User:NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox 20

REDRAFT OF THE 10/16/2013 ARTICLE

(Summary)

Establishment and Purpose of Ft. Niobrara in 1880
The site of Fort Niobrara (1880-1906) was selected by General George Crook in 1879 and the fort was occupied and constructed in 1880. The Fort was sited on the Niobrara River, for which it was named, at a location several miles east of present day Valentine, Nebraska.

Following the Great Sioux War of 1876 the seven bands of the Lakota Sioux had been confined to the Sioux Reservation. Though the reservation had been reduced in size, it was still large and extended westward from the Missouri River into the southwest portion of the Dakota Territory. Different bands of the Lakota Sioux had been assigned to different agency sites throughout the large reservation. However it was unknown whether these bands of Sioux would remain at their agency sites, or if they would stay on their reservation.

Military strategy after the Great Sioux War called for a series of Army forts to be located around the boundaries of the Sioux Reservation, and Ft. Niobrara was one such fort. It was located in the State of Nebraska just 7 miles south of the reservation boundary and about 40 miles south of the Rosebud Agency. The purpose of the Fort was to watch over the activities of Chief Spotted Tail's band of about 4,000 Upper Brulé Lakota Sioux who were at the Rosebud Agency. The fort was located off the reservation to avoid friction with the Sioux, and to provide protection and security for the apprehensive settlers in the north central portion of the state of Nebraska, which was immediately adjacent to the southern boundary of the Sioux Reservation.

The site of Fort Niobrara was on a broad plane on the south bank of the Niobrara River. Initial buildings of the fort were constructed between April and November of 1880. Civilian carpenters and laborers assisted in this initial phase of construction. The buildings were built of adobe because of abundant clay near the site, and they had foundations of limestone blocks quarried near the post. Supplies were freighted in from Neligh, Nebraska, the nearest railroad terminus, 158 miles to the east.

Arrival of the Railroad in 1882-83 and Effect on Fort
The arrival of the railroad at Fort Niobrara in 1882-83 had a very significant impact on the fort, increasing its role and function, and acting to extend its period of service beyond that of other western frontier forts.

In 1882-1883 the FE&MV (Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley) Railroad built westward to Ft. Niobrara and beyond. With the railroad came reliable telegraph connections. The railroad linked Fort Niobrara with Ft. Robinson 170 miles to the west. Ft. Robinson was similarly located in the state of Nebraska, just south of the Great Sioux Reservation boundary and the Pine Ridge Agency where the traditionally more hostile Lakota Sioux Ogallala band was located. The railroad and telegraph connection allowed for coordinated and concerted military action by the commanders of the two forts in the event of trouble on the Sioux Reservation.

The railroad greatly simplified supply logistics for Fort Niobrara, setting it apart from other more isolated western frontier forts who didn't have the benefit of a railroad connection. Before the arrival of the railroad freight carried by wagon had taken 10 days to reach the fort from the nearest rail terminus at Neligh, Nebraska.

The railroad also allowed much easier movements of soldiers to and from the fort for military operations, training exercises or simply for access during reassignment or leave. Thus, the railroad allowed the fort to be used as a garrison long after the Indian wars had ceased.

The railroad also made the fort area the transportation hub for the large volume of treaty goods and supplies that the Indian Department regularly provided to about 4,000 Brulé Lakota Sioux at the Rosebud agency located 40 miles to the north.

Economic Impact of the Fort on Surrounding Nebraska Region
The railroad generated an immediate flow of settlers into the north central Nebraska region where the Fort was located and in 1882 Valentine, Nebraska came into existence, located four miles west of the Fort.

The post immediately became a major factor in the economic growth of Valentine as well as the north central Nebraska region. The fort commissary and quartermaster bought produce from the region, including hay, corn, oats, beef, milk, butter, eggs, and poultry. The soldiers stationed the fort spent a significant portion of their annual pay (a total of about $170,000 per year in the 1880s) in Valentine. Civilian blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and teamsters were employed at the post, and the fort occasionally hired carpenters, mechanics and plumbers, all of which stimulated the growth of the town and the surrounding region.

