The Magazine: Storing Munitions and More
All military posts had a magazine for storing munitions. At Fort Phil Kearny the Magazine was 16 by 16 feet, with a 11 foot dirt covered ceiling and it was buried eight feet in the southwest quadrant of the parade ground. It is referred to in numerous historical records. Carrington shows its location on his as-built map, and he did a design for its construction. Samuel Gibson indicates its location on his map of the fort. Margaret Carrington describes the location as “being in the center of one of the squares”.

There are many colorful accounts centered around the magazine. Colonel Carrington was constantly frustrated with his lack of munitions and the shortage of ammunition at the post. This became very apparent following the Fetterman Fight when men were sent to guard the stockade with only five rounds of ammunition each. When Carrington left the fort on December 22, 1866 to retrieve the bodies of Fetterman’s command he left secret instructions which Francis Grummond recounted. ”If, in my absence, Indians in overwhelming numbers attack, put the women and children in the magazine in a last desperate struggle, destroy all together, rather than have any captured alive”. Results of the 1999 archaecological study provide no evidence of the magazine being in the southwest quadrant as historical records indicated. At present the magazine’s exact location is unknown, still one of the many unanswered questions about Fort Phil Kearny.

Post Commander’s Quarters: The Best Structure on the Post
1867 quartermaster inspections of Fort Phil Kearny indicated the poor condition of many of the buildings on post and that they needed rebuilding. These included the barracks, officer’s quarters, post headquarters and more. The post commander’s house was a 48 by 32 foot frame construction structure, built of fire dried trees, shingled with a 22 by 13 foot attached kitchen, and brick chimneys. This was probably the best structure on post.

The house was built by the regimental band for Colonel Carrington. It initially housed the Colonel, his wife Margaret, their sons Jimmy and Harry, and butler George. It was then occupied in turn by later Post Commanders Henry Wessells and Jonathan Smith.

Two archaeological pits have been left open for viewing. They show the remains of the interior ground structure of the commander’s house.

The Guard House: Not Just a Jail
Even though Fort Phil Kearny, like most frontier posts, had plenty of use for a jail this was not the main function of the Guardhouse. The 50 by 43 foot, shingled building with a brick chimney, was used primarily for quard-mount. Guard-mount was the duty of protecting the post. Soldiers would be detached from their companies to this building on a repeated schedule for guard duty. From this building an individual soldier would be assigned to a guard-stand where he would quard the post on intervals of 2-hours-on 4-hours-off, for 24 hours. This was not an easy duty, During the harsh winter months the interval could drop to as little as 20 minutes to prevent injury or death to the guard. Francis Grummond recounts a story in My Army Life of Indians sneaking up and shooting guards off the stand. One had to be vigilant.

For soldiers convicted of serious crimes the building did serve as a jail. In August 1866 records indicate that 24 prisoners were being held under guard in tents awaiting the completion of this building. Their crime was desertion. Lessor crimes might be punished by extra duty, wearing a ball and chain, wearing a barrel with a sign stating your offense, or even flogging.

The Cavalryman’s Quarters: Few and Far Between
It is a false perception that the frontier posts of the American West were garrisoned with large troops of cavalry. Actually a post’s usual population was largely infantry with a rew cavalry for support, reconnaissance, escort, or mail delivery. Fort Phil Kearny was no exception. It was not until November 2, 1866 that any cavalry were stationed at the post. Though initially placed in a variety of quarters, they were finally housed in a large, new 100 by 25 foot log-panel constucted barracks with a shingle roof. Nearby was a 250 by 32 foot board and batten stable with corral, saddler’s shop and a blacksmith.

Company C, of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment was assigned to Fort Phil Kearny. They arrived, armed with single-shot Starr Carbines on poorly conditioned mounts. Colonel Carrington replaced their weapons with the band’s Spencer Carbines, but little could be done for the mounts. Few cavalry were ever at the Fort. They were constantly being requisitioned for mail, escort, or other duties by military inspectors traveling the trail. Unforunately, of those troops available on December 21, 1866, the majority wre killed in the Fetterman Fight, leaving their quarters sorrowfully near empty.

The Civilians: Living Outside the Post
Because the regulations would not allow non-military dependent civilians to reside inside Fort Phil Kearny, several civilian dwellings existed outside the post stockade on the valley plain below, and in the Quartermaster corral to the south. These homes varied in size and degree of construction. Some were built as notched cornered log cabins with shingled roofs, others were of pole construction with sod roofs, while others were mere dugouts in the northeast slope of the stockade line. Depressions from these dugouts are still visible today.

