When we start exploring a new area, I like to have a bird’s eye view of what we’ll be seeing. In this post we’ll be looking primarily at Fort Union Trading Post and Fort Buford military post that were both close to the spot where the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers meet. We’ll also learn about how much we owe the buffalo soldiers and how Labor Day got started.
The headwaters of the Yellowstone River is close to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and it’s the longest free-flowing river in the lower 48 states. It flows diagonally through Montana to where it meets up with the Missouri River, eventually meeting up with the Mississippi River that flows south to the Gulf Coast.
To give you an idea of how life changed in this area over the years, here’s a timeline I found in the National Park Service’s brochure on Fort Union Trading Post (which has been reconstructed but wasn’t open for visiting).
- 1000 – 1800: Plains Indians of different tribes and languages came together to trade food, products, and ideas.
- 1805: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers on their way to the Pacific.
- 1828: John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Co. founded Fort Union, and Kenneth McKenzie oversaw its construction
- 1832: Steamboat Yellow Stone reached Fort Union from St. Louis, 1800 miles away.
- 1834: Astor retired from fur trade and sold his company.
- 1837: A smallpox epidemic on the upper Missouri River killed thousands of Indians.
- 1851: The Northern Plains Indians and the U.S. government signed the first Treaty of Fort Laramie, establishing a brief period of peace.
- 1856: Another smallpox epidemic killed more Indians on the Upper Missouri. The Sioux tribe made the first of several raids against Fort Union.
- 1862 – 1863: Sioux uprising spilled out onto the Dakota plains, probably because a discovery of gold in Idaho and Montana sparked a rush of prospectors.
- 1864: A contingent of soldiers arrived at the fort to guard supplies for Brig. Gen. Sully’s campaign against the Sioux.
- 1865: The owners of Fort Union sold it to the Northwestern Fur Company.
- 1867: The U.S. government bought Fort Union from the fur company and dismantled it to build Fort Buford, 2 miles away.
Union Fort was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri River for 39 years (1828 – 1867), longer than any other post on the frontier. During its time, it was the center of peaceful economic and social exchange between the Plains Indians and those coming from the eastern U.S., Canada, and Europe.
We found it interesting that the locations for fur trading posts were called forts. My only guess is that it’s because of the stockade that surrounds it. From what we read, the relations with the local tribes was friendly and beneficial so protection wasn’t really needed.
While we weren’t able to visit the Fort Union location, I did find this picture of its reconstructed look from a brochure:
The main area for trading was the building just to the left of the main entrance at the bottom of the picture. The large building at the back of the fort was the home of the field agent (the bourgeois) and the chief clerk. Along with the traders and skilled laborers, they ate lunch together in a central dining room.
The walls going east to west were 240 feet long, while the walls going north to south were 200 feet; the height of the walls was 18 feet. While portholes for cannon and small arms were built into the walls, they seldom, if ever, were used to defend the fort.
Since we’re talking about fur trading, let’s review some of the information we saw in part 2 at the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown.
With the loss of the buffalo, which angered the Natives who depended on them, the land was starting to be taken over by the Euro-Americans who wanted to farm the land (remember previous posts?). Military posts started being built throughout the area as we saw in part 16 of this trip, to protect the railroad and those moving here from the east.
Fort Buford
Fort Buford’s real claim-to-fame is that it’s where Sitting Bull formally surrendered his rifle when he returned to the United States from Canada on July 19, 1881.
The battle of Little Bighorn, when Sitting Bull defeated General Custer’s troops, was in June 1876. After the battle, the military pursued the Cheyenne and Sioux to Canada where they lived until Sitting Bull ended his exile 5 years later.
If you want to read more about the military forts in the last half of the 1800s, part 16 of our North Dakota trip has some great information. Many of these soldiers were transported here by the railroad. The first railroad line came here in 1871, and railroads kept expanding throughout the 1870s. The whole story of the railroads coming to the Dakota Territory is one I’d like to look at—but not in this post. It’s already too long.
growth of Fort Buford
Over the winter of 1866 – 1867, the garrison (another word for a military post) was repeatedly harassed by tribal warriors (such as Sitting Bull) who were angered by the military fort being built on their homelands. Starting in the spring, additional troops came to strengthen the garrison. Over the next 10 years, Fort Buford was expanded twice to eventually house 6 companies of soldiers (typically a company has 80-250 soldiers).
