Part 4

Under Major Henry’s leadership the Ninth Cavalry made several long forced marches at the height of the troubles and although they did not see action in the battle of Wounded Knee they did fight a skirmish a few days later when, in classic movie style, they arrived on the scene in time to save elements of another regiment which were surrounded and under attack. The Ghost Dance trouble was the last bloody chapter in the wars with the Sioux.

FORT ROBINSON SINCE 1890

After the Battle of Wounded Knee the Ghost Dance trouble ended, and garrison life at Fort Robinson settled back to training, garden tending, and policing the post, with few breaks in the routine.

In 1892 the Ninth Cavalry, accompanied by post scouts Little Bat Garnier, Woman’s Dress, Yankton Charlie, White Antelope, and Joe Mosseau, spent the months from June until October in the field at Camp Bettens, Wyoming.

In 1897 an interesting report on recent minor tactical maneuvers at Fort Robinson was submitted. It described the mounting of Lt. M. A. Batson and two enlisted men on high wheel Columbia bicycles and the results of a rugged test of their ability to keep pace with mounted troops in the field. The bicycle-mounted men had “great difficulty” in keeping up with cavalry in rough terrain but over rolling ground were able to outdistance the horsemen. However, the report concluded that day in and day out the bicycle men would not be able to perform as required. One of the Columbia wheels was wrecked during the test. Lt. Batson later used another of the bicycles to good effect while mapping parts of the military reservation. Despite its humorous aspect, this test foreshadowed the eventual replacement of cavalry by mechanized troops.[39]

The war with Spain brought orders on April 16, 1898 for the Ninth Cavalry to move to Chicamauga Park, Georgia; it later went to Cuba and then on to the Philippine Islands. In a flurry of activity Fort Robinson was stripped, not only of troops, but of artillery and other needed war material, and the garrison was reduced to a minimum.

After the war the Tenth, Eighth, and Twelfth Cavalry regiments, in that order, followed the Ninth as the Fort Robinson garrison. On December 16, 1900, Little Bat Garnier, the post scout who had served the Army so well since 1876, was shot and killed by a barkeeper in Crawford. He was buried in the post cemetery at Fort Robinson.[40]

In 1906 Fort Robinson was once again involved in Indian trouble. Col. J. A. Augur, regimental commander of the Tenth Cavalry, had to order troops from the garrison to take the field when three hundred Ute Indians fled their reservation in an effort to relocate themselves in the Big Horn country of Montana. The Fort Robinson troops intercepted the Ute and escorted them to Fort Meade, South Dakota.

During World War I activity at Fort Robinson was reduced. A Signal Corps Training Center was planned for the Fort, but the war ended before it could be established.

After the war, in 1919, the post became a Quartermaster Remount Depot. It eventually developed into the world’s largest remount station, with thousands of horses and mules. At the Remount Depot horses were received, conditioned, and issued to Army units and civilian breeders. Some breeding of horses was also carried on at the post as a breeder’s demonstration as well as to prove certain stallions. Many famous race horses were at the depot after their racing careers ended and the 1936 U. S. Olympic Equestrian team trained at the Fort Robinson Remount Depot.

Officers of the Remount service belonged to the Soldier Creek Hunt Club and hunted coyotes with their pack of Welch, English and French stag hounds. The men of the post during this period were proud of their extensive swine and dairy herds and flocks of poultry maintained to add variety to their regular rations, just as the troops of the garrison during the Indian wars raised much of their own food.

The Fourth Field Artillery battalion joined the Remount Service at Fort Robinson from 1928 until 1932. The artillery men made extensive tests of pack artillery organization and equipment such as the Phillips pack saddle. One such test was a five hundred mile march to the Black Hills and return, during which they hauled a mountain howitzer to the top of Harney Peak.

In World War II Fort Robinson’s remount activities were continued and expanded, and thousands of horses and mules were conditioned for military service. The post made other contributions to the war effort as well. The Fort Robinson War Dog Reception and Training Center was activated on October 3, 1942, and on March 15, 1943 a Prisoner of War Camp was added.

There were kennels for 2,000 dogs and over 6,000 canine patients were treated in the special dog hospital before the installation was closed in September 1946. War dogs were trained for several types of duty, including sentry, trail, tactical, sledge, pack and hospital service. The internment camp had space for 3,000 German prisoners of war. Only one prisoner escaped from the camp, and he was recaptured in York, Nebraska.