The citizens of north central Nebraska apparently held the Fort and its personnel in high regard. When Cherry County, Nebraska, a center of cattle production, was organized in 1883 from the large region in north central Nebraska which surrounded the fort, at the behest of citizens the county was named for Lieutenant Samuel A. Cherry, who had been killed in the line of duty while pursing horse thieves. As noted below the soldiers of the fort and the citizens of north central Nebraska enjoyed a very positive inter-relationship though those soldiers were, at times, from both white and black segregated Army units.

Army Units and Duties at the Fort from 1880 to the Ghost Dance Crises of 1890
From 1880 to 1885 elements of the 5th Cavalry and the 9th Infantry were stationed at Ft. Niobrara. In 1885 elements of the 9th Cavalry joined the garrison. In 1886 elements of the 8th Infantry arrived at the post.

The units from the 9th Cavalry were from a segregated black cavalry regiment, sometimes referred to as "buffalo soldiers". The headquarters of the 9th Cavalry were at Fort Robinson, 165 miles to the west. It is noteworthy that from 1885 to 1890, though the post had segregated Army units with both white and black soldiers, few problems, racial or otherwise arose between the soldiers at Fort Niobrara.

After the formation of the fort in 1880, there were no Indian hostilities in the immediate area involving Ft. Niobrara soldiers. The Ghost Dance religion in the early 1890's brought the last major Indian alarm. On November 19, Companies A, B, and H of the 8th Infantry and Troops A and G of the 9th Cavalry (a detachment of 15 officers and 217 enlisted men) marched to the Rosebud agency, where they established a field camp and built entrenchments around the agency buildings.

Using the railroad, other army units from other parts of the United states were sent to Ft. Niobrara in November and December 1890. Throughout the Ghost Dance campaign Fort Niobrara served as an important transportation point to send troops and supplies north to the Sioux reservations. Though there was tension there was no armed conflict with Sioux people at the Rosebud agency, in contrast to the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 28, 1890 at the Pine Ridge Agency. The Wounded Knee Massacre was the last combat event in the Indian Wars on the western United States.

Aside from the short Ghost Dance interval in 1890, during the period from 1880 to 1890 soldiers at the fort had a routine existence. One routine duty was to provide military escort for the supplies and beef provided by the government to the Rosebud agency; during the 1880s some 8,000,000 pounds of supplies were freighted to the agency from the rail-head at Valentine, and 6,000 beeves were driven from Valentine to the agency under army escort.

In the years immediately after 1880, before effective civil law enforcement was developed in Cherry County, Nebraska, the military presence at Fort Niobrara deterred lawlessness and crime on both sides of the reservation line. . Lieutenant Samuel A. Cherry, a Fort Niobrara officer was killed in the line of duty in 1881 while in pursuit of horse-thieves.

The soldiers of Ft. Niobrara were also assigned the very difficult duty of deterring rustling of Indian owned cattle on the reservation. They also had the even more difficult job of preventing illegal grazing by white cattle owners on the reservation. This sometimes brought them into conflict with Nebraska area cattle ranchers.

With no demand for combat duty or specific field service, the commanders at Ft. Niobrara resorted to field exercises to keep the troops fit, engaging in long marches, requiring intensive target practice, and creating "camps of instruction" which taught basic skills of cavalry and infantry tactics in the field. This field training evolved into large scale maneuvers, sometimes shared with Army units from other posts who came to Ft. Niobrara by rail.

Units and Events From 1891 to the Spanish American War in 1898
Because of the Ghost Dance incident during the last months of 1890 the Army determined that the necessity of troop presence at Fort Niobrara near the Sioux reservations still existed, and after 1890 the post was expanded. The detachments at Ft. Niobrara from the 5th Cavalry and 9th Cavalry were transferred to other posts. In early 1891 the fort was enlarged to become the headquarters of three regiments—the 8th Infantry, 12th Infantry, and 6th Cavalry. Starting in 1887 and continuing to the middle 1890's extensive building took place as part of the policy of post expansion.

