Wagon Box Fight
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| Wagon Box Fight | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Red Cloud's War | |||||||
 Monument at the scene of the fight |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| United States | Sioux Indians | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| James Powell | Red Cloud | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 31 soldiers | 1,000-2,000 | ||||||
| Casualties | |||||||
| 5 killed 2 wounded |
60 killed 120 wounded |
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On August 2, 1867, Capt. James Powell with a force of 31 soldiers from the U.S. Army survived repeated attacks by one to two thousand Sioux warriors under the leadership of Red Cloud near Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming Territory.
Powell's defenders, acting as guards for civilian crews cutting wood for the construction of the fort, took refuge in a corral formed by laying 14 wagons end-to-end in an oval configuration. The battle lasted five hours with Powell losing five men killed and two wounded. Powell reported killing 60 Indians and wounding 120 (although published accounts have put the number of casualties as high as eleven hundred). The disproportionate casualties, and the soldiers survival, was primarily due to the recent issue of Springfield Model 1866 "Trapdoor" .50-caliber breech-loading rifles, that had been supplied as a direct result of the Fetterman massacre; Indian attack strategy was based on the long reloading time of muzzle-loading weapons. The fight lasted throughout the day until a relief force from Fort Phil Kearny arrived.
