144 Years Before This Day...

December 21st, 1866 - the day of the Fetterman fight. It is the 144th anniversary today and at the moment, it is 20 past 8 PM in England but over in Denver (the closest bit city to the Fort Phil Kearny site that my Ipod will tell me!) it is apparently 20 past 1 PM. Either way though, 144 years ago, the fight had already happened and going by English time, the surgeons would be working hard in the hospital and going by Denver time, Captain Ten Eyck would probably have been sent out by now with the second detachment.
In fact, these whole past couple of months have been in 'Fetterman territory', as they have been called for a while because of the amount of events that start to pick up related to him. First of all, we had the anniversary of his arrival at the fort back on November 3rd then his plan with the cattle trap for the Indians on November 5th then the whole debacle with Lieutenant Bisbee and the drilling situation (where Fetterman was later blamed by some historians for swearing violently at some misbehaving men - in fact, Bisbee did this) on November 11th and then basically the whole month of December is full of events from the fort in 1866 - and also related to the Indians.
Here in 2010, things have been slow for developing the story, if I'm being honest, because of a few reasons, mainly related to school. To start with, I had Science exams to revise for in early November then GCSE mocks to revise for in late November/early December and now a load of coursework to do. However, there has been some development at least as I can't seem to leave this story alone!
To begin with, over time, the list for the scenes I'd like to insert into the story has been added to quite a bit - now the amount is over 100 but I doubt I'll use everything...One of the main things added I can think of now though is an event that happens over the ridge on the day of the fight that rounds off Colonel Carrington's and Captain Fetterman's relationship that I was very, very happy with. Also, Colonel Carrington's character has been changed a little to a form that I feel much better with!
The Character Dynamics sheets have also come along. Colonel Carrington's is finished and Captain Fetterman's is being added to. I rather like doing these sheets because as I'm doing them, more ideas and scenes come up. In fact, his and Bisbee's relationship has been developed more as well as Fetterman's and Brown's - and Fetterman and Carrington's too!
Also, I wrote up a 'History of the Powder River Country Prior to 1866' to help if I ever reference it in the story. As well as this, I've started writing some things on Native American Culture so we have some sort of factual background and help for when I start Smoky's character profile. However, he is no longer called Smoky but Prairie to receive his permanent name at the Fetterman fight - Barefoot in the Snow I think!
Plus, because of the (probably overly) extensive information, background and future I have on Willow, I toyed with the idea of writing a short-ish biography of him with quotes and so on because I thought this would be quite fun!
And also we have had snow! Lots of it, in fact. So much so that our school was closed for two days - and considering the stubborness of our school, this was quite a feat!
Now, related to the trip I'm trying to get money for for America, I finally managed to scan all the barcodes in of the CDs I want to sell into Music Magpie.com with the intention of sending them off. Some of this money would go towards America and I'm paying my mum back for the Christmas presents that we bought together for friends. So, with an original of about £70, I now have about £30 to go towards America which is good! Well, I will have £30 when it arrives!

~

In memory of all the brave men, soldiers and Indians, that died that day in 1866

~

Opening the Gates

Well, first things first. 144 years ago today, Fort Phil Kearny was completed, or at least, as much as to have a celebration ceremony and to raise the flag. The fort would last little over 2 years but obviously nobody anticipated that back then, certainly not Carrington who spoke at the opening like he was running for president. This was just about the time when the troubles that had been brewing started to boil over though and get even worse.
Aside from this anniversary, I have finally finished the timelines for 1866. It took a while (and December seemed to be even harder than the rest of them because the sheer amount of things that go on in them - and I even cut out the battles to write about them on a separate sheet) but they are done at last and now I only have to do the 1867 timeline with the more political things that happened because of the fight and all the reorganisation. After that, I get the chance to go through them again and cut out things I don't want and choose which bits I do want and eventually put in the fictional events so they all fit together. Saying it this way makes it seem like I am actually close to finishing the planning and research! I might be but I still feel like there is quite a bit to do.
For example, Smoky's character profile needs to be cracked on with which I have been meaning to do for a while. However, he has quite a lot already made up and done for him so it should be fun to do his profile. The only thing is I need to look up the Native American lifestyle and childhood a bit more.
To keep track of everything I still need to do, I stuck a bit 'To Do' List up on my pinboard in my room, as well as the little one in the old Fighting With Their Eyes Closed folder (and other little ones I seem to keep writing). This one has more of a colour code system with green if I've done it and red if it definitely needs to be - the only one of these 'reds' so far is Smoky's character profile. I did have dates written next to the things that needed to be done (or the more important ones anyway) but I crossed this out pretty much as soon as I'd written them, knowing I'd never work against a schedule for this - until it comes to writing it, I suppose!
The Character Dynamics sheets are going well though - Carrington's has been completed and printed out into the (relatively) new folder and Fetterman's has been started too and as I'm doing them, more ideas are coming up.
Sticking with ideas for the moment, I have been thinking about where this story is going to start and end and yesterday, a few things were cut out. For instance, I'm not sure about Tom - Willow's brother who is a journalist - telling the story anymore as that just adds another story on top of everything else and also, I don't think I'll actually write the events of 1867 or 1868, other than a mention - or a developed mention. I would love one of the endings for the story me and my dad talked about but I think it might be too dramatic and I want the Fetterman fight to be the climax of the story. However, I'm having more luck with the beginning of the story. I was thinking about going back to the old John Phillips opening (and when writing him down into the timeline, I can't wait to write his part!) but I'm still very keen on starting it with one of Willow's surreal and recurring nightmares.
Talking about Willow, his profile is coming along nicely though it is becoming more of a thing to do when I haven't got much else to do which is okay as I have most of Willow finished anyway! Also, with the characters, Grummond, like I said in the last entry, is being a darling to develop and I'm thinking about giving him a different personality almost every day and even to follow the 'Seven Deadly Sins' over time - or at least some of them!
Also, my Uncle and brother want a picture version of the story, seeing as both of them are more into films than books so I had fun drawing some of the characters on Photoshop and adding a little write-up to them - despite the slowness of my nan's computer sometimes! They are still ongoing as it is a nice little thing to do!
As well as this, my dad, who loves music and writing it, has a new music software on his computer that he has written a few things on based on the story and I love them so far! I will listen to them when writing for the feel of things!
In other news, I saw Glory recently and I liked it a lot! One of the top Civil War films I've seen!

