His orders from Colonel Carrington were specific: relieve the wood train, do not pursue beyond Lodge Trail Ridge.

This order was given because Carrington had read the terrain and understood that the ridge marked the effective limit of the fort’s ability to support its troops.

Beyond it, a command would be on its own.

Why Fetterman crossed the ridge is a question that the survivors of his command, being the few who rode back to the fort with early intelligence rather than following the command to its end, could not definitively answer.

One theory is that he was drawn by the sight of the decoy warriors — a small group making tantalizing targets as they retreated — and assumed that catching them would be easy.