In the mid 1890s Fort Niobrara was at its zenith as an Army post. It was regularly garrisoned by six companies of infantry and 2 companies of cavalry for a total contingent of about 500 men. More importantly, the units at the Fort played a part in national affairs.

Because troops could be quickly entrained and dispatched on the FE&MV Railroad, during the 1890s detachments of Ft. Niobrara soldiers were sent to quell civil disturbances. Detachments were sent out in 1892 to a camp near Douglas Wyoming to provide support during the Johnson County War. In 1894 units from the Fort were sent to strategic locations along the Union Pacific railroad lines at Lima, Montana and Laramie, Wyoming to enforce a federal injunction against the  nationwide strike by railroad laborers against railroad companies in the summer of 1894, called the Pullman strike.

During the 1990's the soldiers continued to engage in field exercises in and around the post, including in long marches, target practice, and field training to maintain skills of infantry field tactics. This field training ranged out from the post and involved units from other forts who came to Ft. Niobrara by rail.

The Spanish American War to the Closure of the Fort in 1906
In April 1898 the United States declared war with Spain. As the Spanish-American War of 1898 got underway, Army mobilization orders swiftly dispatched soldiers from western forts to southern ports for a possible invasion of Cuba. This stripped soldiers out of the historic western forts built during the Indian warsm and this condition continued through the time of the Phillipine-American War (1899 to 1902), when the United States was involved in a native insurrection in the Philippines.

During this four year period from 1898 to 1902 Fort Niobrara was reduced from its former elevated status of a large regimental headquarters post to a lowly skeleton garrison of one company of the 22nd Infantry, with troop levels dropping to less than 100.

During this time Valentine, Nebraska people were anxious for the return of the soldiers whose presence meant prosperity, and they did what they could to influence the return of troops to the post.

Finally in 1902 the 25th Army Regiment was ordered to Ft. Niobrara. The 25th Infantry Regiment was returning from combat duty in the Phillipines, during the Phillipine-American War. Like the units of the 9th Cavalry previously stationed at Fort Niobrara, the 25th was a segregated black army unit.

Fort Niobrara became home to the 25th Regiment from 1902 to 1906. The headquarters of the 25th Regiment was located at Fort Niobrara, as well as the units 1st and 3rd regimental battalions. The post compliment rose to over 800 soldiers and officers.

Though the numbers of soldiers at the post from 1902 to 1906 (about 800) were higher than the garrison in the 1890's (about 500), the 25th was not utilized for any military purposes during this period, and by hindsight appeared to be warehoused at Fort Niobrara, during this time.

Thus, during during the years from 1902 till 1906, the 25th remained fairly inactive without orders for any active duty. At Fort Niobrara, they were subject to ongoing field exercises and maneuvers including practice marches, target practice, and training in infantry tactics. The 25th remained at the fort for the four years, with the exception of large scale maneuvers at Fort Riley in 1904, and a rifle competition at Ft. Riley in 1905. The soldiers had little to interrupt the routine of garrison life. Nevertheless, the soldiers had their own off-duty entertainments and activities. The post baseball teams were outstanding. They played other troops up and down the railroad line. In 1904, the 25th won the Army Department of the Missouri baseball championship.

During the years before 1906, it was becoming more and more apparent that the Army intended to abandon and close Fort Niobrara. Post buildings were deteriorating. Requests for building repair in years prior to 1906 were refused based on planned abandonment.

In May 1906 the orders finally arrived formally directing the abandonment of Fort Niobrara. On July 28,1906 the troops of the black 25th regiment left the Fort and marched to Valentine, Nebraska station to board trains. During the four year period that the 25th was at Fort Niobrara, the relations between soldiers and civilians were good, with little racial strife or controversy. On the day the 25th departed several hundred Valentine citizens gathered and remained with the troops until 12:20 a.m. when their trains departed.

