Historical Markers and War Memorials in Banner, Wyoming
Sheridan is the county seat for Sheridan County
Banner is in Sheridan County
Sheridan County(103) ► ADJACENT TO SHERIDAN COUNTY Big Horn County(41) ► Campbell County(6) ► Johnson County(34) ► Big Horn County, Montana(75) ► Powder River County, Montana(7) ►
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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 . . . — — Map (db m87700) HM
. . . you dress lightly because the weather is clear. You are carrying your recently issued seven shot Spencer repeater and a saber. Lt. Grummond will command and he carries a saber and revolver. Wheatley and Fisher, who are with you, carry 15 . . . — — Map (db m87522) HM
. . . your preparations for the battle began two weeks ago when some leaders, including Red Leaf, High Back Bone and Black Leg, determined that the soldiers from the Buffalo Creek Fort could be ambushed. At your main camp on the Tongue River two . . . — — Map (db m87526) HM
. . . you are part of a detail formed this morning consisting of 49 men from companies A, C, E, and H of the 18th Infantry Regiment, you are told you will relieve a wood train under attack on Sullivan Hill for the third time in three weeks. On . . . — — Map (db m87520) HM
… the command retreats up the hill to this point, stopping only once or twice to fire at the pursuing warriors. Civilians Wheatley and Fisher, along with some non-commissioned officers, are making a stand 250 yards to the north, slowing the . . . — — Map (db m87523) HM
. . . you and fellow warriors prepare for battle. You wear your fines dress which includes your war shirt. The war pony you selected is painted and readied for battle as well. All of this preparation will give you spiritual strength and . . . — — Map (db m87528) HM
. . . one of the Cheyenne members of the decoy party, is with you. He is riding a black horse belonging to Little Wolf, his brother, and is wearing Sweet Medicine Chief’s scalp shirt. His horse, tired from decoying the soldiers, stumbles . . . — — Map (db m87524) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87703) HM
. . . like you, will die today. History will record that he is of German descent and a combat veteran of the Civil War and Plains Indian Wars. Two weeks ago, on December 6th, he helped Col. Carrington rescue Lt. Grummond from certain death. . . . — — Map (db m87525) HM
. . . you are joined by 27 more soldiers of Company C, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Lt. George Grummond. Captain Fred Brown and two civilian volunteers, James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, also join up. Your detail heads up Piney Creek . . . — — Map (db m87521) HM
On this field on the 21st day of December, 1866, three commissioned officers and seventy six privates of the 18th U.S. Infantry, and of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and four civilians, under the command of Captain Brevet-Lieutenant Colonel William J. . . . — — Map (db m85998) HM
On July 3, 1908, Henry B. Carrington, Frances Grummond Carrington and veterans of the Fort Phil Kearny garrison attended a memorial ceremony to dedicate this monument. Colonel Carrington and others recounted the events surrounding the battle of . . . — — Map (db m87407) HM
has been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark Under the provisions of the Historic Sites Act of August 21, 1935 this site possesses exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States. U.S. Department . . . — — Map (db m87402) HM
The Land
The land under view where the Great Plains meets the Rocky Mountains was once the Red Man's land of milk and honey, then as now teaming with wildlife. It was a most productive--thus favorite--hunting ground. But it was also a . . . — — Map (db m153150) HM
. . . the soldiers are surrounded and defeated. You begin gathering used arrows, soldier weapons, loose horses and tending your injured. Some warriors were hit by accident when warriors attacked from both sides of the trail. Other warriors . . . — — Map (db m87531) HM
All military posts had laundresses, with some having poor reputations as ladies-of-the-night, or for conducting shady activities. This may not have been the case at Fort Phil Kearny. There were four to five laundresses at this fort, each assigned . . . — — Map (db m87657) HM
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 Galloway who salvaged artifacts during the county road construction. In 1970-71 George Frison studied the . . . — — Map (db m87667) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87698) HM
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By 1866, Twenty Years of Confrontation . . . . . . had occurred on the Northern Plains. Indian tribes clashed over the vast resources of food, water and grass. European Americans pressured all the tribes on the quest . . . — — Map (db m87421) HM
Officers Row was a group of seven to ten non-descript log structures providing housing for officers and their families. They were probably a combination lumber, log, canvas, and dirt construction with one room, seldom larger than 24 by 30 feet. . . . — — Map (db m87619) HM
