гаубица ), Serbian haubica ( xаубицa ), Ukrainian ( гаубиця ), Italian obice , Spanish obús , Portuguese obus , French obusier , Romanian obuzier and

2346-1007: The U.S. government to order the Army to carry out military campaigns against the Shoshone . Patrick Edward Connor led several of the earliest campaigns, including the Bear River Massacre . and the Powder River Expedition of 1865. He also fought the Arapaho at the Battle of the Tongue River . The trail itself diverged from the Oregon and California Trails to the north through the Powder River . Lieutenant General William Tecumseh Sherman authorized construction of three forts in 1866 to guard travelers on

2415-520: The U.S. recognized the Powder River Country as unceded hunting territory for the Lakota and allied tribes. Most was located on former Crow treaty territory, now by conquest converted into new Lakota country. For a time the government used the treaty to shut down travel by European American settlers on the Bozeman Trail. President Ulysses S. Grant ordered the abandonment of forts along the trail. Red Cloud's War could thus be said to be

2484-465: The United States , where gun-howitzers have been officially described as howitzers since World War II . Because of this practice, the word howitzer is used in some armies as a generic term for any kind of artillery piece that is designed to attack targets using indirect fire . Thus, artillery pieces that bear little resemblance to howitzers of earlier eras are now described as howitzers, although

2553-662: The action on the Eastern front . Most of the howitzers produced by the USSR at the time were not self-propelled. Notable examples of Soviet howitzers include the M-10 , M-30 and D-1 . Since World War II, most of the artillery pieces adopted by armies for attacking targets on land have combined the traditional characteristics of guns and howitzers – high muzzle velocity, long barrels, long range, multiple charges and maximum elevation angles greater than 45 degrees. The term "gun-howitzer"

2622-658: The actual road from the Oregon Trail to the mining towns was much longer due to the hilly and undulating terrain. Shorter or longer stretches of the route were altered every year to avoid the worst stages. The journey took around eight weeks. Many of the travelers had prepared themselves for the arduous trip by reading John Lyle Campbell 's popular guidebook. Drowning and fatal accidents with firearms occurred. Some travelers came down with critical diseases such as "mountain fever" ( Colorado tick fever ) and never made it to their destination. Game including elk, mountain sheep and bear

2691-481: The aftermath of the Fetterman Fight , the United States agreed, a part of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 , to abandon its forts along the Bozeman Trail. In 1866, after the American Civil War ended, the number of settlers who used the trail en route to Montana gold fields increased. Around 1,200 wagons brought some 2,000 people to the city of Bozeman following the trail that year. The U.S. Army called

2760-479: The army to undertake significant negotiations about the traffic through the western Powder River area and the future use of it with Red Cloud and any other Lakota. In 1851, the United States had acknowledged the tract belonged to the Crow and was obliged by that. The Lakota tribe itself had recognized the same. That same year, Nelson Story , a successful Virginia City, Montana , gold miner originally from Ohio , used

2829-450: The course of World War I had longer barrels than pre-war howitzers. The standard German light field howitzer at the start of the war (the 10.5 cm leichte Feldhaubitze 98/09 ) had a barrel that was 16 calibers long, but the light field howitzer adopted by the German Army in 1916 ( 105 mm leichte Feldhaubitze 16 ) had a barrel that was 22 calibers long. At the same time, new models of field gun introduced during that conflict, such as

Wagon Box Fight - Misplaced Pages Continue

2898-670: The early 20th century, the introduction of howitzers that were significantly larger than the heavy siege howitzers of the day made necessary the creation of a fourth category, that of "super-heavy siege howitzers". Weapons of this category include the famous Big Bertha of the German Army and the 15-inch (381 mm) howitzer of the British Royal Marine Artillery . These large howitzers were transported mechanically rather than by teams of horses. They were transported as several loads and had to be assembled at their firing position. These field howitzers introduced at

2967-485: The emigrants could breathe again, when they started on the last nearly 190 miles (310 km) of the trail westward from the crossing of the Bighorn River to the city of Bozeman. During the few years the trail was open to emigrants, 3,500 traveled it. Natives killed between 40 and 50 of them. The short cut was at the time "most often called the road to Montana" and not the Bozeman Trail. While short in bee line,

3036-399: The end of the 19th century could fire shells with high trajectories giving a steep angle of descent and, as a result, could strike targets that were protected by intervening obstacles. They could also fire shells that were about twice as large as shells fired by guns of the same size. Thus, while a 75 mm field gun that weighed one ton or so was limited to shells that weigh around 8 kg,

