White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-08-06

ought not to allow every vestige of that period
to die We should preserve what history we
have" Almost Immediately her statement was
linked with the fact that Fort Abraham Lincoln
near Bismarck N. D., one of the army posts
marked for dissolution and the suggestion was
made that the post from which Custer rode
away to his death on the Little Big Horn in
Montana in 1876 should be preserved as memo
rial to him and his gallant men of the Seventh
cavalry.
AS matter of fact the present Fort Abraham
Lincoln has connection with the old Indian
fighting days. The original Fort Lincoln
built early in the seventies a few miles south
of the present city of Mandan, N. D. 1t
first named Fort Mexican but that name was
soon changed to the which honored the
memory of Civil war President. AS usual
the Sioux Indians resented the building of
army post in their territory which they regard
ed as a violation of the treaty with the gov
eminent made at Fort Laramie in 1868 and
began series of attacks on the post.
AS result of these attacks and further evil
dences that the Sioux the point of
outbreak, Gen. Phil Sheridan, commanding the
Military Division of the Missouri, decided that
a cavalry regiment which could pursue and pun
ish the hostiles when the need arose should be
assigned to the Department of Dakota So the
Seventh cavalry, commanded by Custer
ordered up from New orleans In APRIL 1915,
and was stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln.
From that fort Gen. George A. Forsyth went
on his exploring expedition up the Yellowstone
in 1873 and in the same year Gen. A. Fl. Terry
modified at Fort Lincoln and Fort Rice another
expedition which was to escort and guard the
surveyors who were to make the preliminary
survey for the Northern Pacific railroad through
the Yellowstone country. Clusters Seventh cav
airy was part of this expedition and had it's
@ -. %lo
one occasion the Seventh narrowly escaped the
fate which was to overtake it three years later.
From this post, also, Custer started in 1874
on his exploring expedition in the Black Hills
which gave to the world the news of the discov-
cry of gold in that region, resulted in a mad
rush of whites into the SiouX's beloved Pah-
sah-pa (Black Hills) and eventually precipi-
tated the Sioux war of 1S7677 And on the morn
ing of May II, 1876, Custer and his Seventh
marched gaily away from Fort Abraham Lin
coin to the stirring strains of 1.-THE Girl Left
Behind Me- and rode away the prairie
toward the west. The next scene in the story of
Fort Lincoln is told in the final paragraphs of
Mrs Clusters book, Boots and Saddles" thus:
ION the 9Th of July-for 1t took that time for
the news to come-the sun rose on beautiful
world but with it's earliest beams came the first
knell of disaster. steamer came down the
river bearing the wounded from the battle of the
Little Big Horn, OF Sunday, June 10Th. This bat
tie wrecked the lives of twenty-six women at
Fort Lincoln, and orphaned children of officers
and soldiers Joined their cry to that of their
bereayed mothers. From that time the life
went out of the hearts of the women who
weep and God asked them to walk on alone
and in the shadow
After the Indian wars were over Fort Abra-
ham Lincoln gradually fell into disuse and by
1902 all of the buildings, shown in the photo
graph above except two had been torn down.
During the World war large modern post
bearing the same name was built on the oppo-
site side Of the river just below Bismarck. 1t
is this fort for which there is no apparent use
that is to be dismanted along with others, none
of which. according to government official,
has the slightest historical significance