Fort Custer (Montana)
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Fort Custer was established during the
Indian wars The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, was a conflict initially fought by European colonial empires, the United States, and briefly the Confederate States of America and Republic of Texas agains ...
in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army to subjugate the
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...
,
Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...
and Crow Indians near present-day Hardin, Montana. The post was named for General
George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point ...
who died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.


Construction

In April and May, 1877, three companies (C, F and G) were moved from Cheyenne Agency, and three companies ( A, B and H) from
Fort Yates Fort Yates is a city in Sioux County, North Dakota, United States. It is the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and county seat of Sioux County. Since 1970 the population has declined markedly from more than 1,100 residents, a ...
in the
Standing Rock Agency The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota controls the Standing Rock Reservation (), which straddles the border between North Dakota, North and South Dakota in the United States, and is inhabited by ethnic "Hunkpapa Lakota, Hunkp ...
to the Little Big Horn, Montana, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel G. P. Buell, 11th Infantry, where they constructed the post of Fort Custer. On June 9, 1877, Lieut. Col. Geo. P. Buell and 2 companies Eleventh Infantry (C and F), together with a number of mechanics, arrived, per steamer Florence Meyer, en route to build Post No. 2 on the Bighorn River. The construction of Fort Custer, on the Big Horn, was entrusted to Lieutenant-Colonel G. P. Buell, of the Eleventh Infantry. Colonel Buell, with four companies of his regiment and a large force of mechanics and laborers, left Bismarck by steamers for the site of the post ou the 16th of May. Owing to the wretched character of his boats, and to an accident which happened to one of them, he did not reach his destination until the 23d of June. Subsequently two additional companies of his regiment were sent to him. It had been determined to build this post from material to be found in the country; and as soon as Colonel Buell had put up temporary storehouses to protect his supplies, he commenced cutting logs, baking brick, and sawing lumber. The lumber in this immediate vicinity is cotton wood, and, with the exception of some finishing lumber—pine—sent up from Bismarck, the post was built of this material. The post is intended for the same number and description of troops as Fort Keogh. The buildings are not framed, but they are built up of planks two inches thick by six inches wide, laid flat one upon another, forming a solid wall six inches in thickness. The officers' quarters are of one story and an attic. All other buildings are of one story. The site of the post is on an extensive elevated plateau in the fork of two streams. Colonel Buell was originally instructed to place it on the left bank of the Bighorn, as near to the mouth of the Little Bighorn as the nature of the ground would permit. Immediately after his arrival he made a thorough examination of the whole neighborhood, and became so well satisfied of the superior advantages of the plateau in the fork over any other possible situation, that he selected it as the site. His action in this respect was subsequently fully approved. Many unforeseen obstacles delayed the completion of the post; but its construction is so far advanced, that the garrison, its animals and supplies, will be well sheltered during the winter. Lieutenant-Colonel Buell deserves great credit for the activity, energy, and resource which he has displayed. Fort Custer had quarters for 10 companies including stables for 6 troops of cavalry. It was built with buildings surrounding a large parade ground but had no walls or other fortifications''FORT CUSTER.; REMINISCENCES OF THE EXCITING EVENTS EIGHT YEARS AGO.''
''New York Times'', July 11, 1884.


Naming

Fort Custer was originally called Post No. 2 on the Bighorn River. General Orders, No. 1 Headquarters Big Horn Post, Mont., July 4, 1877. Until the post be named officially, in orders from higher authority, it will be known as Big Horn Post, and the military reservation pertaining to it is hereby declared as 20 miles square, the center of which will be the flag-staff, the sides running north, east, south, and west. Geo. P. Buell, Lieutenant-Colonel Eleventh Infantry, Commanding Post. At the Bighorn Post, Lieutenant General Sheridan and Brigadier General Crook deliberated over the status of the forts and what to name them. In General Sherman's report to
Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
George W. McCrary regarding this matter stated: We have discussed the subject of names for the new post I suggested the names of Custer... I find General
Terry Terry is a unisex diminutive nickname for the given names Teresa or Theresa (feminine) or Terence (given name), Terence, Terrance (masculine). People Male * Terry A. Canales, American politician * Terry A. Doughty (born 1959), American district ...
indisposed thus to Honor Genl. Custer, ...I think General Sheridan agrees with me, still we dislike to act without General Terry's consent. The designation of the post was changed to Fort Custer, pursuant to General Orders, No. 101, Headquarters of the Army, Adjutant General's Office, November 8, 1877.