It's On Now, If It Wasn't Already

It's on now, if it wasn't already.
But to begin with, as this will probably be the first blog entry in the new folder to keep track of everything for Fighting With Their Eyes Closed, welcome! The last folder was getting way too full so now we're moving into another for the next pieces of information, documents, pictures and so on for most of it!
Anyway, in the last entry, I said that Willow's character was being developed quite a lot. That's continued and now I am growing to adore him which is always nice for writing. But as well as Willow, Lieutenant Grummond is taking a form that I also am growing to love. He's got a bit (okay, very) unstable and unpredictable personality and nobody really knows what he's going to do or say next which makes them pretty wary of him! Along with him, he's brought some nice little other scenes, as has Lieutenant Bisbee too, and all of the 'other' characters' personalities and such are being put into 'mini' character profiles that are shorter than Willow's, Carrington's and Fetterman's (and eventually Smoky's) but by no means 'short'.
The timelines are going on too. August is finished, as is September and at the moment I'm on October and there are some nice (probably the wrong word to use...) events that I'm going to try and incorporate into the story. Thank God for Dee Brown, even if he was wrong about Captain Fetterman (or at least in this story's terms he is...!).
A character dynamics sheet has also been started, talking about the relationships and opinions and feelings between different characters. There are about 22 different pairings to cover and so far, I think I've done about five; Carrington and Fetterman (that took ages!!), Carrington and Willow, Carrington and Brown, Carrington and Grummond and at the moment, Carrington and Bisbee.
Too, I've been reading Terry C Johnston's Sioux Dawn that is about the Fetterman fight and some of the events leading up to it which is pretty handy for the dialogue but he still portrays Fetterman as an arrogant, brash commander which I totally disagree with now.
Relating to the letter I mentioned in our county press last entry as well, I did get a reply back from that which was good!
Also, a plan to get to America next year has been set up and I'm entering writing competitions, car boot sales and so on to get enough money for it! This trip will definitely include Fort Phil Kearny (at least what's left of it) and the Fetterman fight location and I will at last get to see beautiful America!
In other news, I watched The Colt (2005) a week back and it is simply incredible. I don't really know what else to say about it apart from that it was absolutely beautiful.

Forward, men! There's character development and timelines over that ridge!

At last, big developments have been made on Willow's character in the past week or so. I started filling out a character profile sheet for him, similar to the one I did for Colonel Carrington a while back and identical to the one I started for Captain Fetterman, and then found another really good and detailed one online so printed that one out and started answering that one too, this time handwritten instead of typed up. Therefore, most of his family background is done and his failures, successes, regrets, fears, friends (most significantly a Lewis Burton during the early days of the Civil War who taught him a lot about the army) and a lot of his physical appearance too. I have also come to adore him quite a lot as I imagine he's going to be a very fun character to describe and write, with his little incidents and stories and sassy personality, incidentally the first real lead character I have had who isn't all polite and sweet. He has now become my favourite fictional character of mine and has quite a few little scenes reserved for him.
These little scenes get written down, whatever idea they are, and when the plan is written, they will be slotted in. Usually, they are little silly ones but more recently, they have been serving as a development tool for the Fetterman-Willow relationship, where Willow has gone off Fetterman after the War because of how much he does recruiting instead of fighting, which is not really his fault but Willow still dislikes it. So therefore, there are little scenes to make Willow like Fetterman again, such as Fetterman saving Willow from choking and also letting him out of the locked basement though that's got a different, long background to do it as well as being a little scene!
As well as this, I started a little excerpt of the story for my dad when he went on holiday to send him in parts. It is turning out to be longer than I first imagined but it is very nice to start writing some of this story, as well as planning it (although I do love doing that too!). I don't think the excerpt will be directly used in the story but I'll still try and use some lines. It was especially fun to write Carrington's character as the excerpt was set in the December 6th fight where Carrington is now quite jealous of Fetterman and gets very frustrated that he, himself, isn't doing very well in front of his men, especially when he falls into the icy cold water of the Big Piney Creek in front of everybody. Another good thing about writing this 'little' excerpt was that I had to plan it too and although that dug up quite a bit of confusion with where certain people *Grummond and Carrington* were a bit of the time, I'm glad I finished the plan because I'll probably use that for the plan of the chapter in the story about December 6th.
Too, I started carrying on with the timelines, which need to be finished, really, for the story's plan to begin to take form. July was finally finished, though some handwritten notes may be written around the edges of the printed copy from other books (especially the John H Monnett book), like what happened to the other printed timelines (namely the 1865 and the 1866 January-June timelines), and the August 1866 timeline has also been started.
In other news, there was a rather stupid article in our Isle of Wight County Press the other day that had the writer insulting Native Americans at the Battle of the Little Bighorn by calling them 'those horrid Sioux Indians' and just generally being offensive towards them, while also comparing them to our government forcing our Island into doing something we didn't want to do and trying to join us with the mainland. In short, the article was pointless, inconsistent, confusing and offensive so needless to say, I wrote a letter in that I'm soon going to post to the newspaper! :) Getting to people the old fashioned way, Captain Benteen-style!

