However, the Indians avoided his position and stampeded a herd of cattle on the bank of the Powder River opposite Fetterman's intended trap.

[7]: 150–156 On November 25, 1866, Carrington's superior, General Philip St. George Cooke, ordered him to take the offensive in response to the Indians' "murderous and insulting attacks".

Carrington told Fetterman to proceed west with a company of cavalry and a squad of mounted infantry to relieve the wood train.

Carrington reported that he had killed ten Indians, but both Fetterman and he were sobered by the shortcomings in organization and discipline of their largely inexperienced soldiers.

Carrington's guide, famous mountain man Jim Bridger, was more succinct: "These soldiers don't know anything about fighting Indians".

He doubled the number of guards for the wood trains and kept the 50 serviceable horses the fort still possessed – having lost many in Indian raids – saddled and ready to sally from dawn to dark.

Carrington sent Captain Powell, his most cautious officer, out of the fort to relieve the wood train with a cavalry company and mounted infantry.

He gave explicit orders not to pursue the Indians beyond Lodge Trail Ridge, two miles north of Fort Phil Kearny.

On December 20, Carrington turned down Fetterman and Captain Brown's proposal that they lead 50 civilian employees in a raid on the Lakota village on the Tongue River, about 50 miles distant.

About 10 am, Carrington dispatched a wagon train to the "pinery" – about 5 miles northwest and the nearest source of construction timber and firewood for Fort Phil Kearny.

Carrington ordered a relief party composed of 49 infantrymen of the 18th Infantry and 27 mounted troopers of the 2nd Cavalry under the command of Captain James Powell.

Another officer of the 18th, Lieutenant George W. Grummond, a known critic of Carrington, led the cavalry, which had been leaderless since Bingham's death in early December.

Captain Frederick Brown, until recently the post quartermaster and another of Carrington's critics, and two civilians, James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, joined Fetterman, bringing the relief force up to 81 officers and men.

“When the Great Father at Washington sent us his chief soldier [General Harney] to ask for a path through our hunting grounds, a way for his iron road to the mountains and the western sea, we were told that they wished merely to pass through our country, not to tarry among us, but to seek for gold in the far west.

They experienced great success; in less than half an hour, they had defeated nearly 100 men under Captain Fetterman, who had been cleverly drawn out of the fort by a ruse.

[20] After leaving Fort Phil Kearny with his infantry, Fetterman fired volleys at the small group of Indians, who harassed his flanks and taunted his soldiers.

At the top of the ridge, in violation of orders from Carrington, he chose to follow the Indian decoys north rather than turn west to rescue the wagon train.

Because of the steepness of the hill covered with ice and snow, the Indians, mostly on foot, were hampered in their attempts to come in close quarters with the cavalry, but soon succeeded.

[citation needed] The cavalry continued its retreat, halting to fight in a flat area on the ridge 400 yards north of where the infantry lay dead.

Historian Stephen Ambrose said Indian dead totaled ten Lakota, two Cheyenne, and one Arapaho, some of them killed by 'friendly' arrow fire rather than soldier's bullets.

Rather, they struck at the rear and flanks of an opponent, using mounted mobility to probe for weaknesses and attempt to cause disorganization and panic, backing off if they encountered a stout defense, and closing in for the kill when they could do so with little risk of heavy casualties.

Following the Fetterman Fight, that evening Carrington prepared for an attack on the fort, ordering all his men to stand watch, three to a porthole.

Carrington's message to General Cooke told of the Fetterman disaster and requested immediate reinforcements and repeating Spencer carbines.

He arrived at Fort Laramie late in the evening on December 25 during a full-dress Christmas ball and staggered, exhausted, into the party to deliver his message.

[7]: 193–194 [32][12]: 290 Carrington and a detail of 80 men marched cautiously out of Fort Phil Kearny on December 22 as the blizzard was approaching and gathered the remaining bodies of those killed.

According to Margret Irvin Carrington in her book Absaraka: Home of the Crows, The orders were given in front of Lieutenant Grummond's house, next the colonel's, and those who were present heard them repeated with distinctness and special urgency.

As if peculiarly impressed with some anticipations of rashness in the movement, the colonel, just after the command left, went across the parade ground to a sentry platform, halted the mounted party, and gave additional orders, understood in the garrison, and by those who heard them, to be the substantial repition [sic] of the former.

'The health of Mrs Grummond was such that Lieutenant Wands and other friends urged him, for his family's sake, to be prudent, and avoid all rash movements and any pursuit that would draw them over Lodge Trail Ridge, and to report to Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Fetterman the orders he had received.

[citation needed] Yet, at some point, Grummond led his cavalry far in advance of Fetterman, chasing the Indian decoys in direct violation of his orders.

Wood-cutting detachment rescue party from Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory, December 21, 1866, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel and Captain William J. Fetterman †, commanding.