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Moving Men and Supplies: Military Transportation on the Northern Great Plains, 1866-1891

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Moving Men and Supplies: Military Transportation on the Northern Great Plains, 1866-1891 Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Moving Men and Supplies: Military Transportation on the Northern Great Plains, 1866-1891 GARY S. FREEDOM Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Moving Men and Supplies 115 In the twenty-five years after the Civil War, the northern Great Plains was transformed from a frontier with limited trans- portation into a settled region with a complex transportation in- frastructure. In any assessment of this landscape modification, the military presence deserves consideration as an agent of change. In this period, 1866 to 1891, the army organized the terri- tories of Dakota and Montana into the Military Department of Dakota and established a network of forts that extended from the Red River to the Rockies and from the Canadian border to the Platte River (Figure 1). The isolation and vast distances between the individual forts on the northern Great Plains, and between this network and supply depots in the East, necessitated a com- plex transportation system to move men and materials. In order to facilitate these logistical operations, the military built a sys- tem of roads while protecting and utilizing established trails, waterways, and rail networks. Although the army had its own means of transport, for reasons of economy it preferred to em- 0 ver land freight wagons drawn by mules, 1885 Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 116 South Dakota History ploy civilian carriers to move men and supplies on a contractual basis. Various modes of commercial transportation were used, in- cluding freight wagons, stage coaches, riverboats, and railroads. The military road system performed important logistical func- tions. It connected the forts, integrated the fort network, pro- vided feeder lines to link the forts to the rivers and, later, to the railroads, and supplied access for the wagons and stage coaches of civilians who hauled military and civilian goods. In doing so, it unified the region by connecting widely scattered areas (Figure 2). The roads themselves varied from Indian traces to more per- manent routes etched by the movement of heavy wagons. Most of them were laid out along the shortest distance between the forts. A good day's travel for a wagon with a heavy load was fifteen to twenty miles. However, factors such as gradient, watercourses, swamps, and proximity to wooded areas often added extra time Figure 1. Forts on the Northern Great Plains, 1866-1891 FORTS ON THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS, 1866-1891 108' •ÍL'*•'*. \ASSINIBOINE. ABERCROMBIE RICE NRANSOM I YATESji,_ +• 1 SISSETON LEGEND o TOWN SOURCE: Compiled by author from multiple sources. Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Moving Men and Supplies 117 and miles. Roads between the forts were in constant use by the army for over twenty years, from the 1860s to the 1890s. Even after the forts were abandoned, the roads served the farmers who had settled along them.' One of the major concentrations of forts in the Department of Dakota lay between the Missouri and Red rivers in northern Dakota. Roads were built along these rivers to connect the posts, while a number of feeder routes running from the river forts to inland posts provided interior lines of communication. Important roads branched out from Fort Abercrombie on the Red River, connecting both the fort and the river with the interior forts. Roads led north to Fort Pembina, south to Fort Sisseton, and west to forts Seward, Ransom, and Totten. Other roads con- nected forts Ransom and Totten, Totten and Stevenson, Steven- son and Ransom, Rice and Sisseton, Totten and Pembina, and Seward and Totten (Figure 2).^ The Missouri River forts in north- ern Dakota were linked by a road running along the north, or left, bank of the river. Ferries crossed the Missouri to provide access to forts Abraham Lincoln, Yates, and Buford. The ferries were commercial enterprises, and the military was usually charged ci- vilian rates. The fees for a proposed ferry at Fort Buford in 1879 were $1.50 for a six-horse or mule team, $1.00 for a four-horse or mule team, $.50 for each horseman if there were less than ten, $.15 if there were ten or more, $1.00 for one thousand pounds of cargo or less, and $1.00 for each one thousand pounds of cargo beyond that.' In southern Dakota, six of the military posts were located along the Missouri River to take advantage of steamboat transporta- tion, but each of these forts was also connected to each of the others and to some civilian settlements in an intricate road net- work. River transports carried large bulk shipments, but road connections often provided shorter travel times and distances than did the Missouri. Fort Sully 2, for example, was located 351 miles from Yankton by river, but only 262 miles by road. It was 1. Dana Wright. "Military Trails in Dakota: The Fort Totten—Abercrombie Trail," North Dakota History 13 (Jan. Apr. 1946): 80. 