The Road Goes On

After ordering a new book about a week or so ago called Where A Hundred Soldiers Were Killed: The Struggle for the Powder River in 1866 and the Making of the Fetterman Myth by John H Monnett, it arrived last Friday and having a timeline to adjust, I got on with reading it. After the rather Carrington-centred Fetterman Massacre by Dee Brown, it was a nice balanced look at the fight and the events that led up to and succeeded it. Of course, I loved the Dee Brown version for the details about the journey of the 'Carrington Overland Circus' to Fort Phil Kearny but it didn't really dispute or question anything. Forty or so years later, Monnett's book (along with Shannon D Smith's Give Me Eighty Men I read a while back) was released and these two authors had access to a lot more information, a lot of it contradicting the statements made about Fetterman, saying he was arrogant and disobedient.
To be honest, I'm a lot happier with this new image of him in the story. Although Shannon D Smith's book turned everything on its head, the result was a better representation, I think, and now I've come to hate the arrogant and disobedient image of Fetterman. The new book I bought by David Monnett strengthened that and also helped with a lot of other details about the events that happened to the Powder River Country over the years. Therefore, the timelines that I've been writing over the past couple of weeks (ones that ended up as the 1865 timeline, the 1866 timeline from January to June and currently, the July 1866 timeline and eventually, stretching to 1867 with the Wagon Box Fight, the Hayfield Fight and the political events that came to be after the Fetterman fight) have had to be slowly adjusted - or added to - to constitute the new details.
As well as this, a sheet on the Other Characters of the story is slowly being written, with probably a lot more detail than I actually need, and a Log of Events has been created. For some reason, I decided to start this after a few months of research and development of the story, so I had to look through the diaries I've written to see what I'd done on particular days, which took a while but now, it's up to date. Also, Willow is being developed some more, with more and more being added to his Character Profile.
And luckily now, a week or so ago (maybe a bit more), my Laptop was fixed so that's back in action too!
The development goes on!

The Journey So Far

Okay, where to start, where to start...
Well.
Over the past week or so, I've been crawling through a timeline of 1865 through 1867 and listing down the events. It's turned out to be pretty detailed though that's a good thing as I hate missing things out. So far, 1865 is done and January through to mid July is also done but we've just had to take my Laptop down to a computer fix up place because it's being stupid and crashing all the time so everything's been left on it. Hopefully it'll be alright!
However, I did save some things to memory stick that I wanted to edit so I'm going to try and carry on with the July timeline which I had to separate out into its own part because that month has a heck of a lot going on in it!
Going through though, I've come across a problem as I really don't know where to start the story. On one hand, I could describe the whole journey to the fort site, with the ups and downs and mistakes and successes, with the fictional Willow being our eyes and ears for a lot of it but then this would probably take quite long and drone on a bit. I personally love the journey but to be honest, it's not too much of a kapow! starting, so to speak.
So, on the other hand, I could start with Lieutenant Templeton's part. This is a lot more sudden, with some Officers travelling to the fort and being swarmed upon by Indians along the way. It also has a good part with one of the enlisted men, SS Peters, listening to Lieutenant Daniels' talking about 'something bad' he thinks is going to happen to him. It does the next day, along with Templeton as they run into Indians out of sight of the waiting party. And when Templeton returns after Daniel's riderless horse scurrying out of the timber, he simply says: ''Daniels! My God, Indians!'' before collapsing. I imagine this might be a better starting.
However, if I was going to go along with the journey part too, I'd have to maybe put in another fictional character who Willow would later meet and relate with. If I will, his name will be Captain Lewis Burton but that's not definite yet.
Also, I've decided on a fictional Indian to tell us their side of the story and his name would be something along the lines of Smoky because I've always wanted to call somebody that. Smoky River, as a full name.
In other news, somebody suggested a programme to help with planning called YWriter that helps plan individual scenes, characters, locations, view points and so on...This will be very handy when it finally comes to writing the story!

A Slow Advance

It's slow, but the research is coming on.
Fetterman's profile is almost done, Carrington's original one is being looked over (as I can't stand having him all innocent and vulnerable anymore, after the things I've heard about him) and fictional Willow is being developed now. As he's the main character, I figured it'd probably be sensible if I understood him a little more :D
As well as this, the Add/Adjust/Lose adjustments to the original plan are being made. However, the original plan only covers a little section of the story so there's a whole lot more where that came from. Lieutenant Wands, the Officer of the Day on December 21st 1866, now has a bigger part though and he's on the Fetterman side. Now he's the one who is doing all the discovering about Carrington's maybe-not-quite-so-defensive-after-all orders and is horribly confused for most of the time. And with Willow, he's been caught up in that now and there is also the arrival of a suspicious little piece of paper in Fetterman's hand when they find him that may change everything for Carrington. :)
And with Grummond, I can't wait to start writing him! He's excitable and fun and a little crazy and that's always good to write.
In other news, I watched Gettysburg last night and it has to be one of the most incredible films I've ever seen! I now wholly and fully support Mr Joshua Chamberlain! :)