Civilians provided many services for the military and travelers of the Bozeman Trail. James Wheatley and Issac Fisher built a way-station and restaurant. Another eatery and the only known garden were managed by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Washington. Walter J. Harden and F.J. Fairbrast had a small “ranche” and billiard room. This building undoubtedly provided after-hours entertainment for the soldiers. One large group of about 40 gold-miners, under the leadership of Robert Bailey, arrived in the fall of 1866. They stayed through the winter working for both civilian contractors and the military. Occupations included wood cutters and forage gathers for civilian contractors and carpenters or blacksmiths for the military.

Unfortunately, the civlians often got caught up in the military activities. Wheatley and Fisher volunteered to go with Captain Fetterman’s command on December 21, 1866 and lost their lives that day. Remarkably, Mrs. Wheatley continued to run the way-station until the fort’s closure. John “Portugee” Phillips, part of the Bailey miners, rode for relief following the Fetterman fight and later settled in Wyoming.

Lessons Learned
Archaeology at Fort Phil Kearny
Documented archaeology began at Fort Phil Kearny in 1961 and reoccurred in 1970, 1991-92, 1999 and 2000. The initial work was done by Gene Gallaway who salvaged artifacts during the county road construction. In 1970-71 George Frison studied the site, determining stockade, gate, southeast blockhouse and flagpole locations. Richard Fox searched for the southwest blockhouse, sutler store, and post commander’’s residence in 1991 and 1992. In 1999-2000 Tom Larson and Lewis Somers studies, using subsurface mapping techniques, provided images of the under ground remains (see illustrations below) of the upper stockade and its diagonal blockhouses.

These studies have provided a great deal of insight into understanding the fort site. Many historic features have been confirmed, including locations of the upper stockade, main gate, blockhouse, gun bastion, sutler store, and commander’s house. Various construction techniques have been identified, including frame and post/pole, and many personal artifacts have been recovered. We now know that the period historic maps are reasonably accurate, but questions remain. We do not know the exact location of the magazine, unidentified buildings have shown up on the ground radar research and historically recorded ones have not.

The archaeology has provided us a better understanding of Fort Phil Kearny. It has given us some understanding of the reliability of the historical record, and pointed out new directions for study. There is still much to be learned.

Quartermaster and Commissary Buildings: Supplying the Post
The quartermaster and commissary departments provided the two categories of supplies for maintaining military posts. Quartermaster supplies included items like weapons, clothing, saddles, blankets, beds, and more. Commissary supplies were mainly food stuffs. At this fort these items were stored in five or more warehouses varying in size from 24 by 84 feet to 32 by 160 feet. The buildings were of board and batten construction with shingle roofs and one building contained a cellar. Records indicate that some civilians bunked in the larger warehouse. Due to theft by soldiers and civilians, quards were placed at all warehouses.

Included in this complex of buildings was the Quartermaster’s office. This building was 32 by 64 feet, board constructed with a shingle roof. It straddled the stockade wall and from here the Quartermaster acted as liaison between civilian workers and the military. Captain Frederick Brown was the first Quartermaster and upon his death Captain George Dandy took over the duties.

Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site: A Guided Tour
Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site is administered by the Wyoming State Parks and Historic Sites Department and supported by the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association. All parties are committed to the preservation and interpretation of the many aspects of the site.

The Historic site has three components. Two of the components, the Getterman and Wagon Box fight sites, are approximately five miles from the fort. These sites offer interpretive trails with signing and help the viewer more fully understand the dramatic history of Fort Phil Kearny.

At the fort site the visitor has several options. The interpretive center offers many exhibits describing the fort’s mission, archaeology, the Native Amercans, provides a video overview of the fort, distributes a site brochure, and offers a wide variety of books which further explain the area’s history. The Civilian Conservation Corp cabin interprets the living conditions of an officer or enlisted man. Outside the fort-proper interpretive signs explain crucial landmarks surrounding the fort and oulying structures.

On the fort grounds visual and audio interpretive signs describe the structures, personalities, and short history of the post. To best view the fort grounds one should follow a clockwise route.

Protecting the Travelers or the Garrison?
The mission of the Fort Phil Kearny garrison was to quard travelers on the Bozeman Trail, but, it soon became apparent that the quards would also need protection. Therefore, on July 13, 1866, Captain Tenador Ten Eyck began building a fort which had been designed by Colonel Henry Carrington before they left Fort Stephen Kearny. The fort’s 800 by 600 foot long walls were made of 11’ by 12” logs buried three feet in the ground. There were firing notches cut along the banquet at every fifth log, and blockhouses or gun-bastions on two opposite corners to provide enfilading fire along the walls. The main gate was located on the east wall, and smaller, five foot wide officer’s gates were originally located on each of the other walls. Each gate was provided with a locking mechanism. Five guard stands were located to provide 24 hour surveillance of the grounds both inside and outside the post.

