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

~

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.

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! :)

...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.

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

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