Carrington's Orders

About a week or so ago, I finished writing out the notes from the new book I got and then, as I said before, started writing options for Carrington's confusing orders to Fetterman then Grummond. Overall, there were 7 options for what he could have told Fetterman and then just 1 for Grummond, as I decided on the first one I wrote down because I was happy with it!
The orders he gave to Fetterman I decided were offensive, which is against a lot of accounts but that's because of Carrington's *lies*, I think. You see, after the 'massacre', Carrington was blamed for the whole debacle because he sent Fetterman out and so on...He tried extremely hard to clear his name from that and when historians started writing about him at the time, if they had said anything bad about him, he would contact them and 'help' them put it 'right'. In my opinion, this has implications that he was very guilty of something. It also means that when his wife wrote her book about him and their time at Fort Phil Kearny and when the testimonies were being taken, he would obviously try and make himself sound as good as possible, which makes what he said not necessarily true. Now, the books written after the ones he adjusted at the time were based on these manipulated ones and the ones after that were based on them and then so on and so forth until what Carrington said became known as truth. Nobody really looks at the other side of it.
It's safe to say that in the story I'm trying to write as soon as I can, Carrington is not coming off all that well.
So, he sends Fetterman on an offensive, instead of the defensive he claimed he led him on - because if it was a defensive, why would he send out the biggest detachment that had ever left the Fort to protect a wood train when he'd sent out much smaller forces to do the same job before? And why would he then send out a surgeon? However, before this, I am having him trying to send Powell out on a DEfensive but Powell refusing, saying he's not his little pet that only goes out to defend - or something to that effect. Carrington then changes his plans when Fetterman arrives and requests the force as now, when Powell testifies, he will say it was a defensive and will unintentionally back up Carrington's later schemes (I say, schemes, because well, he had the time to scheme, and I don't think he was quite as innocent as portrayed).
Fetterman is sent out on this offensive and then Carrington sends Grummond out after him. He tells Grummond to tell Fetterman it's now a DEfensive for a number of reasons he doesn't say. The biggest reason though is that he knows Grummond will disobey him and cross the ridge he said not to cross. Therefore, he knows Fetterman will follow him over and therefore, make himself look bad without it being too obvious Carrington is prompting it. Carrington obviously doesn't want him to die out there but I imagine he'd want him to fail. Carrington is seethingly jealous of Fetterman and has been for a while and just wants to see him do something wrong for once.
Many people have said that Fetterman was just disobedient and that's why he crossed the ridge. But it wasn't like that at all because Carrington confused him by giving him these new, mixed up orders, sending a wild Grummond after him and also daring Grummond over that ridge. Fetterman had to decide what he was going to do in a matter of a few seconds and he was too much of a good soldier to just let Grummond die out there so he rode in to help him, even though he knew from experience it was a trap.
I'm so happy I got there in the end with these damn orders! :)

...what feels like a startover!

Since I got that new book by Shannon D Smith (the Give Me Eighty Men one), the story feels like it has been started all over again. A lot of things have been reorganised and at the moment, I'm in the process of writing the different options for how Carrington can give the orders of December 21st, 1866 to Fetterman and/or Powell because here there seems to be a heck of a lot of confusion. For example, Carrington said he gave orders to Powell but Fetterman then claimed by rank to take out the detachment to relieve the wood train yet no other testimony (except from George Mackey and I don't really know who he was) backs this up. And on top of that, there are many other questions. For example, if it was possible to claim a detachment by rank then when didn't Powell claim Grummond's later command by rank? Or did he decline or refuse to take out the first detachment? And why hadn't Fetterman claimed command two days earlier when a relief force was sent out? Or were Carrington's orders actually different between the two days?
And on the subject of his orders, there is also the confusing issue with what he said to Grummond after Fetterman had exited the fort. Some people say he said to Grummond to 'remind' Fetterman of his orders and others say he said to Grummond to 'tell' Fetterman of his orders which are completely different things. And what are these orders? Some say they are the ones that say not to cross Lodge Trail Ridge but then why was Fetterman allowed to pass over it with no man going out to stop him? And why was he allowed to just go in the opposite direction to where the wood train he was meant to be relieving was? So does that mean the orders Grummond was meant to remind him/tell him of were different?
Very confusing. And there are other things too, including how the cavalry and infantry advanced, what happened where and when on the battlefield (and also back at the fort) and so on...
Also, some details of the original plan have been changed around and they have been compiled into a Add/Adjust/Lose list of what to do for the story. A big change is the circumstances of Fetterman and Brown's deaths and also Fetterman's whole personality.
Another thing is that before we were going from Carrington's testimony a lot of the times which is what many, many books afterwards draw information from. However, Carrington's testimony is full of what could be described as lies. He compiled it to make himself sound better, after a long time of being blamed for the disaster, and also to make Fetterman seem arrogant, disobedient and a bully, which, really, he wasn't.
So that's another change.
However, I have come up with a title for this book: 'Fighting With Their Eyes Closed: Braving The Storm at Fort Phil Kearny' which takes inspiration from what Grummond was alleged to have done in the incident on December 6th, 1866 when he was surrounded by Indians - fought his way out with his sabre with his eyes closed.

Reorganisation

In a similar maddening fashion to how the army was reorganised in early 1867 after the Civil War, this story is now in the process of being pulled and pushed and tugged around too. I've decided that instead of incorporating it yet into a larger book of small series about the American West entitled On Paths We Used To Walk, it's going to exist somewhat independently of it.
This means that Caution to the Winter Wind will now be part of a separate novel I'm going to try and concentrate on about the story of Fort Phil Kearny. This will include the Powder River Invasion of 1865 (to open the gates for the settlers and therefore the forts), the treaties drawn up to try and force the Indians to let the soldiers use the land, the construction of the forts in Absaroka (the soldier's name for the area around Powder River), Red Cloud's War (including the events leading up to December 6th, December 6th itself and the Fetterman Fight) and also the events after, so the confusing army reorganisation (though only briefly mentioned I hope), Carrington being pulled down from his fort, the confusion of the War Department and Department of the Interior (again, only briefly mentioned I hope), the Wagon Box Fight of 1867 and eventually, the burning of the forts when the soldiers evacuate them to serve in the upcoming campaigns of 1868.
Yes, it sounds long, and yes, it probably will be long but it's a very interesting subject - at least to me - and some of the research is already done, namely some of the stuff for the Fetterman Fight, though with the new book, I need to develop that a little further.
Yet to come up with a title but I'll wait for that, I guess.
x