3105-530: The field howitzers of the 18th century were chiefly valued for their ability to fire explosive shells. Many, for the sake of simplicity and rapidity of fire, dispensed with adjustable propellant charges. The Abus gun was an early form of howitzer in the Ottoman Empire . In 1758, the Russian Empire introduced a specific type of howitzer (or rather gun-howitzer), with a conical chamber, called

3174-429: The first few months of World War I greatly increased the demand for howitzers that gave a steep angle of descent, which were better suited than guns to the task of striking targets in a vertical plane (such as trenches), with large amounts of explosive and considerably less barrel wear. The German army was well equipped with howitzers, having far more at the beginning of the war than France. Many howitzers introduced in

3243-657: The large number of horses and mules there, which gave the soldiers taking refuge in the corral time to prepare for the attack. There were 26 soldiers and six civilians in the corral. The first assault on the wagon box corral came from mounted warriors from the southwest, but the raiders encountered heavy fire from the soldiers using the new breech-loaders. The attackers withdrew, regrouped, and launched several further attacks on foot. They killed Powell's second-in-command, Lt. Jenness, and two soldiers. The battle continued from about 7:30 a.m. until 1:30 pm. The defenders had plenty of ammunition, and were well-defended from arrows behind

3312-425: The late 16th century as a medium- trajectory weapon between that of the flat trajectory ( direct fire ) of cannon and the high trajectory ( indirect fire ) of mortars. Originally intended for use in siege warfare , they were particularly useful for delivering cast iron shells filled with gunpowder or incendiary materials into the interior of fortifications. In contrast to contemporaneous mortars, which were fired at

3381-473: The major part of the route used by Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut, it was named after John Bozeman . Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail , opened by Jim Bridger in 1864. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of Native Americans provoked fear and anger in the local tribes; some of whom choose to respond with aggressive, and even violent action. The challengers to

3450-558: The matter, the southeastern part of the 1851 Crow domain was taken over by the Arapahoe, the Cheyenne and the Lakota. They had invaded the western Powder River area during the 1850s and after "large scale battles" won this buffalo rich Native land from the original tribe around 1860. The principal Bozeman Trail conflict took place along the roughly 250 miles (400 km) of southern wagon wheel tracks through this particular area. Usually,

3519-403: The men into an ambush by a larger hidden force. Crazy Horse was among the members of the decoy team. The plan broke down when a number of fighters attacked an outlying camp of four woodcutters and four soldiers, killing three of the soldiers. The other soldier and the woodcutters escaped and warned the soldiers near the corral. The pursuing force halted at the woodcutter's camp to loot and seize

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3588-617: The new, western towns. Bozeman led the first wagon train on the trail in 1864. Abasalom Austin Townsend was captain of another very large wagon train (over 400 people and 150+ wagons) and had a battle with the Natives . Known as the Townsend Wagon Train Fight , the attack occurred on July 7, 1864, with casualties on both sides. Native raids on white settlers increased dramatically from 1864 to 1866, which prompted

3657-465: The only Native American war in which Native Americans achieved their goals (if only for a brief time) with a treaty settlement essentially on their terms. By 1876, however, following the Black Hills War , the U.S. Army reopened the trail. The U.S. Army continued to use the trail during later military campaigns and built a telegraph line along it. Today, a modern highway route covers roughly

3726-545: The route were newly arrived Lakotas and their Native allies, the Arapahoe and the Cheyenne. The United States put emphasis on a right to "establish roads, military and other posts" as described in Article 2 in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. All parties in the conflict had signed that treaty. The Crow Natives held the treaty right to the contested area and had called it their homeland for decades. They sided with

3795-476: The route, staffed with troops meant to protect travelers. All three military posts were built west of Powder River, consequently outside the Lakota territory as recognized by the whites in the Fort Laramie Treaty. " ... the Sioux attacked the United States anyway, claiming that the Yellowstone was now their land". Native American raids along the trail and around the forts continued. When the Lakota annihilated

3864-473: The same basic weapon being employed on two different mountings. Later, as on-carriage recoil-absorbing systems eliminated many of the advantages that siege platforms had enjoyed over field carriages, the same combination of barrel assembly, recoil mechanism and carriage was used in both roles. By the early 20th century, the differences between guns and howitzers were relative, not absolute, and generally recognized as follows: The onset of trench warfare after

3933-412: The same effects (such as firing over low walls) that previously required the sharply curved trajectories of smoothbore field howitzers. Because of this, military authorities saw no point in obtaining rifled field howitzers to replace their smoothbore counterparts but instead used rifled field guns to replace both guns and howitzers. In siege warfare, the introduction of rifling had the opposite effect. In