Pilot Hill – overlooking Piney and Little Piney Creek Valleys, the Bozeman Road, the Sullivant Ridge with its wood roads was a constantly manned lookout. From this post the sentry signaled to the Fort news of events as they occurred – . . . — — Map (db m87702) HM
In honor of John (Portugee) Phillips who Dec. 22-24, 1866, rode 236 miles in sub-zero weather through Indian infested country to Fort Laramie to summon aid for the garrison of Fort Phil Kearny beleaguered by Indians following the Fetterman . . . — — Map (db m86069) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87621) HM
In 1863, a party led by John Bozeman blazed a trail from the North Platte River, northwest across the Powder River Basin and along the foothills of the Big Horn Mountains to the gold fields of Montana. Established in violation of the 1851 . . . — — Map (db m86159) WM
The mission of the Fort Phil Kearny garrison was to guard travelers on the Bozeman Trail, but it soon became apparent that the guards would also need protection. Therefore, on July 13, 1866, Captain Tenador Ten Eyck began building a fort which had . . . — — Map (db m87405) HM
As explained in No. 1 of this series, wood was the life blood of Fort 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 . . . — — Map (db m87701) HM
Fort Phil Kearny, built of wood and fueled by wood, required a never ending supply of wood. A supply obtained despite hostile activities by Sioux and Cheyenne. Source was the “Pinery” four miles west against the mountains. The route . . . — — Map (db m87691) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87629) HM
As shown above, 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 . . . — — Map (db m87704) HM
The Bozeman Trail was established in 1863 by John Bozeman and John Jacobs as a shortcut to the Montana goldfields. It started from Virginia City, at Adler Gulch, in Montana, heading southward across Wyoming and the Powder River country where it . . . — — Map (db m87519) HM
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 few cavalry for support, reconnaissance, escort, or mail delivery. . . . — — Map (db m87641) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87638) HM
The average age of an enlisted man in the United States Army was twenty-three years old. Although Fetterman’s command included veterans of the Civil War, many of the men were inexperienced in Indian warfare and had limited training with their . . . — — Map (db m87514) HM
Plains Indian warriors varied in age from teens into their thirties. Being superb horsemen and skilled marksmen with bow and arrow, these warriors used their athletic skills and knowledge of the terrain to trap their enemies. Although they often . . . — — Map (db m87515) HM
Upon hearing rifle volleys north of Lodge Trail Ridge, Col. Carrington sent Captain Tenodor Ten Eyck with a relief column of 75 men to assist Fetterman. After the battle, Ten Eyck’s testimony described the discovery of a valley full of Indians in . . . — — Map (db m87532) HM
Before you lies the frame of a LANE & BODLEY sawmill. This was one of two steam-driven sawmills brought west for Colonel Carrington’s command. The sawmills were used to cut lumber into boards for construction of buildings, furniture and other . . . — — Map (db m87705) HM
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 32 foot, shingled building with a brick chimney, was used primarily for guard-mount. Guard-mount was . . . — — Map (db m87637) HM
. . . 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 . . . — — Map (db m87624) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87644) HM
From this building the commander of the Mountain District of the U.S. Army issued orders to Forts Phil Kearny C.F. Smith, and Reno. The Mountain District was made up of the 2nd Battalion 18th Infantry until 1867 when it was reorganized into the . . . — — Map (db m87633) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87647) HM
Even the most remote of frontier posts could not do without its Sutler Store. Fort Phil Kearny’s was established and built by John Kinney in partnership with others, including one Fenn Burnett. The building was 24 by 64 feet and constructed in a . . . — — Map (db m87631) HM
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 . . . — — Map (db m87673) HM
The Fetterman Fight was a clash of forces using different warfare tactics. In 1866, the military used Civil War tactics of massed soldiers formations under a central command using concentrated gunfire. The skirmish lines had men placed at . . . — — Map (db m87517) HM
Officers generally carried Models 1860 Colt or 1858 Remington .44 caliber revolvers. They also carried M-1860 Light Cavalry sabers, like the cavalry. An Infantry Soldier carried a Springfield Model 1863 rifle-musket, .58 caliber. He was . . . — — Map (db m87518) HM
. . . the soldiers from Peno Creek. They retreat south up the hill along their road. A small group of them stop among some rocks to the north. Their fast shooting guns slow the attack, causing many casualties. The remaining soldiers retreat . . . — — Map (db m87529) HM