BUILDING FORT ROBINSON

Several building periods can be identified in the development of Fort Robinson. The following description of the old post was written when it was under construction in 1874.

The camp is 160 yards square. Officers’ quarters are on the north, infantry barracks on the east and west and cavalry barracks, guard house and storehouse on the south sides. The barracks are built of logs, in panels of 15 feet each. For the infantry they are two in number, each 150 by 24 feet by 9 feet high to the eaves, divided in the center to accommodate two companies. They have a shed extension at the rear, 12 feet wide, the length of the building, partitioned off for mess-rooms, kitchens and wash rooms. The cavalry barrack is built in the same way, but only 90 feet long, for the accommodation of one company with mess-room and kitchen like the others. These buildings are unceiled, have shingle roofs, log walls, window sashes and are floored. One building 142 by 24 feet, 8¼ feet to eaves, and from eaves to ridge 7½ feet, is built of logs, with shingle roof, and divided into twelve sets of two rooms each, and occupied as quarters for married soldiers and laundresses.

The officer’s quarters are to be all alike, six sets being authorized each 38 feet long by 32 feet wide and 10 feet high, one for the commanding officer and five for company officers. They have stone foundations,[41] walls of adobe [bricks] and are to be ceiled by boards and plastered. In each building there are to be four rooms, 15 feet square, with a central hall, four feet wide. The dining rooms and kitchens in the rear are to be made of lumber.[42]

The warehouses, stables, and other buildings of the early post were constructed of logs, log slabs, or boards. The first post hospital, a log building, was not completed until November 1875, tents and dugouts being used to house the sick and the post surgeon until that time. In addition to the military buildings there was a post trader’s residence and store-saloon, and next to it a small log building housing a photographer’s studio.

The beginning of the new decade in the 1880’s saw some expansion of the post with the construction of another log barracks, an adobe barracks for the band, and a residence for the band leader. The replacement of the log hospital by a concrete structure and other additions were all made before 1886. In 1887 expansion of Fort Robinson, connected with projected reduction of Fort Laramie, took place on a newly established parade ground, northwest of the original one, along the north side of which was constructed a series of duplex adobe brick officers’ quarters, six in number. On the opposite side, adobe brick barracks were built, and beyond them new frame cavalry stables. The post commander, Col. Edward Hatch, wanted to use fired brick for the new quarters but was overruled despite the equality of cost and the superior quality of fired brick. Only a year later a forty hour storm caused the unprotected walls of some of the adobe houses to collapse. However, once repaired, they proved durable and are still in use today.

In the early 1890’s Fort Robinson was further expanded with the construction of additional officers’ quarters in 1891, and the following year more storehouses and a much needed replacement for the old guardhouse were added. New gun sheds, quartermaster stables, wheelwright and blacksmith shops also were built in the 1890’s.

During this period there were so many families of Ninth Cavalrymen at the post that the old log barracks buildings as well as the original laundresses’ quarters were being used as dwellings for enlisted men’s families. Some new quarters for noncommissioned officers’ families were also in use by this time, and the original 1874 officers’ adobes eventually became noncom headquarters.

Construction and improvement continued in the early 1900’s with the 1904 addition of a post gymnasium, and in 1905 a frame headquarters building was built. Today the headquarters structure is the Fort Robinson Museum, a branch of the Nebraska State Historical Society.

In 1901 a brick hospital building was erected, and the old concrete structure became the Post Exchange. Before the hospital was even completed the surgeon asked for an additional wing, which was immediately added, as well as a large annex at the rear to accommodate the increasing garrison. Brick buildings built in 1906-1912 included stables, stable guard quarters, blacksmith shops, fire station, bakery, company barracks buildings, bachelor officers’ quarters and officers’ residences. At one time an elaborate plan to convert the entire post to the new brick style was drawn up but was never carried out. Needless to say, along with construction came the destruction of old and outmoded buildings which were replaced. The only remnants of the original post of the 1870’s standing today are the six adobe officers’ quarters.

In 1927 the Remount Service began new major construction, building several elaborate horse stables. All buildings were repaired and several recreational facilities were built by the CCC during the 1930’s. Expansion during World War II included a large number of temporary buildings for use by the War Dog Training Center and the Prisoner of War Camp.