New Book

I ordered a new book just over a week ago and this Wednesday, it arrived. It was Shannon D Smith's Give Me Eighty Men: Women and the Myth of the Fetterman Fight and it is extremely well and thoroughly researched and she has introduced so many questions to the incident that no other historian I've read about so far has done. Which is great but also very annoying for the current story I'm writing.
I spent ages preparing for it and researching and doing character profiles and so on and now, I've found out in a mere couple of days that maybe all this work is riddled with faults. For example, the thing I was most happy with - the relationship between Carrington and Fetterman and Fetterman's personality on the whole - has been described by Shannon D Smith as not as bad as a lot of other books and accounts play it out to be. So, I have to try and adjust that a little. Even though, with researching, maybe it's not all that wise to suddenly change everything because of what one person has said, with her, it seems different. Her answers and suggestions to the questions she raises seem very plausible and the evidence that the other accounts I've gone through have provided are turned to represent what she's saying, and yes, they do back her up a lot of the time.
As well as Carrington and Fetterman's relationship, other things have to be lost, adjusted and added. The relationship is the biggest thing to be changed as that is what a lot of the other events stem from but the littler things count too.
On the other hand, she did introduce Lieutenant Bisbee a lot more than the other accounts and he seems very interesting too.
So now, I'll have to write down some notes from the book that'll come in handy and also try and justify the Carrington profile I wrote out to these notes. Also, I'll have to write a list of things to add, adjust and lose. Plus, anything else that comes to mind.
I'm not sure how maddening this will turn out to be.

Story

The originally written prologue (originally also the only thing I was going to try to stick to throughout the story) has now been changed. Initially, it was Carrington breaking down after all of the events had taken place, including the relief of the bodies that he took part in etc, but now it's John Portugee Phillips, the civilian miner, arriving from his long, epic ride across hostile Indian territory 240 miles in a blizzard, at Fort Laramie, to deliver the news of the massacre to General Palmer and his Officers there. Reality has, at this point, turned up with another great event too because when he at last arrived there, freezing cold and exhausted, there was a Christmas ball taking place near the Officers quarters so that means I can use lots of comparisons and contrasts ! Also, because of the day he arrives, I can also try and compare it to the three Kings in Bethlehem, following the star (in this case, the lights of the ball) and also Santa (in this case, John Phillips arriving with an almost white beard!) . That's if Santa was celebrated over there then....Have to check that ^^
I changed the whole Carrington thing because after writing his profile, I thought that I'd been working up to get him a big cover up for his truly worried and stressed personality so he comes across relatively calm and level headed to his men. Having him immediately break this facade would downplay all this it would be more dramatic if it was built up to, rather than said immediately.
Plus, I have to change some of the parts I've written already - namely the parts with Captain Brown in the first section, as I've written him as quite impatient and irritable about Powell who is riding with back from the wood train. In fact, he was quite good natured and happy go lucky so instead of acting so miserable around Powell like he is at the moment in the story, he's going to act pretty respectful around him but when Powell turns his back, he shakes his head like he thinks he's just a joke. This may be shared with some of the Officers with him. This change also kind of helps accentuate Fetterman's irritable personality.
Also on the subject of writing, I've added some parts that kind of suggest Carrington sent them out to the massacre. He was accused of that by a few people after the events and I think it's a really interesting take on it. Obviously, he was blamed for it by many people but to actually say he was the cause of it is slightly different. So, to reflect this, some of his feelings towards Fetterman are thrown out of context and perspective at some points, implying (or not, however it's taken) that he would send him to his death, or at least he wanted to. That sounds very dark but it makes it interesting ^^ An example of how exaggerated he gets now is that in their huge argument (the first real time Fetterman and Carrington actually have direct anger poured out to each other in front of one another), Carrington gets carried away and gives into true, furious feelings, hitting Fetterman. Fetterman doesn't say anything to anyone else after - purely because he doesn't really get the chance and plus, he's trying to get the command of the fort after Carrington is relieved (because of the reorganisation of the army) and the people investigating whether Carrington actually acting violently towards him would draw up the question of why he did hit him and this would reveal Fetterman's violent actions towards him and so on... - but Carrington gets even more paranoid he will.
A book that has really helped with is one I got for my birthday: Dee Brown's The Fetterman Massacre. Thankyou Dee, once again! :D

Character Profiles

In order to get these guys as in character as possible (or at least to have a relatively consistent character all the way through the story and not suddenly change completely), I've started some character profiles, which are shaping out to be very detailed. However, I guess that's a good thing though with Carrington (who is so far the only one whose profile I've finished) I've found I've repeated pretty much the same things again and again. Still, at least those characteristics are for sure now.
Though I found he was getting more and more interesting, which was a good thing. His character is playing off of Fetterman's more than it originally was and he finds he is nigh on obsessed with him, wondering where he is going, making his decisions wondering what he'll say to them, getting paranoid thoughts that he is only doing what he's doing to get at him... He's also kind of enthralled with him because Carrington has been trying to get men on his side for ages without much success and now Fetterman comes along, upsetting his established secure order, and manages to turn all his men against him in a matter of days.
Other interesting events concerning Fetterman showed up to, but these are in the previous story in this Powder River section (which includes the 1865 invasion, the treaties drawn up, the construction of the forts by Carrington around the Powder River country, the story of Fort Phil Kearny, the massacre <- this story, and the Wagon Box Fight the next year). For instance, I found one that really kickstarted the rift between Fetterman and Carrington - two men of Fetterman's company were fighting in front of the women and other Officers (on a Sunday morning no less before the church service) and when they were put under arrest, Fetterman came out and to defend them, also resorted to violence and swearing. Carrington hurries past at this point with his wife and draws up an order later on that Fetterman merely scoffs at. Looking forward to writing this :D
I've just started writing Fetterman's profile, which will probably match the length of Carrington's maybe even more, but I've got to remember to keep writing the actual story too.
x

Story *Finally* Underway

At last, one day before my 15th birthday, I have started writing Caution To The Winter Wind. And, so far, it's going okay. It's nice to come back to it, after writing a draft a month or so ago, but it's all pretty fresh, with a few sentences and phrases dropped in from the last attempt. The best thing though is to finally get it all down, the characters and events and personalities and so on... At last, it feels like the research is paying off - though I don't mind continuously learning about the American West :)
So far, I've written the first two sections of the first Part (there now being five Parts instead of the previously planned three) and have just started the third section. The dialogue is especially fun to write and hopefully, it's pretty accurate - I've been watching enough Westerns hopefully ^^ Though don't trust some Westerns with accuracy!
It's a very nice birthday present certainly to finally start the writing! I'll post some when the first Part is done, I guess.
Katie x

Research Coming To A Close *At Last*!

