Fetterman Trooper Found Last Stand Hill
By John Doerner, Park Historian LBH
Photos provided by Little Bighorn Battlefield
National Monument
Webmaster's
Note: The NPS with
assistance from Friends of the LBH reburied these remains in the
Custer National Cemetery on the afternoon of June 25, 2004.
Read about it.
On July 17, 2002 during construction for the new Indian Memorial traffic
islands on Last Stand Hill, workers uncovered several fragments of what
appeared to be human bones. Construction work at the site was halted
immediately and the Chief Historian was notified. The remains were unearthed
in a previously disturbed area of the Last Stand Hill parking lot, and
roadway during mechanical excavation for a traffic island barrier at
approximately three feet below ground level. Also uncovered were pine wood
fragments (remnants of a coffin), 19th century square nail, and clay brick
(probably used as a base for placement of a government headstone). The
artifacts were discovered by the contractor after soil was removed
mechanically and scattered within an approximately 30* x 6* area of the
traffic island.
Dr. Stan Wilmoth, Ph.D., Archeologist, Montana State Historic
Preservation Office in Helena, Montana was notified, along with the NPS,
Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska. The NPS also notified
various tribal governments, and Sonny Reisch, Superintendent at Fort Phil
Kearny State Historic Site, Story, Wyoming. Steve DeVore, Archeologist from
the NPS, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebraska arrived Saturday
afternoon (July 20th) and surveyed the site with a metal detector, locating
two additional square nails. The human remains consisted of an Ulna (lower
arm bone) approximately six inches in length, and several other smaller arm
bone fragments On Monday July 22 he excavated the fill from the excavation,
which measured 1.44 meters long (east-west) and 0.86 meters wide
(north-south). Steve uncovered an additional clay brick on the north wall of
the excavation, and brick and wood fragments. Several more small bone
fragments were unearthed during the investigation that concluded that
Monday.
Fetterman graves on Last Stand Hill. Photo courtesy of
Friend's member, James Brust
Parking island near where the missing trooper was
found. Photo shows similar vantage point as Brust's photo.
Photo courtesy
of Friends' member, Richard Upton
Based on the discovery site, and historical archeological evidence, it was
concluded that the remains and artifacts uncovered were indeed from the
original October, 1888 War Department burials from the abandoned military
cemetery at Ft. Phil Kearny, and not associated with casualties from the
Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. George S. Young , then stationed at nearby
Fort McKinney, Wyoming supervised the reburial work using 112 coffins that
were approximately 10 x 12 x 24 at a cost of $1.00 each.
The interments (which included Capt. William Fetterman and casualties from
the famous December 21, 1866 Fetterman Fight) were taken up at old Ft. Phil
Kearny, Wyoming and taken by wagon under escort of Captain J.M.J. Sanno, and
Company K, 7th Infantry, and reinterred south of the 7th Cavalry Memorial on
Last Stand Hill. They were eventually removed and reinterred in Section B,
Custer National Cemetery in approximately 1930. The wood fragments and
square nails are believed to be remnants of the original pine coffins used
in 1888, and which probably had deteriorated and spilled open the remains
and wood fragments back into the grave during the 1930 reburial. The clay
brick is of the same type used by the War Department in the 19th century to
set government headstones.
Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne casualties were removed from the field
immediately after the battle by families and buried in tipis, scaffolds, or
rock crevices in the Little Bighorn Valley. No Seventh Cavalry or attached
personnel casualties are documented to have been found or interred at the
discovery site. In July 1881, the 7th Cavalry casualties remaining on the
field were collected from their original casualty sites and reinterred in a
mass grave around the base of the Seventh Cavalry Memorial, which was also
erected at that time.
It is believed that DNA analysis of the bone fragments will probably not
yield any useful information at this time, without comparative DNA from the
descendents of soldiers from the Ft. Phil Kearny burials (many of whom
are unknown). The remains will eventually be reunited with the Fort Phil
Kearny interments during a reburial with full military honors in Custer
National Cemetery, according to Superintendent Darrell J. Cook. The
artifacts recovered will be curated at Little Bighorn Battlefield.
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