The temporary buildings were sold as surplus and removed after the war, and more unused residences and other buildings were torn down in 1956. There remains today an example of each major building period at the post, although some types of structures and materials used are no longer to be seen.

FORT ROBINSON TODAY

World War II marked the end of extensive use of horses in military service. Fort Robinson was declared surplus by the War Department and turned over to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. On April 29, 1949, the Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S.D.A., in co-operation with the University of Nebraska, established the Fort Robinson Beef Cattle Research Station. Major research emphasis was on beef breeding investigations before this service was phased out and moved to Clay Center, Nebraska, toward the end of 1971.

The US. Department of Agriculture operated a Soil Conservation Service Training Center at Fort Robinson from October, 1954, until January 6, 1964. Men from the great plains states and foreign countries were trained at the center located in Comanche Hall, the former Bachelor Officers’ Quarters.

Today Fort Robinson is operated under a cooperative agreement between state agencies. The University of Nebraska Department of Geology and State Museum have used the post as a base for paleontological field parties, and the Museum operates a branch, the Trailside Museum, at Fort Robinson.

The Nebraska State Game and Parks Commission has operated the Fort Robinson State Park facilities since 1956 with emphasis on recreation. The majority of the buildings and most of the land is devoted to this purpose. Some of the special buildings or areas are the lodge, restaurant, campgrounds, and tourist cabins. Under construction by the commission in 1978 is a swimming pool. A conference center and golf course are projected by the commission for the future.

Beginning in 1967, Chadron State College converted the 1892 Quartermaster Stores Building into the Post Playhouse. The college also produced pageants based on Fort Robinson historical events.

Since the opening of the Fort Robinson Branch Museum of the Nebraska State Historical Society on June 3, 1956, the Society has carried out a number of projects to preserve and interpret the history of the historic post. Starting in 1958 the Society restored the Blacksmith and Harness Repair shops. In 1966 archeological excavations began at the site of the Guardhouse, Adjutant’s Office and Cavalry Barracks, all dating from 1874. The remains of the 1884 Guardhouse were also uncovered.

These excavations provided information for the reconstruction of the 1874 Guardhouse and Adjutant’s Office. The 1884 Wheelwright Shop, the oldest wooden structure on the post, has also been restored. Restoration work has also been carried out on the 1909 Veterinarian Hospital Building and an 1887 Adobe Officers’ Quarters and the 1905 Post Headquarters, which is utilized as a museum. The Post Cemetery, the 1895 Granary, and the 1886 Bandleader’s Quarters are also in the process of restoration. Earlier the Society had carried out limited archeological investigation at the site of the Red Cloud Agency.

Today the staff of the Fort Robinson Museum provides guided tours to historically significant areas of the post and, as part of the interpretive program, presents evening programs during the tourist season. The Society has also undertaken a program of historic markers at Fort Robinson and Red Cloud Agency, which have been designated a Registered National Historic Landmark. Much of the restoration work has been funded in part by grants from the National Park Service.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Listed below are the sources found most useful in preparing this account.

Books

Bourke, John G. _On the Border with Crook._ London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1892.

Brady, Cyrus T. _Indian Fights and Fighters._ Garden City: Doubleday, Page and Co., 1913.

Bronson, Edgar B. _Reminiscences of a Ranchman._ New York: McClure Co., 1908.

Bruce, Robert. _The Fighting Norths and Pawnee Scouts._ Privately printed, c. 1932.

Carter, William H. _The History of Fort Robinson._ Crawford, Nebr.: Northwest Nebraska News, 1942.

Clark, William P. _The Indian Sign Language._ Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersly, 1885.

DeBarthe, Joseph. _The Life and Adventures of Frank Grouard._ St. Joseph, Mo.: Combe Printing Co., c. 1894.

Flannery, L. G. (ed.) _Volume I, John Hunton’s Diary, 1873-75._ Lingle, Wyo.: Guide-Review, c. 1956.

Forrest, Earle R. and Milner, Joe E. _California Joe._ Caldwell, I.: Caxton Printers, 1935.

Grinnell, George Bird. _The Fighting Cheyennes._ New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1915.

——. _Two Great Scouts and Their Pawnee Battalion._ Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1928.

Hafen, Leroy R. and Young, Francis M. _Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West, 1834-1890._ Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark Co., 1938.

Hyde, George E. _Red Cloud’s Folk, A History of the Oglala Sioux Indians._ Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1937.