Research is finally nearing a close. All the specific notes from the testimonies have been printed and some annotated and at long last, the *hopefully* definite plan is being drawn up! There are still some loose ends of details I need to tie up but on the whole, I'm a lot further than before which I am relieved about!!
I can't wait to start writing. Hopefully, I'll start the first part by my birthday on Thursday.
Katie x

<- Here's quite a cute little map (compared to the almost geometrical maps drawn by others at the time) drawn by Henry Carrington of the area around his fort where the events took place on December 21st. This could have made things a whole lot easier if I had found this before! ^-^

A Note On The Characters: Powell and Ten Eyck

Brevet Major James Powell

One of Carrington's only supporters at the Fort, Powell has the faultiest testimony out of anybody I've researched so far. Carrington's corrections of it are longer than the actual original document, which says it all really.
Basically, he lies straight through it, despite being under oath. Yes, some details may be accurate but most are either only vaguely accurate or just completely made up. For example, he says that he commanded everything back at the Fort when Ten Eyck left to relieve Fetterman (when Carrington was obviously in command) and also, that Carrington continuously asked his opinion on things. A line from Carrington's rebuttal goes something like this: 'Major Powell, omits the fact, that he did nothing of the sort'.
Sums it up really.
A lot of Officers on the Plains did this type of thing - lie to make themselves sound bigger and better - but Powell's lying is incredible, backed up when he makes up the silly excuse as to why there was such a delay between some men sent out to try and get to Fetterman and Ten Eyck going out to relieve him: 'the commanding officer (Ten Eyck) was sitting on the roof of his house, listening to the firing'. What? !
My theory on why he is lying so badly is that he was probably jealous. Because of the fact he was one of Carrington's only supporters, he would have probably been irritated at the dismissive way the others were treating the Colonel but these same guys (who were younger than him) had higher ranks and so on...Also, he was dismissed from commanding the detail that Fetterman would claim command of on the grounds of his rank, and then other detachments later on that day. The result of this, mixed with maybe shame for being discarded from his command (Fetterman even took Powell's own command out) could easily lead to lying.
That or he was trying to make himself sound closer to Carrington than he actually was and was acting rather like a suck up.
Of course, I could be absolutely wrong but that's the story I'm going with. I'm not sure he realised he was doing this - or he was reliable and cautious on the outside (Carrington said this about him after his successful companionship to the wood train on December 19th) and rather scheming and jealous on the inside.
Still, he makes for a fun character to read and write about. In the story, I'll probably have a go at displaying him as quite a lost-in-his-own-world, dreamy kind of guy who is quite jealous and obsessive on the inside. Which he probably wasn't.
However, he could have been because there's no more information on him I can find. Which makes room for fiction. ^^

Captain Tenedor Ten Eyck

The oldest guy in the story and also the holder of the most detailed testimony next to Carrington's lengthy rebuttal of Powell's, Ten Eyck makes for quite a reliable set of details. He says specific times and distances, which is lovely of him as for a while, I was very confused over that (resulting in setting up a makeshift scene of the event to try and work it all out).
The main part he has is going out to the relief of Fetterman as soon as firing is heard from over Lodge Trail Ridge and then ending up retrieving the bodies when he sees what has befallen his comrades. I think, after all they've heard from the fort, going out after Fetterman is a brave thing to do so hats off to this guy and his command.
He also does not initiate any further attack from the Indians, even though they are coaxing him to do so, which again is probably the sensible option considering the sheer size of the Indian bands surrounding the valley.
He returns about sunset with the bodies, just as the wood train this is all over returns from the pinery.

A Note On The Characters: Carrington and Grummond

Colonel Henry B Carrington



Henry Carrington not only has the best middle name I've ever heard (Beebee!), he is also the Commander of the Fort where this whole ordeal started, Fort Phil Kearny, which he also designed and built. And, yes, before it was burnt down by the Sioux in 1867, it was a beautifully designed fort.
Much unlike his young daredevil Officers, Carrington was much more of cautious man, focusing on what needed to be done at the Fort, which was, at the time, the guarding of both the Bozeman Trail and also the wood train which had the task of getting wood from the nearby pinery. He ignored the incessant insults to himself, from people such as Fetterman, and also their desires to go out and fight.
This was the sensible thing to do and was proved when Fetterman and his command were wiped out on 21st of December, victims of disobeying his orders.
However, after these events, Carrington spent the rest of his life trying to justify his actions of that winter.

Lieutenant George Grummond



The third main character who shared the dismissive opinions about Carrington and the determined and impulsive spirit in battle, Grummond is very lucky to be alive on the 21st December after almost getting killed on December 6th after disobeying his orders and excitably running forward, almost straight into the attacking Indians. This means in the story, he's displayed as quite as excitable, wild eyed one. :)
However, he suffers under Fetterman's command on December 21st, killed with the rest of them, though not with the main party of bodies found by Ten Eyck later on that day. He volunteered to lead the cavalry that day and caused me a few bouts of utter confusion by leaving after Fetterman to gather his mounts, which led to a disruption of how I'd originally planned them to meet - in fact, no I didn't even know he went out to begin with. Great amount of research to start with, as you can see :D
Anyway, now, he joins Fetterman and his command at the crossing of the creek and together they disappear over the ridge out of sight of the fort, much to Carrington's chagrin, who ordered them not to go over this ridge.
This results in everybody's death at the hands of thousands of Indians (that had been hiding over this ridge, waiting for the soldiers who had been decoyed on by a small group including Crazy Horse).
Grummond's wife, back at the fort, later went on to marry Carrington, which I think was a bit of a statement, to be honest. What of I'm not sure but considering Grummond's attitudes towards Carrington, it's kinda....ironic I suppose.