Since the size of a company varied so much, I found a site online that showed the breakdown of cavalry troop in 1876 for the Battle of Little Bighorn: 1 Captain (Commander), 1 1st Lieutenant, 1 2nd Lieutenant, 1 1st Sergeant, 5 Line Sergeants, 1 Saddler (takes care of equipment for horses), 1 Farrier (takes care of horses hooves), 1 Blacksmith, and 78 Privates for a total of 100. Barney said these numbers were pretty to close to a Marine Corps’ rifle company today.
Fort Buford played a role in campaigns against non-reservation Indians in the mid-1870s. The fort’s surgeon, Major George Lord, was among those who died with General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
But not all of the Native tribes were upset with the military being sent here. Hidatsa’s chief and rebel, Crow Flies High, and his followers built a new village just 2 miles from Fort Buford. It seems that they felt their village was safer from attacks by the Sioux if they built it close to a military fort.
In its later years, Fort Buford’s soldiers added such specific tasks to their duties as guarding railroad construction crews, constructing telegraph lines, and guarding railroad property during the Pullman Strike of 1894. After almost 3 decades of service, the fort was officially abandoned on October 1, 1895.
The Pullman Strike? What was that all about? So interesting.
Pullman Strike
Here are the highlights of this strike that I found on Wikipedia and other sites. George Pullman, an American engineer and industrialist, began building a new line of luxury railroad cars in 1864 that featured comfortable seating, restaurants, and improved sleeping accommodations known as Pullman cars. In a clever financial move, he leased these cars to the railroad companies instead of selling them.
“In 1867 Pullman introduced his first ‘hotel on wheels,’ the President, a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day and the service was impeccable. A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico, the world’s first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York’s famed Delmonico’s Restaurant.”
Most of the factory workers who built Pullman cars lived in the “company town” of Pullman on the south side of Chicago. Mr. Pullman designed it purposely as a model community with a diverse work force, especially African-Americans. The company town of 1300 original structures included housing, shopping areas, churches, theaters, parks, a hotel and a library for his factory employees. Mr. Pullman believed that the country air and fine facilities, without agitators, saloons and city vice districts, would result in a happy, loyal workforce. According to mortality statistics, it was one of the most healthful places in the world.
“Pullman believed that if his sleeper cars were to be successful, he needed to provide a wide variety of services to travelers: collecting tickets, selling berths, dispatching wires, fetching sandwiches, mending torn trousers, converting day coaches into sleepers, etc. Pullman believed that former house slaves of the plantation South had the right combination of training to serve the businessmen who would patronize his “Palace Cars.” Pullman became the biggest single employer of African Americans in post-Civil War America.”
Mr. Pullman used ads and other campaigns to help bring workers into his company.
So far, so good.
But Mr. Pullman ruled the town like a feudal baron. He prohibited independent newspapers, public speeches, town meetings, or open discussion. His inspectors regularly entered homes to inspect for cleanliness and could terminate workers’ leases on 10 days’ notice. The church stood empty since no approved denomination would pay rent, and no other congregation was allowed. He prohibited private charitable organizations.
A severe recession in 1893 meant that the demand for new passenger cars plummeted, dropping the company’s revenue. The Pullman Company fired more than 1/3 of its workforce and reduced hours and wages for more than 25% of the remaining hourly employees.
A delegation of workers complained that while wages had been cut, their rent at their company housing or other costs in the company town hadn’t been lowered. Mr. Pullman, refused to lower rents or go to arbitration. (If only he had tried helping his workers during a hard time.) The workers called for a strike because of the absence of democracy within the town of Pullman and its politics, the rigid paternalistic control of the workers by the company, excessive water and gas rates, and a refusal by the company to allow workers to buy and own houses.