Before you is a reproduction of the stockade, guard stand, officer’s gate and artillery bastion as originally built at Fort Phil Kearny. From this position we knew Col. Carrington fired artillery at the Native Americans who opposed the fort.

At the time of constrction few military forts in the West had stockades. Would it have been better to train the raw recruits to protect the travelers? Was the time used to build the 2,800 feet of stockade wasted?

Artist conceptual drawing prior to archaeological discoveries.

An Enlisted Man’s Quarters Better than Nothing
Some of the first structures built at Fort Phil Kearny were the enlisted men’s barracks. The first four were 24 by 84 foot, green log, panel constructed buildings with dirt roofs and floors. In 1867 one additional 26 by 100 foot barrack was built to house the cavalry; kitchens were installed as basements in some of the previous barracks. Each barrack was expected to house an infantry or cavalry company averaging 87 men. With the exception of noncommissioned officers, who lived in small rooms within the barracks, all men live in an open bay heated with cast-iron stoves. The buildings were said to be breezy in winter, cool in the summer and by 1867: “fit to be torn down.”

The roofs leaked in the rain, and provided homes for snakes, mice, and all sorts of critters. The green log building material shrank as it dried, leaving gaps in the walls and the dirt floors turned to mud. All these factors made life in the barracks and for the enlisted men miserable.

Some men came right from the Civil War, armed and clothed with four-year-old equipment. Others avoiding famine, and persecution in Europe emigrated, joined the army and came here. Their base pay was thirteen dollars a month supplemented with soured food for long marches and back breaking work.The enlisted man was poorly paid, poorly fed, and poorly housed. But it was better than nothing, if only slightly.

The Military Stockade: Post Headquarters, Soldier Quarters and More
Fort Phil Kearny’s design was based on standard military models of the time, with the post’s buildings located around a 400 by 400 foot parade grounds. The parade grounds were divided into four 200 by 200 quadrants, with walkways surrounding the parade grounds and dividing the quadrants. Soldiers were forbidden to walk across the open areas of the parade grounds except when performing official duties such as drill, parades or answering the Call to Arms.

The military stockade was a constantly evolving complex of structures during the two years of Fort Phil Kearny’s existence. Many of the original buildings were improved or replaced over the life of the post. Some examples of these changes were the addition of brick chimneys, and the building of basement kitchens under the existing barracks and those newly constructed during 1867-1868, which not only helped save space in the cramped confines of the fort, but also provided some additional warmth for the barracks’ occupants.

A List of the Structures
Click here to see numbered map

1. Gun Bastion
2. Infantry Barracks
3. Officer Quarters
4. Permanent Hospital
5. Bakery
6. Band Quarters
7. Sutler Store
8. Post Headquaters
9. Guard House
10. Main Gate
11. Warehouses
12. Laundry Quarters
13. Saddle Shop
14. Temporary Hospital
15. Powder Magazine
16. Commander Quarters
17. Flag Pole Bandstand
18. Artillery Park
19. Guard Stand
20. Chapel
21. Civilian Dwelling (Wheatley)
22. Cavalry Barracks
23. Cavalry Stables
24. NCO Quarters
25. Guard Stands
26. Sinks
27. Quartermaster Office
28. Civilian Dwellings

The Post Headquarters: Administering Fort Phil Kearny and the Mountain District
From this building the commander of the Mountain District of the U.S. Army isssued orders to Forts Phil Kearny, C.F. Smith, and the Reno. The Mountain District was made up of the 2nd Battalion 18th Infantry until 1867 when it was reorganized into the 27th Infaantry Regiment. During this building’s existence, the 25 by 50 foot, one inch plank boxsl and batten structure was an office for Colonels Henry B. Carrington, Henry Wessells, and John E. Smith. The building was also the commuynication center for Fort Phil Kearny. Flag signalmen located on a lookout stand attached to building received and sent messages to Pilot Knob and other points.

In 1887, Quartermaster Captain George Dandy described the building as “needing torn down”.

Yet it continued to function in a number of ways until the closure of the fort. One use was as a school house, in which Chaplain White taught classes for the 10 children of 17 families on post.

The Quartermaster Corral: Civilian Quarters, Storage, and Shops
While not as well built and fortified as the military stockade to the north, the quartermaster’s stockade provided protection for the Quartermaster Department’s supplies, draft animals, work shops and civilian employees. Most of the supplies brought to the fort, either by wagons up the Bozeman Trail or by contractors working local resources, came into the quartermaster’s corral.

