Showing posts with label Ft. Phil Kearny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ft. Phil Kearny. Show all posts

Monday, March 26, 2012

Ft. Phil Kearny, Wyoming

These are monuments at Ft. Phil Kearny, the command which suffered defeat at the Fetterman Fight, but endured an attack later at the Wagon Box Fight.

This blog does not attempt to document battlefields photographically, and the same is true of historic sites. For this reason, this entry does not attempt to depict all of Ft. Phil Kearny. Those wishing to see more photos of the post should look here. Rather, this only attempts to depict a few things topical to this blog.

The monument depicted above is an early one, placed by the State of Wyoming well before any archeology on the post had been done, and very little about its grounds was known. Now, because of archeology on the site, this monument is in a location where it is probably only rarely viewed.


These photographs depict a common device for historic sites in Wyoming, a pipe used for sighting a distant location. In this case, the location is the location of the post cemetery. The cemetary originally held the bodies of the soldiers, and civilians, killed at the Fetterman Fight, but the bodies were later removed to the national cemetery at Little Big Horn.


John "Portugee" Phillips Monument



John "Portugee" Phillips was an Azores born civilian who found himself working out of Ft. Phil Kearny at the time of the disastrous Fetterman fight. After the battle, Phillips, together with another civilian, rode over 200 miles to bring the news of the disaster to the Army. Phillips rode slightly further, and therefore is remembered, than his compatriot.

Phillips remained in Wyoming, married, and became a rancher. He's buried in Cheyenne. This memorial to his long ride is located just outside of the grounds of Ft. Phil Kearny in what is effectively a ranch yard. Indeed, my photographs of the monument are not closer, as two ranch dogs from the adjacent ranch were self employed in guarding it, and discretion proved the better part of valor. Besides, it's refreshing to see two such dedicated employees as they, and I honored their objections as to my dismounting from my vehicle.