Wyoming Genealogy

General Crook's Headquarters, Fort Fetterman - Etching from Harper's Weekly, December 16, 1876

History of Fort Fetterman

On July 19, 1867, Fort Fetterman was established at the mouth of the La Prele Creek and was named in honor of brevet Lieut. Col. W. J. Fetterman, captain in the Twenty-fourth Regular Infantry, who was killed near Fort Phil Kearny on December 21, 1866. By 1872 it had been enlarged to a post of four companies and was one of the best equipped military establishments in the state. At that time the nearest Indians were the Ogallala Sioux, 385 lodges; the Cheyenne, 300 lodges; the Arapaho, 150 lodges; and a few straggling bands of other tribes. A small garrison […]

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Plan of Fort Kearney from Indian Fights and Fighters (1904)

History of Fort Philip Kearny

Sheridan County

This is one of two forts established by order of Maj. Gen. John Pope on the Bozeman Road in 1866. Col. H. B. Carrington was commissioned to select the sites and build Forts Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith. The former was staked off on July 15, 1866, and the latter, ninety miles northwest, in Montana, early in August. Fort Phil Kearny was completed on the 21st of October and for several months the posts and the country immediately surrounding it were the scene of several conflicts with the hostile Indians. An account of the massacre of Capt. W. J.

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Buffalo, elk, pronghorn, deer, mountain sheep and wolf skulls and bones at Fort Sanders, 1870

History of Fort Sanders

Albany County

By orders from the war department, Fort Sanders was established on July 10, 1866, three miles south of Laramie City, and was at first known as “Fort John Buford.” On September 5, 1866, the name was changed to Fort Sanders, in honor of W. P. Sanders, captain in the Second United States Cavalry and later a brigadier-general of volunteers. It was established as a protection for the Denver & Salt Lake stage line and the emigrant trains passing over the Oregon Trail. The Union Pacific Railroad was completed to this point late in the spring of 1868, and on June

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History of Fort Reno

Johnson County

On August 11, 1865, when Gen. P. E. Connor reached the Powder River, 23½ miles above the mouth of Crazy Woman Fork, he established there a small post which was named Camp Connor. In the latter part of June, 1866, Col. H. B. Carrington repaired and garrisoned the fort and the name was changed to Fort Reno, in honor of Gen. Isaac Reno, a hero of the Civil war. It was abandoned under an order issued by General Grant on March 2, 1868.

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History of Fort Casper

Natrona County

Early in the year 1865 a military camp was established near the present City of Casper and was known as “Platte Bridge.” Upon the recommendation of Lieut.-Col. W. O. Collins of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, it was changed from a small and occasional troop station to a permanent post. In his official communication, Lieutenant Colonel Collins said: “The permanent cure for the hostilities of the northern Indians is to go into the heart of their buffalo country and build and hold forts until the trouble is over.” On March 28, 1865, the District of the Plains was established by order

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History of Fort Halleck

Carbon County

Fort Halleck, named in honor of Gen. Henry W. Halleck, one of the noted Union .generals in the Civil war, was established on July 20, 1862. It was located near the foot of the Medicine Bow Mountains and was for a time the most important military post in the Rocky Mountain region, being the center of the Indian warfare of that period. In the spring of 1863, when Capt. J. L. Humfreville of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry was in command of the post, the troops worked both east and west from the fort, guarding mail coaches and emigrant trains, and

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History of Fort Walbach

Laramie County

Under an order dated September 20, 1858, Fort Walbach was established on Lodge Pole Creek, near Cheyenne Pass, eighty-five miles southwest of Fort Laramie. It was named in honor of Brig. Gen. John DeB. Walbach, a distinguished soldier of the War of 181 2. As the post was not intended as a permanent institution, only buildings of a temporary nature were constructed. The fort was abandoned on April 19, 1859. The site of this old fort was marked by the Wyoming Daughters of the American Revolution in 1914.

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History of Fort Bridger

Uinta County

Sometime in the year 1842 James Bridger and Benito Vasquez established a trading post on Black’s Fork of the Green River, about thirty miles east of the present city of Evanston and gave it the name of Fort Bridger. Here was made the second permanent settlement in Wyoming. The post was several times attacked by Indians, one of the most disastrous occurring in August, 1843. The fort was surrounded by a number of Shoshone Indian lodges, that tribe being on friendly terms with the old trader and his partner.

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Camp Carlin - Cheyenne Depot, Wyoming 1884

History of Camp Carlin

Laramie County

Shortly after the establishment of Fort Russell and the completion of the railroad across the continent, supplies that were formerly transported by wagon were shipped by rail and it became necessary to establish distributing points for handling army freight. Accordingly a quartermaster’s depot was located at Cheyenne, or more properly, on the Fort Russell reserve about half way between the city and the fort. When first located it was given the name of Camp Carlin, but when enlarged and completed it obtained the official name of “Cheyenne Depot.” The central situation of Cheyenne between Omaha and Salt Lake City and

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History of Fort D. A. Russell

Laramie County

For the protection of the men engaged in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, military camps were established along the line in advance of the working forces. A year before the road was completed to the present site of Cheyenne, Gen. Grenville M. Dodge with his corps of engineers and a company of soldiers, encamped on Crow Creek where Fort Russell is now located. They lived in tents but soon began to erect log cabins. Early in 1867, the Government decided to make Fort Russell a permanent post and erect substantial buildings. The first trip made by John Hunton into Wyoming was when he took a freight train with finishing lumber from Julesburg to be used in the construction of the fort. This was in the spring of 1867, before Cheyenne was on the map. Therefore the origin of Fort Russell antedates Cheyenne.

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