The supply trains were substantial operations in themselves — not simple wagon journeys but military convoys with armed escorts, organized carefully to defend against attack.

Despite the escorts, trains were regularly attacked.

Cattle accompanying the trains were driven off.

Teamsters were killed.

The regular disruption of supply operations meant that the garrison at Fort Phil Kearny lived with constant uncertainty about what was coming and when.

The winter was particularly difficult.

The northern Wyoming winters of the 1860s were severe, and the fort burned enormous quantities of firewood simply to stay livable.

The wood had to be cut in the pinery several miles away and hauled back — every wood train a potential target, every wagon load of timber a costly operation in lives and risk.