My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre: With an Account of the Celebration of "Wyoming Opened"

by Frances C. Carrington, Shannon D. Smith (Introduction)

First published in 1910, Frances C. Carrington’s My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre recounted the author’s adventures as an army wife on the Great Plains, but also sought to set the record straight on her second husband’s involvement in the Fetterman fight. Frances traveled with her first husband, Lt. George Washington Grummond, to Fort Phil Kearney in Wyoming in 1866 where he was killed in the Fetterman incident just a few months later. She eventually married the post commander, Col. Henry B. Carrington, after the death of his first wife, Margaret, who had befriended and cared for Frances during her brief, tragic episode at the frontier post. Frances’s narrative recalls the wonder and worries of a naive young bride during the fateful days of 1866. From her voyage to Wyoming to her encounters with unfamiliar peoples and strange landscapes, Frances’s vivid prose examines not only the everyday workings of a frontier army post but also the political and social intrigue behind one of the most controversial military defeats in Western history.

Genres: Biography, War, Nonfiction, History

316 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1990

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre was recommended by our British (yes, I do mean British) tour guide at Ft. Phil Kearney as a good ‘gossipy’ read about Fetterman Fight or the Fetterman Massacre. Only the Battle of the Little Big Horn (ten years later) was a worse defeat for the United States Army and a greater victory for the Plains Indians. On December 21, 1866, Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors staged an ambush some three miles from Fort Phil Kearny. Sent to rescue a besieged wood-wagon train, Captain William J. Fetterman and 80 men were decoyed over Lodge Trail Ridge by a small number of Indians led by the young Lakota Sioux warrior, Crazy Horse, into a trap where over 1000 warriors waited in hiding. Fetterman's pursuit over the ridge, in violation of his superior officer's orders, led to the death of the entire command.

The shooting started about noon, and was over in only 30 minutes but the controversies surrounding exactly what happened during that time continue to this day. Why did Captain Fetterman, an officer with an impeccable Civil War record, disobey a direct order of his superior officer? Did Colonel Carrington actually give the order he and his wife claim he gave? Or was Captain Fetterman really the arrogant, insubordinate and inexperienced officer Colonel Carrington says he was? And what about Lt. Grummond and the cavalry? Did Grummond lead his cavalry far in advance of Fetterman, chasing the Indian decoys, in direct opposition to his orders from Col. Carrington to stay with Fetterman during the operation, as has been alleged? (Grummond also had a distinguished Civil War record as a combat officer, but he had been court martialed for drunkenness and abuse of civilians, and he was a bigamist. He had been reckless and possibly disobeyed orders during the December 6 fight.) And last but not least, was Captain Ten Eck negligent when—sent in relief of Captain Fetterman—his response was deemed too slow but could he and his troops have done anything to prevent the massacre regardless of how or why he responded as he did? Was his claim that he was ‘keeping to higher ground’ justifiable on the grounds of military prudence? Later when he was accused of cowardice and drunkenness, one can’t help wondering if anyone asked him what his reaction was to the sight he beheld that December afternoon of the mutilated corpses of his fellow officers and men. It has been said the brutality of this attack was a direct response to the viciousness of the Sand Creek Massacre two years earlier, which considering numbers and that it was directed against a sleeping village of unarmed women and children was actually far worse.

So given all this background, how was Mrs. Carrington’s book? It was a fair read. Our guide was right in his assessment and yet I still enjoyed it. However, when I consider what Frances endured and saw in her years, I don’t envy her a thing and I have to admit to high admiration for her and all women of that generation. What they went through! She had quite a life, growing up in the South in a family divided between the Union and the Confederate. Then she traveled west in a wagon in danger, dirt, and discomfort to a fort under constant threat of Indian attack, living in fear for her own life and that of her husband. (The standing order was if the fort was taken, there was someone designated to shoot all the women and children rather than let them be taken by the Indians.) Then after her husband was in fact killed*—she travels back east in the middle of a freezing blizzard while she was 6-8 months pregnant. The storm was so bad that most of the men lost fingers and/or toes, at least and more than a few died. There’s so much more, but then you wouldn’t read the book. Now I just want to go on to read the other books our guide recommended about Fetterman.

We have visited Ft. Phil Kearney twice now, in 2001 and again in 2014. If you are ever in Wyoming, I highly recommend it!

*The reason Frances has the same last name as the Colonel is because after his first wife died, Frances wrote a letter of sympathy to Colonel Carrington, he replied and a correspondence sprung up leading to marriage. Thus Mrs. Grummond of earlier years became Mrs. Carrington until her death many years later.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was somewhat surprised by this book. The Fetterman Fight and the history of Fort Phil Kearney are subjects I have read extensively on. When this book was recommended to me it was described as not very well written, biased and maybe somewhat gossipy. I found Frances Carrington (Formerly Frances Grummond) to be a pretty good writer. This point of view was so interesting as her first husband was slaughtered in the Fetterman fight and she ends up marrying Colonel Carrington when his first wife passed away. I truly enjoyed it.

[Rcw70 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a great story - well know to those interested in Western history. simply Stated the author was a young bride traveling to the far west with her husband an
army Lt - They were assigned to a new fort in the black Hills. The husband went out with a patrol of some 80 men and the whole patrol was massacred in what was the biggest loss in the army's history excepting Custer and little big horn.

The wife - now widow - stayed with the Base commander - Col Carrington and his wife - several weeks until they were able to leave the fort - (which was later abandoned. Some time later the Col's wife died and the widow the author of this book married her former host.

As I said it is a great story - but it is poorly written here, a painful read.

Any one interested in the army life of the 1870- 1880s would do better to read The
"Vanished Arizona: Recollections of My Army Life" by Martha Summerhayes or "Army Letters from an Officers Wife" by Antoinette Mack Roe