Lawson, Laurin L. _Souvenir History of Fort Robinson._ Crawford, Nebr.: Northwest Nebraska News, 1930.

McGillycuddy, Julia Blanchard. _McGillicuddy Agent, A Biography of Dr. Valentine T. McGillicuddy._ Stanford University, Calif: Stanford University Press, c. 1941.

Mills, Anson. _My Story._ Washington, D. C.: Published by the author, 1918.

Sandoz, Mari. _Cheyenne Autumn._ New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., c. 1953.

——. _Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Oglalas._ New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942.

——. _Old Jules._ Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1935.

Schmitt, Martin F. (ed.) _General George Crook, His Autobiography._ Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946.

Periodicals and Newspapers

_Nebraska History, a Quarterly Magazine._ Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1918——.

Allen, Charles W., “Red Cloud and the U. S. Flag,” XXII, No. 1 (January-March, 1941), 77-88.

Brininstool, E . A., _et al._ “Chief Crazy Horse, His Career and Death,” XII, No. 1 (January-March, 1929), 4-78.

Burns, Robert H. “The Newman Ranches, Pioneer Cattle Ranches of the West,” XXXIV, No. 1 (March, 1953), 21-32.

Cook, James H. “Early Days in Ogallala,” XIV, No. 2 (April-June, 1933), 86-99.

Mahnken, Norbert R. “The Sidney-Black Hills Trail,” XXX, No. 3 (September, 1948), 203-225.

Mattison, Ray H. “The Army Post on the Northern Plains, 1865-1885,” XXXV, No. 1 (March, 1954), 17-43.

——. “The Indian Reservation System on the Upper Missouri, 1865-1890,” XXXVI, No. 3 (September, 1955), 141-172.

Unthank, O. B. “Red Cloud Agency and Fort Laramie, 1867-1874,” VII, No. 1 (January-March, 1924), 27-29.

Wight, Willard E. (ed.) “A Young Medical Officer’s Letters From Fort Robinson and Fort Leavenworth, 1906-1907,” XXXVII, No. 2 (June, 1956), 135-147.

Wilson, Everett P. “The Story of the Oglala and Brule Sioux in the Pine Ridge Country of Northwest Nebraska in the Middle Seventies,” XXII, No. 1 (January-March, 1941), 15-32.

Bourke, John G. “Mackenzie’s Last Fight with the Cheyennes,” _Journal of the Military Service Institution_, XI, No. 42 (January, 1890), 29-49; No. 43 (March, 1890), 198-221.

_Northwest Nebraska News_ (Crawford, Nebr.), June 18, 1936.

_Omaha Weekly Bee_ (Omaha, Nebr.), 1874-1878.

Documents

Baker, Marvel L., Johnson, Leslie E., and Davis, Russell L., “Beef Cattle Research at Fort Robinson,” University of Nebraska College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station, _Miscellaneous Publication_ No. 1, April, 1952.

Brackett, Albert G., “The Sioux or Dakota Indians,” Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1877, _Senate Miscellaneous Documents_, No. 46, 44th Congress, 2d. Session.

Report of the Secretary of War (1875), _House Executive Documents_, No. 1, Part 2, 44th Congress, 1st Session.

Report of the Secretary of War for 1879, _House Executive Documents_, No. 1, Part 2, 46th Congress, 2d. Session.

Reports on Indian Arms, _Annual Report of the Chief of Ordnance for 1879_, Appendix V. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1879.

U. S. National Archives, Microfilm, Nebraska State Historical Society

U. S. War Department

Camp Sheridan, Nebraska:

Orders, 1874-1881

Letters Sent, 1874-1875

Letters Received, 1874

Medical History of Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, 1874-1881

Post Returns, Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, January 1876-April 1881

Fort Robinson:

Selected Letters Sent, 1884-1900, Record Group 98

Selected Post Orders, 1874-1897, Record Group 98

Selected Documents from Medical History of Post, Record Group 98

Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Document File 563-AGO-1874, Record Group 94

Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Document File 4163 (Sioux War)—1876, Record Group 94

Records of U. S. Army Commands, Selected Documents, Sioux Expedition, 1874, Record Group 98

Bureau of Indian Affairs:

Letters Received, Red Cloud Agency, 1871-1880, Record Group 75

Selected Documents, Letters Received, Spotted Tail Agency 1875-1880. Letters Sent, Spotted Tail Agency, 1865-1881, Record Group 75

Manuscripts

Eli S. Ricker Collection: Interviews, Statements, Letters, Notes, Mss., Nebraska State Historical Society

Notebook kept by Dr. V. T. McGillycuddy, M.D., while a member of the Yellowstone and Big Horn Expedition May 26 to December 13, 1876 and notes kept by his wife Fanny at Camp Robinson December 13, 1876-February 22, 1877 and with the army on an expedition to the Black Hills, February 23-April 11, 1877, typed copy, Nebraska State Historical Society.