Eugene Debs founded a union for these unskilled workers in 1893. Some Pullman employees who worked on the trains, conductors and porters, didn’t join in. With outside organizers helping him, Mr. Debs signed up many of the factory workers and decided to get his point across by stopping the movement of Pullman cars on railroads all over the nation from May to July 1894. At its peak, the strike involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states, and it severely disrupted rail traffic.
The federal government obtained an injunction against the union, Mr. Debs, and other boycott leaders, ordering them not to interfere with trains carrying mail cars. After the strikers refused, President Grover Cleveland ordered the Army to stop the strikers from obstructing the trains. (Hence the soldiers protecting the railroad lines around Fort Buford.) When violence broke out in many cities, the strike collapsed. Some 30 people died in riots and $80 million in damages was caused by sabotage (equivalency today would be around $2,289,125,274).
Defended by a team that included Clarence Darrow, Mr. Debs was convicted of violating a court order and sentenced to prison; the ARU (his union) was then dissolved. But was this the end of George Debs in the U.S.? Nope.
Following his release from prison in 1895, ARU President Debs became a committed advocate of socialism, helping in 1897 to launch the Social Democracy of America, a forerunner of the Socialist Party of America. He ran for president in 1900 for the first of 5 times as head of the Socialist Party ticket.
But Mr. Pullman didn’t fare so well either. A national commission was appointed to investigate the strike, which included assessing the operations of the company town. In 1898 the Supreme Court of Illinois ordered the Pullman Company to divest itself of the town, which then became a neighborhood of the city of Chicago. Mr. Pullman died from a heart attack that same year at the age of 66.
Pullman Strike’s influence today
While we may think that this strike was just something that happened a long time ago, we’re still feeling its influence. Mr. Debs started the Socialist Party in the U.S., and President Cleveland and Congress established Labor Day as a federal holiday just 6 days after the strike ended to appease the American Labor movement.
layout of Fort Buford
Back to Fort Buford. We drove to the location of Fort Buford and got to see the layout of the Fort. None of the buildings were open, but here’s what we saw.
General Alfred Sully had been sent here to establish a military post somewhere along the 2 rivers. He turned down the offer to take over Ford Union, partly because it was dilapidated and too small. But 3 miles away he found this flat land along the Missouri River, which was a major transportation corridor. He surveyed the area and picked the site that was to become Fort Buford, calling it “a wide, well-drained table, northwest of the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers.”
In 1866 more troops arrived and began building Fort Buford. Many of the troops shipped to Fort Buford were “galvanized” Union soldiers who were actually captured Confederate soldiers forced (or “agreed”) to become Union soldiers on the farthest north outpost of the U.S. Army – Fort Buford.
At first the soldiers used adobe and cottonwood trees to construct the buildings that were enclosed by a wooden stockade because that was what was available for building. Because cottonwood was the only local building material, Fort Buford was under almost continuous repair from 1866 to 1895. Add to that the lack of skilled tradesmen, the buildings started falling apart almost immediately.
The reconstructed elements of the Fort you see today went through 3 major building phases. The first phase was under Captain Rankin’s command in 1866. That was a major build: barracks, two officer quarters, and a surrounding stockade. The second phase was when the post had 3 companies in 1867-1868. The final building phase occurred in 1889 when the Fort became a small town on the prairie.
At its height, Fort Buford Military Reservation was the headquarters of a large area, a square military reservation 30 miles by 30 miles. The fort itself was built on a 640-acre (1 square mile) patch of land inside that military reservation in the center. The fort structure itself was about 100 acres.
Special “exceptions” were given several organizations to be allowed on the reservation, including the post’s Trader, the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the railroad. Fort Buford was one of very few military forts where the post’s Trader was allowed to establish a presence on the military reservation so close to the fort.
parade ground
Because the parade ground separated the officers’ quarters on one side from the enlisted quarters on the other, symbolically it reinforced the social separation between the 2 groups.
Practically it was the scene of military training and ceremony.
Prior to the 1890s, new recruits were trained by the veteran soldiers in their units. Skills learned were marching, the manual of arms, and care and use of equipment. The parade ground provided the space for this training.
It also served as the focal point for such military ceremonies as guard mount, roll calls, and full-dress inspections. It was the scene of social entertainment like band concerts, picnics, and athletic events.