By April 1867, the Quartermaster Department was employing 52 civilians, including mail carriers, guides, carpenters, wagon masters, coal miners, stock herders and others.

Maintaining Fort Phil Kearny was expensive; laborers were paid $35-$45 a month, three times the salary of an Army enlisted man, while guides made from $5 to $10 a day, almost as much as an Army colonel.

The Fort
On July 13, 1866, Colonel Henry B. Carrington, leading four companies of the 18th Infantry, arrived at this site. Carrington, a competent engineer, immediately put his men to work. Through diligent labor they built, by October of that year, the basic units of what became an outstanding example of the complete, stockaded, “Indian Wars” military establishment.

From here, as you face across this tablet, extends the ground where Fort Phil Kearny once stood. Replacement posts mark the original corners of the 800’ x 600’ stockade. Beyond, salient points of contiguous cavalry and quartermaster corrals are marked. At the south-west end an animal watering gap jutted into Little Piney Creek. The Bozeman Trail passed roughly parallel to the northeast side.

Fort Phil Kearny was usually garrisoned by four to six infantry companies, plus one or two companies of cavalry. However, so slosely did Sioux and Cheyenne warriors, under the tactician Red Cloud, invest the post that these troops were frequently unable to perform Bozeman Trail convoy duty. Incidents of hostility were the daily rule and several of the most famous engagements of “Indian Wars” relate to this fort.

The military abandoned the fort in August, 1868, and it was burned by a band of Cheyenne.

The Flagpole: A Relief to the Traveler
The sight of a 20 by 36 foot American flag flying atop a 124 foot flagpole came as a great relief to the traveler on the Bozeman Trail. It meant the viewer was in sight of safe haven, temporarily free from the rigors of the trail, and safe from Indian attak. The pole which supported the flag was constructed of two pieces in a design similar to a ship mast. Made of lodgepole pine hauled from the wood-cutting areas on nearby Piney Island, the round poles were carved into octagons, painted black and the two pieces pinned together under the direction of civilian builder William Daley.

The flagpole was raised on October 31, 1866, with much fanfare. The first United States garrison flag to fly over the land between the North Platte and Yellowstone Rivers was hoisted. The band played on an octagonal stand erected at the pole’s base. Colonel Carrington addressed the post’s residents, and soldiers, dressed in newly issued uniforms. He spoke of their haardships, losses, and tribulations, and he didicated the new fort after nearly four months of occupation, naming it for a fallen Civil War hero.

The Hospital: Any Attempt to Relieve the Suffering…
at Fort Phil Kearny was seldom successful at either of its two hospitals. The original hospital was a 24 by 84 foot structure similar to the barracks in construction. During this hospital’s short service it sadly served as the morgue for Fetterman’s command. During most of its existence the building functioned as an officer’s quarters and was home to Captain Powell during his time at the post.

The second and primary hospital was built in 1867. It was an L—shaped structure incorporating panel construction and was 25 by 156 feet. The building either replaced or was attached to the bakery which was also located in this corner.The bakery attachment would have provided additional warmth and soothing aromas for the occupants. Little else is known abut this building.

Suffering at the post was considerable. There was constant skirmishing with the Indians ouside the post resulting in numerous battle injuries. In addition to combat wounds the occupants might be suffering from disease including dysentery, scurvy, or tuberculosis which, records indicate, were prevalent at the fort due to poor diet and sanitation.

The Band: For Conflict or Comfort
The 18th Infantry’s 40-piece Regimental Band was housed at Fort Phil Kearny in a 24 by 64 green log, panel constructed, dirt roofed barrack. The band provided drummers and buglers for drill, ceremony, and combat commands during the day. In the evening they would gather at an octagonal bandstand surrounding the flagstaff to serenade the post with martial or popular music of the day. On special occasions they would orchestrate waltzes at post dances. Their duties were truly ones of extremes; besides sounding commands or music to march by, members might also be called on to act as messengers, medical orderlies, or combat soldiers. Band members at the fort also built Colonel Carrington’s house in addition to serving as clerks or supply personnel.

There is more historical information on the band at Fort Phil Kearny than some of the other units. It is known that the band members carried Spencer Carbines even though the men seldom went into combat as a complete unit. Following the December 6, 1866 skirmish Colonel Carrington transferred these weapons to the cavalry, hoping to increase their fire power. All these weapons were lost in the Fetterman Fight two weeks later. Sadly, it is also known that the first death at Fort Phil Kearny was the Bandmaster, Master Serveant William Curry,who died of typhoid and pneumonia, leaving behind a wife and two boys.