The experience of the 25th Infantry at Fort Niobrara in north central Nebraska is in sharp contrast to their experience at Fort Brown, near Brownsville, Texas, where they were reassigned in July, 1906. At Brownsville, the soldiers of the 25th were immediately subject to intense racial discrimination, and when a fight occurred in the city the 25th was barred from the city limits. On August 13, 1906 (just over two weeks after leaving Fort Niobrara) a shooting incident occurred in Brownsville in which a bartender was killed and a Hispanic police officer was wounded. The Brownsville towns-people immediately blamed the shootings on the black soldiers of the 25th Infantry at Fort Brown, though their white officers confirmed the soldiers were all in their barracks at the time of the shootings. When an intensive investigation developed no usable evidence against the soldiers of the 25th, President Roosevelt ordered 167 of the black soldiers dishonorably discharged because of their "conspiracy of silence". A renewed investigation in 1970 exonerated the discharged troopers. This entire episode in Texas is known as the Brownsville Affair.

Events after 1906, Formation of the Wildlife Refuge
After the soldiers left the post, it was transferred to the Quartermaster Department. A handful of seven buildings were retained for the headquarters for quartermaster remount operations, and the rest were sold at auction in 1906, with the condition they be demolished and the grounds of the fort left clean.

From 1906 to 1911 a small cadre of quartermaster offices and employees operated the fort as a remount depot, where they supervised the purchase of horses for cavalry and artillery.

In 1912, after the remount depot activities ended, sixteen thousand acres of the original military reservation was set aside as a national game preserve by a conservation minded federal administration. The remainder of 55 sections (about 35,000 acres) of the Fort was opened for settlement in 1913.

The nucleus of 16,000 acres has been enlarged and has since become Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, with ranges maintaining sizable herds of buffalo, elk and Texas longhorn cattle.

Noted Officers Stationed at Fort Niobrara
Among the officers once stationed at Fort Niobrara were John J. Pershing, later commander of U.S. forces in World War I, and Frederick W. Benteen, a survivor of General Custer's ill-fated staff, and Lt. Col. James S. Brisbin, famous for his book, "The Beef Bonanza", promoting livestock raising in the west.

Fort Niobrara (Nebraska)
The site of Fort Niobrara (1880-1906) was selected in 1879 and the fort was built in 1880. The fort was southeast of the Rosebud Agency and Reservation for the Sioux in the Dakota Territory. The fort was built, following the Great Sioux War of 1876, as one of a series of large forts located around the Sioux reservations. The fort was named for the Niobrara River. It was located a few miles east of present-day Valentine, which came into existence in 1882 after the fort was built. The fort provided a ready market for many locally produced items and the soldiers spent their pay in Valentine, all of which stimulated the growth of the town and the surrounding region. After 1880, there was no later Indian trouble in the immediate area. The Ghost Dance religion in the early 1890's brought the last major Indian alarm, and units from the fort were sent to the Rosebud Agency and established a temporary entrenched camp. Among the officers once stationed at Fort Niobrara were John J. Pershing, later commander of U.S. forces in World War I, and Frederick W. Benteen, a survivor of General Custer's ill-fated staff. Fort Niobrara was an active post until 1906. In 1912 sixteen thousand acres of the original military reservation was set aside as a national game preserve. It has since become Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, with ranges maintaining sizable herds of buffalo, elk and Texas longhorn cattle./ref>

- Fort Niobrara was opened in 1880 southeast of the Rosebud Agency and Reservation for the Sioux in Nebraska, one of 10 Army posts built in the heart of what had been Indian country. The fort was built as one of two large posts near the reservations of the bands of the Brule Sioux and the more Defiant Oglala.

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The site of Fort Niobrara, Nebraska was selected in 1879, and a military reservation was laid out east of present day Valentine, Nebraska, in Cherry County. The fort was originally designed to guard the nearby Rosebud Indian Reservation in present day South Dakota.

In 1882, the town of Valentine established near Fort Niobrara proved to be a valuable asset providing a ready market, which stimulated the growth of the town and surrounding region.. Fort Niobrara was closed in 1906 and 16,000 acres of the military reservation were set aside as the Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge.

The fort was closed in 1906.