Wagon Box Fight

This authoritative chronicle by a leading Frontier Wars historian details one of the most dramatic battles of the 19th century American West. In the 1860s, the newly blazed Bozeman Trail brought American pioneers into the gold-rich regions of Montana. As these settlers disrupted Native American populations, the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho tribes responded with a series of raids in Montana and Wyoming Territories. The bloody conflict came to be known as Red Cloud's War, named for the Oglala Lakota chief. On August 2nd, 1867, several hundred of Red Cloud's warriors descended on a small party of US Army soldiers near Fort Phil Kearny. Greatly outnumbered and taking cover behind a wall of wagon boxes, the soldiers kept the attackers at bay with newly designed, fast-shooting rifles until reinforcements arrived. In Wagon Box Fight, historian Jerry Keenan recounts the full story of this historic conflict in vivid detail. Drawing on official army reports and archaeological evidence, this volume offers the most authoritative account available.