84. 2. Ibid.. pp. 80-84. See also Dana Wright. "Military Trails in North Dakota: Fort Abercrombie to Fort Ransom, with Notes on the History of Fort Ransom." North Dakota History 17 (Oct. 1950): 246. 3. A. P. Ayott. Letter (requesting permission to build a ferry at Fort Buford). 20 Oct. 1879. Fort Buford Collection. State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bis- marck. N.Dak. Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 118 South Dakota History 1 o o o 4j o c a a o . • <, .—• ^^ UJ «1 _^ 1 H ¡^E O % _ — 1 ir / j¿ 1 V -^ * --^ ^ * <i ^ s i ^••^ Q : 1 - o ; 1 7 i li- i f ;" i Hol O i \ /I 1 o i r 1 \— 1 \ i Q 1 £ T 1 1 \ 1 UJ ¡ j \ i O ^j =^? ' >--- 1 O h- i Î 1 i /\ i 1 m j •o cr 1 : • ; u S o" Û_ VL / !1 (n J! m O. L H o LJÜ O Û v> H ( Ul i VI ÜJ 1 i X \ 1- i \ o •o , 1 \ E J o / í 0o^ \ 05 ' ce — i ( f—-} ¡'. UJ O t- i ¡y 1 il/ o . Assi V o ( I o: rces 3 tr ^/ "\ 1 UJ O c 1— u // l 1 o s // >_ li lip • o í :J ir 1 X í O _, o n < / K-g QOC m í ro 1 Ol :^ ir Ï <Q- z — 1 À Ul OO OÛ. bj u. H tr <t —" P ,/ ( 1 0< M 1 LU 1 t • O '; 3 . /UJ o S • o 1 : í O _j >, < " .' kiJ _"7 I .-^ -•a° -l¿ .• _u O ß' -••^ 'o. i VlM—^^ E i in f o X /"• — . -i» I ¿i . y" O I o: *^. o w Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. Moving Men and Supplies 119 575 miles by river from the fort to Sioux City, but only 343 miles by road.^ One important road in southern Dakota connected Fort Randall with Sioux City. The federal government spent twenty- five thousand dollars to construct the road between these two points and then built a number of bridges across the Big Sioux, Vermillion, and James rivers. Fort Randall became an important transportation center, with other roads extending from the post to various forts and civilian communities in both Dakota and Ne- braska.^ Only a few roads crossed the largely empty area between the Missouri and the Tongue River, where the Montana fort system began. Because navigation on tbe Missouri and Yellowstone rivers was seasonal and unreliable, direct overland routes were needed to ensure year-round transportation to Fort Keogb on tbe Yellowstone. A minor route started from Fort Hale on the Mis- souri and, for a time, became a gateway to tbe Black Hills of Dakota Territory. Passengers and freight were unloaded at this transshipment point and went west by wagon train.^ One of the most important roads from the Missouri to the Yellowstone ran between Fort Keogh (Miles City) and Fort Abraham Lincoln (Bis- marck). The Fort Keogh Trail was not a road in the modern sense but was a wagon track across the empty prairie. In some places, the wagon ruts were nearly a foot deep, and the road became im- passable in bad weather. At other points, the trail spread into parallel sets of wagon tracks sixty to one hundred feet across.^ Despite the limitations of the Keogh Trail, it established freight service between the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in 1878, connecting Bismarck, the railhead for the Northern Pacific Railroad, and Miles City. This route from Fort Abraham Lincoln closed the gap in coast-to-eoast communication along a northern route. It remained a highway of national importance until the completion of the railroads. In 1879, when the Northern Pacific 4. Outline Descriptions of the Posts in the Military Division of the Missouri, Commanded by Lieutenant General P. H. Sheridan (Chicago: Headquarters Mili- tary Division of the Missouri, 1876), p. 17. 5. Harold E. Briggs, "Early Freight and Stage Lines in Dakota, North Dakota Historical Quarterly 3, no. 4 (July 1929): 236-38; Carleton W. Kenyon, "History of Fort Randall" (M.A. thesis. University of South Dakota, 1950), p. 46. 6. "Early Settlers in Lyman County," Lyman County Historical Society Collec- tions, Presho, S.Dak. 7. Louis Pfaller, "The Fort Keogh to Bismarck Stage Route," North Dakota His- tory 21 (July 1954): 96-97. Copyright © 1984 by the South Dakota State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved. 120 South Dakota History Railroad began building west of the Missouri, equipment and men were moved along the Keogh Trail, which paralleled the rails for a hundred miles.
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