A Note On The Characters: Fetterman and Brown

Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William J Fetterman



Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman (just called Captain or Colonel in a lot of the testimonies, which served for a bout of awful confusion) is the main character (or maybe victim or even culprit) of the Fetterman Massacre. I keep it calling it that but it's debated whether it was an actual 'massacre' or not because the soldiers were armed. So...let's call it a more-influence-on-one-side-than-the-other fight ^-^
Anyhoo, Mr William Fetterman was famously arrogant and claimed that ''with 80 men he could ride through the entire Sioux nation''. Tough call, buddy, but that was typical Officer on the Plains talk. He also wasn't the Colonel, Carrington's, biggest fan and at any given moment would mock or insult him, and most of the time not privately. He thought that Carrington was too weak and shared the same opinion that the famous George Custer would have a few years later upon meeting Carrington: He was just a weary man who wasn't as near as courageous as he should have be with fighting Indians and he was way too cautious.
Fetterman was the opposite. He claimed to be brave and very adept, with much experience of fighting and wanted to do everything. Impulsive and spontaneous, he had many of the Officers at the fort on his side, including Captain Brown, the Post Quartermaster, who in the story, is like his scheming best buddy, of which it is conceivable that it could be exaggerated XD. However, it was true that him and Brown went up to see Carrington the night before his ''massacre'' to ask if they could take a small detachment of men to destroy the Sioux village. Again, tough call, but I think this event totally summed up his personality.
However, as well as being egotistic, he was also wrong. He couldn't ride through the entire Sioux nation with 80 men, as was proved on 21st December 1866. Ironically, he did have 80 men that day, which was quite an odd coincidence, and he was completely wiped out, no man escaping alive. The event was almost as notorious as the Little Bighorn in American military terms.
What is also quite interesting about Fetterman though is that, being the headstrong and *determined* guy that he was, he would probably have shared the opinion with a lot of the men that one of the bravest things to do in battle was to stand your ground and fight to the death. I've heard that a heck of lot while reading books about the time of history. However, there is evidence to back up the suggestion that at the ultimate moment, towards the end of the fight, Fetterman and Brown put their pistols to each other's heads and fired. I found this quite uncharacteristic of him, though that's not to say it's not true.
It could have happened differently but that's the account I'm going with for the story.

Post Quartermaster Captain Frederick Brown

The afore mentioned ''scheming best buddy'' of Fetterman (and in fact he was his close friend which was a lucky guess ^^) was also the Post Quartermaster. He shared the same opinion about Carrington and Indians that Fetterman did and quite often expressed a desire to ''bring back Red Cloud's scalp myself''. *You get used to these wild claims after a while of looking at this period of history* !!!!

Like Fetterman also, both were probably rather irritated at the wood train (which was a series of wagons designed to collect supplies from the nearby pinery) and which seemed to be the only thing the soldiers were doing - just protecting it, that is. Being headstrong and impulsive Officers, they would probably have wanted to do much more than this. So it's very much almost a rebellion when they ignore the wood train on the 21st December to follow the Indians.

By the looks of this photo here, he seems quite a bit older than the other younger in-their-20s Officers which suggests experience but he is not like the similar aged (I guess) Carrington. Where Carrington is cautious, Brown is a little reckless and impulsive. This last trait is backed up by the fact that, even though he wasn't assigned to Fetterman's command, he rode out (on Carrington's son's horse, Calico) to join him, even though that resulted in his death. If you take that from friendship's point of view though, that's kinda......Well, I'd say sweet but that'd be a bit patronising. XD

Break Through !

After weeks of fruitlessly looking through testimonies, I finally think a type of break through has been reached. A few days ago I guess, I started writing down about 7 people's accounts of the events following up to and preceding December 21st, 1866, when the Fetterman massacre took place, and finally I'm coming across comparisons.
Some people were detailed and some a bit vague but overall, I think a Lieutenant named Wands and a Captain named Ten Eyck are our best bet to figuring it all out. They seem to have testimonies running parallel with each other, details perfectly matching up in some cases, and are very precise, which is always encouraged.
Other guys, namely a Captain named Powell, are the faultiest pieces of evidence I've come across so far, by a country mile. For example, he says that a relief party went out to relieve Fetterman at 9 o clock in the morning - even with disagreements on the time Fetterman exited the fort, that was way before everybody says he went out. So...
Powell *pushing to the front of the crowd gathered on the parade ground, eyes wide with excitement and pride*: Sir, Sir! I propose we send out a relief party immediately to ride to the aid of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Fetterman! It is essential that we begin this with no time lost!
Fetterman *bemused*: I'm right here, Captain. A relief party for the aid of what?!
Hmm.
Very reliable, Mr Powell.
I know that a lot of Officers in the West at the time liked to make themselves bigger than they actually were but Powell is just incredible. He says he does things that he was nowhere near and, I'm not kidding, he says he was in control of the whole thing when that was glaringly obvious that that was the Colonel, Carrington's, job.
I think that he probably did this out of jealousy. He was one of the only Officers at the fort who liked Carrington and he probably wasn't very partial to how the others were treating the Colonel. Also, he was the one who got taken away from going out to relieve the wood train when Fetterman was placed in command. Interestingly, he doesn't mention this in his testimony, which I'm led to think is because of shame, possibly, and the fact that he is one of the older Officers there and younger Officers have higher ranks than him, and are being invited (OK, volunteering in this case) to do these jobs.
I don't know if he knew he was doing this because I get the impression that he was quite dreamy and lost in his own little perfect world where he was in charge of everything, so in that way, I feel quite sorry for him, but the fact that Carrington has made what seems like a billion corrections to his testimony speaks clearer than day that other people found out what he had said. I'm surprised he wasn't demoted because after all, his testimony was under oath.
Apart from that though (but I have to admit, I love reading Powell's testimony because of the sheer far fetchedness *if that's a word* of it all), I think I'm closer to sorting stuff out, which is a relief in itself.
It's a shame though that there isn't anything from Fetterman, Grummond and Brown - the main characters in this event - because I'd love to hear from them in some way of form.

