Indian accounts of the subsequent engagement were long in coming and proved fragmentary. The best reconstruction of events was made by relief and recovery parties who found the bodies of their comrades on the field of battle.

Fetterman, chasing decoys beond the ridge, met an overwhelming force of Indians. He turned about only to meet others who laid in ambush while he hotly pressed his pusuit.

Retreat along the Bozeman Road was impossible and within an hour, the fate of Fetterman’s entire command was sealed.