FOOTNOTES

[1]Lt. Gen. P. H. Sheridan to Gen. W. T. Sherman, March 3, 1874, Office of the Adjutant General, Records of the War Department, Document File 563-AGO-1874 (National Archives and Record Service, Record Group 94, Ms., microfilm). Hereafter these documents will be cited as NARS, RG 94.

[2]Located in Wyoming on the Platte River just west of the Nebraska line near the present town of Henry, Nebraska.

[3]During the buffalo hunt the Sioux discovered and defeated a hunting party of their traditional Pawnee enemies on August 5, 1873. The site of the Battle of Massacre Canyon is near the present town of Trenton, Nebraska.

[4]Sitting Bull of the South (or Sitting Bull the Oglala), head soldier of the Kiyuksa Oglala band, is not to be confused with the Sitting Bull (the Hunkpapa) of Custer Battle fame.

[5]Man Afraid of His Horses (the elder) led the Hunkpatila band. Both he and his son were prominent in affairs at Red Cloud Agency. For a detailed discussion of the position of these and other Indian leaders, see George E. Hyde, _Red Cloud’s Folk_ (Norman, Okla., 1937).

[6]J. J. Saville to Gen. J. E. Smith, February 9, 1874, NARS, RG 94.

[7]_Omaha Weekly Bee_, February 18, 1874.

[8]S. V. Benet, Acting Chief of Ordnance, to Adjutant General, U. S. Army, February 16, 1874, NARS, RG 94.

[9]Companies B and G, Third Cavalry and Companies A, C, E, I, M and K, Second Cavalry, made up the cavalry battalion. Companies B, C, F, H, and K, Eighth Infantry, Companies B and K, Thirteenth Infantry, and Company F, Fourteenth Infantry, composed the infantry battalion.

[10]As a result the expedition returned via a different route. Later the road between Fort Laramie and Red Cloud Agency was partially relocated and necessary bridges built.

[11]Camp Robinson: Company G, Third Cavalry; Company H, Eighth Infantry; Company F, Fourteenth Infantry; Companies B and K, Thirteenth Infantry.

[12]Band chiefs and “soldiers” (camp police) had authority only in their own camp. The four men selected to have supreme authority during the annual tribal encampment were not chiefs but prominent warriors. For a discussion of some of the differences in authority between chiefs and prominent warriors, see Hyde, _op. cit._, pp. 308-315.

[13]Lt. Gen. P. H. Sheridan to Gen. W. T. Sherman, March 3, 1874, NARS, RG 94.

[14]“Record of the Medical History of Post [Fort Robinson], Medical Department, U. S. Army” (Ms. copy), Tablet No. 31, Ricker Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society.

[15]Hyde, _op. cit._, pp. 221, 222; J. J. Saville to Hon. E. P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, October 24, 1874 and Capt. W. H. Jordan to Gen. George D. Ruggles, October 29, 1874, NARS, RG 94.

[16]General Orders No. 13, February 21, 1876, Fort Robinson, Nebraska Selected Post Orders, 1874-97, U. S. Army Commands, Records of the War Department, NARS, RG 98.

[17]About eight hundred more Sioux were hunting south of the Platte River.

[18]Capt. H. M. Lazelle to Gen. John E. Smith, April 6, 1874, NARS, RG 94.

[19]A. G. Brackett, “The Sioux or Dakota Indians,” Smithsonian Institution, _Annual Report_, 1876, pp. 466-474.

[20]Interview by Judge E. S. Ricker with George Colhoff, Tablet No. 17, Ms, Ricker Collection, Nebraska State Historical Society.

[21]The names of Camp Robinson and Red Cloud Agency, and Camp Sheridan and Spotted Tail Agency were frequently employed as synonyms because of the proximity of the military posts to the respective agencies; hence a group surrendering at Red Cloud Agency could also be spoken of as surrendering at Camp Robinson.