Caution To The Winter Wind

'Caution To The Winter Wind'.
Though very liable to change, this is the current name for the story about Mr Fetterman and his massacre in 1866. It starts on December 19th and crawls up to after the event on December 21st, in the hope that's it's pretty accurate but not too much just like a historical factual novel. Which is going to probably prove tough after the extensive research.
It's split into three (or four) parts, depending on how carried away I get, and so far, parts of each have been written with a short, un-edited Prologue. All writing is, currently, suspended though in favour to research a bit more before I end up running in pelmel and re-writing everything. Which is what usually happens.
Still haven't learnt though. :D
About the research so far though. After writing notes from a few history books about the overview of the American West and finding out the hard way I need to find more specialised things about the subject, I started to write down questions to answer. These were much about the quota I thought I would have though, relating mainly to times, distances and events, which each testimony, letter and report I've read seems to dispute.
Some, luckily, have so far been answered but with each answered, another unanswered one pops up. Testimonies printed off for annotations are: Major Powell's (who was the man who Mr Fetterman took the place of to relieve the corralled and attacked wood train) and Ten Eyck's (the man who went out to relieve Fetterman's force, too late it appeared afterwards).
Powell's, so far, seems to be awful faulty, with a huge amount of corrections from his senior, the commander of the post, Carrington. He seems to think a big thing of himself, saying that he took the command of a lot of details that he actually didn't, and there are so many corrections that I am doubtful that he's actually telling the truth. Though, I'm not sure who's telling the truth at that Fort. Which is a problem, obviously.
I haven't read through Ten Eyck's yet but, from a quick look over, he seems pretty reliable, because of the fact most of it is from a diary which he would have no reason to lie to.
From the other testimonies I'm going to look through though, I suppose I'm going to have to compare them and write down the comparisons to sift through and find what seems to be vaguely truthful and not. How long that will take I'm not sure.
Also, a diary as some of the main characters (namely Carrington, Fetterman and maybe Powell) could help with personalities, as that will, again, be a problem as we don't really know what they were truly like. Should be fun though trying to give them some type of voice and life.
I may post the Prologue at some point but as with the rest of the story, that's far off.
One thing for sure though, I can't wait to start.
Katie x

Sifting Through and Hoping to Find Something

I don't know how on earth such an idea could quite get this confusing and in depth. Well, actually I do. I guess I should have known too. Starting on the plan - or the mission, it seems to be shaping out to be - to write a series of short stories based on the history of 19th century America, 1860s-1890 was, okay, never going to be a simple thing.
Okay, I knew that. But, being interested - no, obsessed - with the subject I thought it would be a good idea. It is - and I admit, I actually love doing the rather extensive research behind the ''short'' stories (''short'' being said loosely because I never like saying whether a story's going to be short, long, medium, or whatever) - but there sure is a lot of it.
I've written stories before - I love it, even though sometimes (okay, more than ''sometimes'') it drives me to the brink of insanity, and back - but never a real attempt at a historical story. I've read a load of novels and fiction on the topic and I've seen the lists of bibliography and research almost numbering the pages of the actual bulk of the book but that always seemed very, very far out of reach with the amount.
I guess I was wrong.
Though I can't, as of yet, say that I've reached that mammoth amount of research, even for just the first story I've delved into with what feels like my eyes closed, the information is coming in in torrents.
And I've been handed the long job of sifting through it all to find the similarities and differences from the testimonies, the letters, the novels, the reports, the newspapers... Fantastic.
I say that sarcastically but...no. Like I said, it's kind of relaxing almost. If it was on anything other than the history of the American West, I would be tearing my hair out in clumps but this is different.
Though I can't actually wait to start writing once it's all gathered together. Hopefully in one place.
So. The story. Well, the first one I've decided to have a go at is about the massacre at Fort Phil Kearney of Captain Fetterman and his 80 men, 21st December 1866. He was a rather arrogant, daredevil young Officer of the time and along with the Post Quartermaster and the Fort and another similar-minded Officer of Cavalry, Grummond, they were becoming increasingly irritated with the commander of the Fort, a Colonel Henry Carrington. In amongst themselves, they said he was weak and cowardly, having retreated from Indians beforehand, and also accusing him of having no experience of fighting these same Indians.
The Indians (namely the Oglala Sioux around the Fort, located on the Powder River), at that time being led by Young-Man-Afraid of His Horses, knew the Fort's weakness. They continously attacked the wood train leading to the pinery and did their best to cut off the supplies. When it got to winter, their 'campaign' if it could be called that was decided upon and resulted in what is now known as the Fetterman Massacre, via clever decoys tricks and ambushes.
From just the information of a few books by Dee Brown and Stephen Ambrose and a few websites, I started, only to find I didn't know half as much as I thought. Recently, a stalemate has come about and for now, all writing of the story is suspended until I get the research firmly and definitely sorted and accounted for.
How on earth that's going to happen I don't know though.
Well, okay, I've got some sort of idea.
How on earth it got this confusing though, again, I don't know. Probably because I have this obsession with getting everything down to details, to the point where it's annoyingly so.
Many questions still need to be answered, mostly over the tiny little details, but some not quite. Lots of information is disputed by the Officers, the surgeons, the Commanders and so on and via testimonies, reports and letters, like I said, I have to find the contradictions and comparisons.
This blog, though I have to say it probably will be sabotaged by other random ideas and thoughts, is, in theory, meant to keep all this in track, as suggested by my dad, who very luckily helps with a lot of information on the weapons and tactics.
I hope you enjoy your stay here.
Have fun.

Katie x