Wrangell Bombardment

Wrangell Bombardment
	; View of Fort Wrangell under construction in background, Stikine in foreground, 1868
Date	December 25–29, 1869
Location	Wrangell, Alaska56°23′06″N 132°05′11″W / 56.38500°N 132.08639°W
Result	Stikine surrender of murderer to the U.S. Army, court martial, and execution
Belligerents
United States Army;	Stikine people
Commanders and leaders
First Lieutenant William Borrowe; First Lieutenant Melville R. Loucks;	Chief Shakes;
Units involved
Detachment from Battery I, 2nd Regiment of Artillery	Irregular force of Stikine villagers, armed with muskets, spears, pistols.
Strength
26 soldiers, log wall fort, 12-pounder mountain howitzer, 6-pounder cannon	508 villagers
Casualties and losses
Leon Smith killed; Civilian woman, finger bitten off;	1 killed by gunfire, 1 executed; 1 severely wounded (possibly died of his wounds later); Artillery bombardment casualties uncertain;
	Wrangell, Alaska Location within Alaska

The Wrangell Bombardment was the bombardment of the Stikine village of Old Wrangell (Tlingit: Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw) by the United States Army in 1869. The army issued an ultimatum to the villagers, demanding they deliver a Stikine named Scutd-doo to justice following the retribution murder of Leon Smith by Scutd-doo. Scutd-doo's son, Lowan, had earlier been killed by soldiers following an altercation in which he bit off a finger of the wife of the quartermaster of Fort Wrangell.

Following a two-day bombardment of the village and return musket fire by Stikine skirmishers, Scutd-doo was handed over to the army, court-martialed, and in the first application of the death penalty in Alaska under U.S. rule, was hanged before the garrison and Stikine villagers.