In addition to their traditional military duties, enlisted men sometimes built and maintained fort buildings, put up hay for the fort’s livestock, cut wood for fuel, guarded the fort’s cattle herd, tended the post gardens, delivered mail, and constructed telegraph lines. Picked at random and without prior training, soldiers could serve as cooks and hospital stewards. Life wasn’t all work, however. Band and theater performances, baseball, and hunting were some of the leisure activities. From some of the information I found, murder and suicide were also prevalent, indicating the hard life they lived here.
officers’ quarters
middle: young son Crow Foot
right: Major Brotherton
On July 20, 1881, Sitting Bull met with Major David Brotherton, Fort Buford’s Commander. At Sitting Bull’s side was his young son Crow Foot. Sitting Bull gave his Winchester rifle to Crow Foot and instructed him to give the rifle to the Major. Sitting Bull wanted to be remembered as the last man in his tribe to surrender his rifle.
post Trader’s complex
In exchange for a franchise to serve the fort, the post Trader was charged a monthly fee for every officer and enlisted man stationed at the post. These fees helped support the regimental band, the post bake house, education of the soldiers, the post library, and purchase of gardening supplies.
During its time at Fort Buford, 5 different firms served as post Traders. Other civilian businesses operated at the fort, including a hotel, tailor, blacksmith, restaurant, barber, dairy, and a ferry. Most of these enterprises were short-lived.
According to the ledger, on one day in January 1875, Captain Powell purchased 1 oz. each of celery seed, allspice, and cinnamon, as well as some other items that Powell’s cook could use to enhance the flavor of the family’s meals, suggesting a well-stocked pantry for the officer’s family.
fort’s cemetery
Southwest of the museum is the fort’s cemetery.
After the fort was abandoned, all military personnel buried here were disinterred and removed to the national cemetery at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.
The graves marked by civilian headstones probably still contain the bodies of those buried there.
buffalo soldiers
In the early 1890s, 2 of the companies at Fort Buford were the Black 10th Cavalry and the 25th Infantry. The local Indians called these African-American servicemen “buffalo soldiers” because their hair reminded the Indians of the buffalo for which they had great respect.
Buffalo soldiers had served in every military conflict from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, but usually they served as volunteers rather than as U.S. Army regulators. The Civil War changed this status, and the Army formed 2 cavalry and 2 infantry units to be sent to Texas, Kansas, and the southwest territories. Eventually they served at many posts from Texas to North Dakota.
This sign was at the site of the fort.
By 1893, some 100 women and children and 282 soldiers lived at Fort Buford; 85% of these residents were black. Many of the black women served as servants for white officers’ families.
When off-duty, the men filled their spare time with baseball games and rifle competitions. Both sports were open to white officers and black enlisted men. Members of the 10th Cavalry brought their charter for a lodge of Prince Hall Masons from Fort Apache, Arizona, and established Eureka Lodge #135.
The museum that we’ll walk through in the next post had the following display of buffalo soldiers, but I’m including it here since we’re talking about these soldiers who served their nation.
The Army preferred healthy men with mechanical skills, were literate, and had military experience. At first recruitment was done among those who had been enslaved before the war. While they might not have met all the qualifications, the officers found these men to be intelligent and had a strong desire to serve.
Nowhere else in the U.S. at that time would men of different races and ranks mix socially as they did at Fort Buford.
The rifle team for the Dept. of Dakota included officers and enlisted men from both white and black regiments. Pvt. John Gordon emerged as the best marksman in the Department, the 1st African-American soldier to do so.
In 1886 Moses Williams was appointed ordnance sergeant, the 1st African-American to earn this position that required both 4 years of service as a noncommissioned officer and top physical condition. In 1891, he reenlisted in the 10th Cavalry at Fort Buford. When the fort closed, he moved onto West Battery at the mouth of the Columbia River (today’s Oregon coast) where he took charge of 22 large cannon and ordnance.
What an amazing look at forts, strikes, and buffalo soldiers. I learned so much by writing this post and am ready for a trivia question about the reason behind the Labor Day federal holiday.
Now let’s look at the museum where the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers come together and why that’s so important.