4002-482: The same general route as the historic Bozeman Trail. The route consists of Interstate 25 from Douglas, Wyoming to Buffalo, Wyoming ; Interstate 90 from Buffalo via Sheridan, Wyoming to Bozeman, Montana MT Hwy 84; and U.S. Route 287 to Virginia City, Montana . [REDACTED] Media related to Bozeman Trail at Wikimedia Commons There are nine individual segments of the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming listed on

4071-565: The soldiers "appeared to be a great Sioux war to protect their land. And it was - but the Sioux had only recently conquered this land from other tribes and now defending the territory both from other tribes and from the advance of white settlers". "In 1866, Red Cloud and his alliance of Lakotas, Cheyennes, and Arapahos fought for a territory they had dominated for only a few years". The troops in Fort Phil Kearny and Fort C. F. Smith got from time to time warnings of imminent attacks from

4140-458: The soldiers had recently been issued breech-loading rifles that could fire about three times faster than muzzle-loaders and could be more easily re-loaded from a prone position. The native population were poorly armed, probably possessing only about 200 firearms and fewer than two bullets per gun. Bows and arrows were their basic weapon. While the Indians used these effectively at short range in

4209-453: The thick sides of the wagon boxes. The garrison at Fort Phil Kearny learned of the fight from its observation station on Pilot Hill. About 11:30 a.m., Major Benjamin Smith led 103 soldiers out of the fort to the wood camp to relieve the soldiers in the wagon boxes. Smith took with him 10 wagons, driven by armed civilians, and a mountain howitzer . He proceeded carefully and, when he neared

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4278-613: The trail. Soldiers were harassed by the Sioux , at that time led by Red Cloud (the United States named the war Red Cloud's War after the Sioux leader). Colonel Henry B. Carrington was stationed at a halfway point between Fort Laramie and the Bozeman Trail, but his well-fortified position was not attacked directly. However, when Captain William J. Fetterman , acting against orders, led soldiers in retaliation for attacks against Fort Phil Kearny ; all eighty of Fetterman's men were killed. In

4347-482: The wagon box corral, began firing his cannon at long range. The attackers were forced to withdraw. Smith advanced without opposition to the corral, collected the soldiers, and returned quickly to Fort Kearny. Additional civilian survivors, who had hidden in the woods during the battle, made it back to the fort that night. The Wagon Box Fight is prominent in the folklore and literature of the Wild West as an example of

4416-436: The whites. The U.S. Army undertook several military campaigns against the hostile Natives to try to control the trail. Because of its association with frontier history and conflict with American Natives, various segments of the trail are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). In 1863, John Bozeman and John Jacobs scouted for a direct route from Virginia City, Montana to central Wyoming to connect with

4485-477: The wood-cutting details lived in tents outside the corral of wagon boxes but could retreat to it for defense. On July 31, Captain James Powell and his command of 51 troops departed the walls of Fort Phil Kearny on a 30-day assignment to guard the wood cutters. Until then, the summer had been quiet, with few hostile encounters with the local Native Americans. On the morning of August 2, Captain Powell's force

4554-420: Was divided. Fourteen soldiers were detailed to escort the wood train to and from the fort; 13 soldiers guarded the wood-cutting camp, about one mile from the wagon box corral. The Indian plan of attack on the woodcutters and soldiers was tried-and-true, similar to the plan used the previous year to kill Fetterman's force , a total of 81 lost. A small group of Indians would entice the soldiers to chase them, leading

4623-433: Was extensively used in the American Civil War . In 1859, the armies of Europe (including those that had recently adopted gun-howitzers) began to rearm field batteries with rifled field guns. These field pieces used cylindrical projectiles that, while smaller in caliber than the spherical shells of smoothbore field howitzers, could carry a comparable charge of gunpowder. Moreover, their greater range let them create many of

4692-413: Was made up of "wagons ... 150, men ... 375, women ... 36, children ... 36, oxen ... 636". Every fifth of those crossing the plains via Bozeman Trail was a woman or a child. Each wagon paid the train pilot, maybe six dollars in 1864. Being a route used by single emigrants and small families at first, the trail transformed towards a supply route with freight wagons carrying equipment and necessities of life to

4761-526: Was shot an occasion, also buffalo. "The men are killing them in large numbers. I feel sorry to see such destruction. They leave tons of good meat every day to be devoured by wolfs at night", lamented traveler Richard Owen in 1864. The travelers grouped in organized "trains" with chosen people holding posts such as captain, train marshal and orderly sergeant. One group, known as the Townsend Wagon Train , led by Captain A. A. Townsend of Wisconsin,

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