The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1931-08-14


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., was 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 a memo
rial to him and his gallant men of the Seventh
cavalry.
AS a matter of fact the present Fort Abraham
Lincoln has connection with the old Indian
fighting days. The original Fort Lincoln was
built early in the seventies a few miles south
of the present city of Mandan N. D. 1t was
first named Fort Mexican but that name was
soon changed to the one which honored the
memory of our Civil President. AS usual
the Sioux Indians resented the building of an
army post in their territory which they regard
ed a violation of the treaty with the gov
eminent made at Fort Laramie in 1868 and
the Hunkpapa Cor Uncpapa) tribe under the
leadership of Chiefs Black Moon and Gall and
Sitting Bull, who was just then rising to power,
began series of attacks on the post
AS a result of these attacks and further evil
denceS that the Sioux were on the point of an
outbreak, Gen. Phil Sheridan, commanding the
Military Division of the Missouri, decided tat
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, was
ordered up from New Orleans in April 1873
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. III. Terry
modified at Fort Lincoln and Fort Rice another
expedition which 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 its
first taste of fighting with the Sioux. In fact on
one occasion the Seventh narrowly escaped the
fate which 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 1S76-77. 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 "The Girl Left
Behind Me" and rode away across 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 Juy-for it took that time for
the news to come-the sun rose on beautiful
world, but with its earliest beams came the first
knell of disaster. A steamer came down the
river bearing the wounded from the battle of the
Little Big Horn, of Sunday, June 25th 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
bereaved mothers From that time on 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 a 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 dismantled along with Others none
of which, according to government official
has the slightest historical significance"
The agitation produced by the War depart
ments announcement and the wide publicity
given to the case of Fort Abraham Lincoln has
served the useful purpose of recalling to Ameri-
cans the part played by forts in our history
and it has also brought forth the fact that more
Of them are being preserved in one form or
another than is generally realized. In some cases
their ruins being preserved as memorials or
are being used the basis for reconstruction
work; in other cases exact replicas of the orig
inal Notifications have been built and in still
others monuments or great boulders bearing