"As we passed the Fort some distance we came to a halt for nearly an hour and a half…crossing the stream and ascending the bluffs beyond. As we lay there the brass band at the Fort commenced playing. Such sounds in such a scene! There was something in the wild, sweet strains that filled and floated through the deep reechoing valley that spoke of home; yet so far distant and in so wild a place that it partook of the nature of the scenes around it. It was like looking through the ‘glass of time’ into the dim Past…"

From the diary of Davis Willson, August 7, 1866, near Fort Phil Kearny

The Land
The land under view, where the Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains, was once the Red man’s land of milk and honey. Then, as now, teeming with wildlife, it was most productive—thus favorite—hunting ground. But it was also a natural route for north-south travel, used from time immemorial by nomadic men and migratory beasts. Lying hundreds of miles beyond the 1860 frontier it was treaty-confirmed Indian Country.

Here came a frontiersman, John Bozeman, pioneering a wagon road which followed buffalo, Indian and trapper trails. His time and energy saving short cut led to the booming mining fields of western Montana. This interloper was followed by others whose habitual frontier callousness easily stifled any scruple over trespass of an Indian passageway. Faint wheel marks soon became a beaten road known as the Bozeman Trail.

High plains and mountain Indians, notably Sioux and Cheyenne, watching this transgression, resented both the physical act and the implied contempt of solemn treaty. They made war. The white transgressors called upon their army for protection. In the end the Indians won a brief respite-partly because of developing railroad far to the south canceled the Bozeman Trail’s short cut advantage.

Pilot Hill Picket Post
Pilot Hill—overlooking Piney and Little Piney Creek Valleys, the Bozeman Road, the Sullivant Ridge with its wood road was a constantly manned lookout. From this post the sentry signaled to the Fort news of events as they occured—how the wood detail progressed, what travelers fared the Bozeman Road, where and how a skirmish was developing, who was in desperate need of reinforcements.

A Monument Honoring John “Portugee” Phillips
One of history’s great but little celebrated rides was made between midnight December 21st and Christmas night December 25th in the year 1866. From here at Fort Phil Kearny, where annihilation of Fetterman’s force had left the garrison in desperate straits, this ride spanned 236 miles to strategic Fort Laramie, the nearest hope for any succor. John “Portugee” Phillips, shrouded in snow and driven by an arctic wind, made that ride. He rode the Commanding Officer’s superb thoroughbred and he rode by night and hid by day, or used the bitter yet advantageous storm to hide his movements and blot his tracks. Thus he eluded pursuing Indians who, anticipating a necessary dash for aid, sought to intercept the speeding pair—resourceful messenger and courageous steed.

Site of a sawmill
As explained in No. 1 of this series, wood was the life blood of Fort Phil Kearny. The founding soldiers had carried into this wilderness a sawmill. It was set up without the walls of the stockade as here illustrated. And here, as supplied by logs carried in wagon trains returning from the Pinery, were sawed the boards from which the Fort’s structures were built.

Sullivant Ridge
Fort Phil Kearny, built of wood and fueled by wood, required a never ending supply of wood. A supply obtained despite hostile activity by Sioux and Cheyenne. Source was the Pinery four miles west against the mountains. The route followed by the crest of Sullivant Ridge-permitting observation of hostiles and preventing opportunity for an ambush.

Lodge Trail Ridge
Lodge Trail Ridge divided the drainages of both Piney Creeks with the drainage of Peno (now Prairie Dog) Creek. Up this divide, north beyond Phil Kearny, climbed the Bozeman Trail on its route to Montana. There, December 21, 1866, in violation of explicit orders, Fetterman led his command of eighty-one men. There were no survivors to return.

Cemetery Site
Because of a healthy climate plus a short existence, Phil Kearny’s cemetery might have remained an almost vacant place. But warfare prevented that idea. Here rested eighty-one victims of Fetterman’s impetuosity; three heros of the masterful Wagon Box defense; and a few casualties of less celebrated incidents. On June 24, 1896 all bodies not previously exhumed were removed for re-interment in the Custer Battlefield National Cemetery.

The Bozeman Trail…its Approach from the South
…so ran, through treaty guaranteed Indian Land, a white man’s route of commerce. Like any road it was an environment and ecology disturbing intrusion. Which, in this case, made it a challenge bound to produce a redman’s reaction—a resort to arms. Thus the white man’s government, supporting its citizens in violation of its own treaty, found justification to found a Fort Phil Kearny.