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.

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.

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.

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! ^-^

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.