History

Most of the Native Americans in the vicinity had been confined to reservations, when the fort was built. The Second Cavalry Regimental Headquarters, Band, and Companies C, D, K, and M were stationed at Fort Custer first in November 1877, along with Companies B, C, F, and H of the 11th Infantry. The fort supplied troops for some of the Plains campaigns, including the Bannock War.


Custer battlefield

It was from Fort Custer that Captain George K. Sanderson, Company C, Eleventh Infantry, was sent to the Custer battlefield to police and rebury any exposed remains in April 1879. Then on January 28, 1881, Lieutenant Charles F. Roe and Troop M, Second Cavalry, left Fort Custer for the battle-field on the Little Big Horn River, in charge of the materials for the monument to be erected to the officers and men who fell in that action.


First Cavalry

In 1884 the First Cavalry headquarters and troops D, G, I, K and M, were stationed at Fort Custer replacing the Second Cavalry and joining Companies I and H of the Fifth Infantry and E and K of the Seventeenth Infantry.
Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...
turned to the U.S. Army for help, and in 1886 men from Company M, First United States Cavalry, and Fort Custer,
Montana Territory The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted as the 41st state in the Union as the state of Montana. Original boundaries ...
under Captain Moses Harris came to Yellowstone to begin what would be more than 30 years of military presence in Yellowstone. There was an uprising at the Crow Agency in the fall of 1887, and on the morning of November 4, Colonel Nathan Dudley left Fort Custer with Troops A, B, D, E, G and K, and Company B, 3d Infantry, with a section of Hotchkiss guns, to arrest "Sword Bearer" and the Native Americans who had fired into the agency buildings on the night of September 30. On December 31, 1889 Headquarters and Troops B, D, E, G and M, were at Fort Custer. On April 20, 1892, Headquarters and troops A, B, E, G, K, and M, First Cavalry, Col. A. K. Arnold commanding, left Fort Custer.


Buffalo Soldiers

On May 5, 1892, Headquarters and Troops B, E, G, and K, Tenth Cavalry, Lieut. Col. David Perry commanding, arrived at Fort Custer; Troop A, being dismounted, marched from Custer Station and arrived at post May 8, coming from the Department of Arizona, and took station. The nickname Buffalo Soldier was given to the Black Cavalry by the Native American tribes they fought; the term eventually became synonymous with all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866. Troops A, B, E, and K, Tenth Cavalry and Companies B and D Twenty-fifth Infantry left Fort Custer and were sent to Fort Harrison near Helena''Fort Custer to be Abandoned.''
''New York Times'', November 9, 1897.
when the post closed on April 17, 1898 and the buildings were sold and used to build Hardin, Montana. A
Daughters of the American Revolution The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (often abbreviated as DAR or NSDAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-p ...
marker designates the site, within the boundaries of the Crow Indian Reservation on an abandoned golf course. All that remains are scattered cellars and ground depressions. It is located just off of I-90 (U.S. Hwy 87) south of Hardin, Montana, where the Hwy crosses the Big Horn River. A remnant of the fort can be found in the town of Fort Smith, Montana as a
Bed and breakfast A bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. In addition, a B&B sometimes has the hosts living in the house. ''Bed and breakfast'' is also used to ...
managed by the Crow Indians as well as a replica of the fort at the Bighorn County Historical Museum.


See also

* Department of Dakota Forts * List of military installations in Montana


Notes


References

* Upton, Richard, ''Fort Custer on the Big Horn, 1877-1898: its history and personalities as told and pictured by its contemporaries'', Volume 8 of Frontier military series, A. H. Clark Co., 1973 * Upton, Richard, ''The Indian as a soldier at Fort Custer, Montana, 1890-1895: Lieutenant Samuel C. Robertson's First Cavalry Crow Indian contingent'', Volume 1 of Montana and the West series, Upton and Sons, 1983.


External links


Fort Custer





Fort Custer Military Reservation (historical) USGS Hardin Quad, Montana, Topographic Map





''Census of Fort Custer, Custer County, Montana Territory. Enumerated by A.P.Flanagan on June 11 to 19.1880.''
{{Coord, 45, 43, 37, N, 107, 34, 28, W, display=title Montana Territory Buildings and structures in Big Horn County, Montana Custer 1877 establishments in Montana Territory