University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1993 The United States Army as a Constabulary on the Northern Plains Larry D. Ball Arkansas State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Ball, Larry D., "The United States Army as a Constabulary on the Northern Plains" (1993). Great Plains Quarterly. 772. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/772 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE UNITED STATES ARMY AS A CONSTABULARY ON THE NORTHERN PLAINS LARRY D. BALL With the formation of the United States mili­ Hills mining camps and looted stagecoaches in tary establishment in the late eighteenth cen­ alarming numbers; brazenly robbed Union Pa­ tury, the new army undertook many services in cific trains and threatened to disrupt their sched­ the developing republic, including several asso­ ules; plundered Sioux, Arapahoe, and other ciated with the frontier movement. While the Indian horse herds as well as those of white army considered the suppression of hostile Indi­ settlers; and even preyed upon military prop­ ans its primary mission in the West, its soldiers erty. This lawless onslaught threatened to routinely supported civilian law enforcement overwhelm the nascent law enforcement agen­ authorities. After the Civil War, white crimi­ cies of Wyoming, Dakota, and neighboring nals accompanied other American frontiers­ districts. Had the United States Army not men onto the northern Plains, where white reinforced the county sheriffs and United States desperadoes soon posed a serious problem. In marshals, this frontier crime wave of the 1870s the late 1870s they descended upon the Black might have been worse. United States forces began to participate in civilian law enforcement with the formation of the Union. While the Founding Fathers be­ lieved that the army's primary task was the defense of the nation again external enemies, the Constitution also called on the federal Larry D. Ball is professor of history at Arkansas State government to "insure domestic tranquility." University where he specializes in the history of the At the same time the Federalist and Jeffersonian American West. He has published three books, most Republican parties, which played the primary recently Elfego Baca in Life and Legend ( 1992), and several articles on frontier lawlessness and law role in formulating this peace-keeping doctrine, enforcement. rightly feared excessive military intrusion into civilian law enforcement. The 1792 Congress prescribed circumstances for the president to [GPQ 13 (Winter 1993): 21-32) call state militias into federal service and dis- 21 22 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1993 patch them to the assistance of civilian lawmen, tion, peace officers possessed the authority to and the 1807 Congress extended this obligation summon able-bodied male citizens as possemen. to the regular army. The military could assume Cushing broadened the meaning of the law enforcement powers only when a federal "possemen" to include any federal military forces judge, state governor, or state legislature in­ stationed within the lawman's jurisdiction. The formed the president of the United States that United States forces-either army or navy-were lawless elements had overwhelmed civil au­ part of, not separate from, the posse comitatus, thority and resisted all legal means to suppress declared the ingenious attorney general. While them. Congress also legislated specific peace­ Cushing rendered this opinion for the benefit of keeping assignments to the army, such as the federal lawmen in the East, his decision indi­ expulsion of white intruders from public lands rectly came to the aid of frontier peacekeepers and the prevention of violations of the nation's by providing them with immediate access to borders.! military garrisons. In the remote frontier re­ The frontier army carried out a sizeable range gions civilian officers could proceed to the of law enforcement duties since territorial gov­ nearest fort and obtain blue coated possemen ernments lacked the population necessary to without delay.3 support strong peace-keeping machinery. The Soldiers serving as constabulary on the north­ bluecoats devoted much of their time to the less ern Plains put in an appearance shortly after than satisfying duty of serving in the posses of frontiersmen began the trek to Oregon and frontier sheriffs and United States marshals. California in the 1840s. For more than a quarter The Indian Trade and Intercourse Acts, regu­ of a century, the army provided the westward­ lating relations between the two races in the moving pioneers with many services, including West, mandated such constabulary activities. protection not only from hostile Indians but The Intercourse Act of 1834, which codified also from lawless whites who preyed upon the the preceding fifty years of miliary experience wagon trains. When Union forces imposed on the frontier, authorized the army to police martial law upon the overland trail during the that region designated as Indian Country against Civil War, army officers also provided a justice illicit whiskey traders and other white law­ system for travelers. And when the Union breakers. If United States marshals-the execu­ Pacific Railroad began to lay track across the tive officers of the federal court system-were Plains, the bluecoats temporarily policed the present, the regulars assisted them to make new rail communities, such as Cheyenne, Wyo­ arrests. In the absence of marshals the soldiers ming. Since the white population of Wyoming made their own arrests and turned their prison­ and neighboring regions grew very slowly and ers over to the nearest civil magistrate.2 both county and federal law enforcement re­ The deepening slavery crisis in the mid­ mained rudimentary in the 1870s, the military, nineteenth century expanded the civil employ­ according to historian Raymond Welty, "repre­ ment of United States soldiers. Abolitionist sented the [only] power of established order" on mobs often overpowered United States mar­ the northern Plains.4 shals as the latter attempted to arrest and trans­ port runaway slaves to their southern owners. In BANDITS IN THE BLACK HILLS order to provide the federal lawmen with imme­ diate and dependable support, the federal gov­ The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in ernment sought to shortcut the time-consum­ 1874 and the subsequent rush to exploit this ore­ ing process established by Congress. In 1854 bearing region of western Dakota and eastern United States Attorney General Caleb Cushing Wyoming increased the necessity for a military liberalized the definition of the posse comitatus. constabulary. The soldiers were called upon to In the Anglo-American law enforcement tradi- perform contradictory assignments. First, they u.s. ARMY AS CONSTABULARY 23 were ordered to prevent gold seekers from in­ outlaws, these larger patrols were necessary in truding upon the Black Hills, Indian treaty the event of a chance encounter with hostile lands. Failing to stem the flow of prospectors, in Indians.6 1875 the bluecoats shifted their emphasis to protecting the interlopers. Soon the entire REGULARS TO THE RESCUE region surrounding the Hills bustled with thou­ sands of people searching for fortunes. Natu­ In the absence of established civilian com­ rally the lawless flotsam and jetsam of the munities, the military installations in and around frontier soon began to prey upon the miners in the Black Hills proved invaluable substitutes in Deadwood and other camps. the search for order. With Fort Laramie, Wyo­ Cheyenne, the Wyoming capital, was the ming, as a hub, these posts often dispatched most important entrepot for the new economic units of infantry or cavalry in a timely fashion paradise. The village lay on the Union Pacific against lawless whites and provided many ser­ Railroad some three hundred miles south of vices to sheriffs and United States marshals. In Deadwood, which became the most important addition to gathering intelligence about the Black Hills <;amp. Highway robbers became an movements of American desperadoes, the forts especial problem on the Cheyenne-Deadwood provided lawmen with food, sleeping quarters, highway and other roads leading into the re­ guns and ammunition, hospital care, and even gion. The more reckless bandits began to horses. Army guardhouses substituted for county threaten Union Pacific trains. Other despera­ jails, which were often insecure or nonexistent. does lowered their sights and supplied the hun­ While pursuing outlaws in July 1877, Deputy gry mining camps with stolen livestock, par­ Sheriff Thomas F. Talbott of Cheyenne en­ ticularly horses from the large Indian herds on joyed a generous reception at Fort Sanders, near reservations convenient to the Hills camps. Laramie, Wyoming. Post Commander A. G. Raiders also targeted army livestock and payroll Brackett "furnished fresh horses, rations, and wagons.5 everything needed for a hard, long ride," re­ The size and composition of both robber called the grateful lawman, "and [Brackett] was bands and pursuing military units varied consid­ sorry he could not do more." In