The most significant battle during Red Cloud's…

The most significant battle during Red Cloud's War is the Fetterman Fight, also known as Battle of The Hundred in the Hands.

Young eager warriors from the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes have formed war parties who attack woodcutting parties near the forts as well as freight trains to cut their supplies.

Crazy Horse from the Oglala, Gall from the Hunkpapas and Hump from the Miniconjous are the best known ones among them.

On December 21, 1866, natives fire on woodcutters working near Fort Phil Kearny.

The relief party is commanded by Captain William J. Fetterman, who leads a force of sevent-nine soldiers and two civilians after a group of ten native decoys planning on luring Fetterman's forces into an ambush.

The ten decoys consist of two Arapaho, two Cheyenne, and six Lakota.

Fetterman is well known for his boastful nature and his inexperience fighting native warriors and, despite orders to not pursue the decoys, does so anyway.

After about a half mile pursuit the decoys signal the hidden warriors to ambush Fetterman and his forces.

Warriors from both sides of the trail charge Fetterman and force them into nearby rocks, where the battle soon becomes hand-to-hand combat, giving the natives the upper hand due to their skill in fighting with hand held weapons such as tomahawks and war-clubs.

The native forces killed all of Fetterman's infantry as well as the following cavalry with a total of eighty-one killed.

The battle is the greatest military defeat by the U.S. on the Great Plains until the Battle of the Little Bighorn ten years later.

Due to the high casualties on the American side, the natives have called the fight the "Battle of the Hundred Slain" ever since; among the Whites, it is called the "Fetterman Massacre".