Fort Abraham Lincoln
|
Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park
|
||
 Reconstruction of Custer's house |
||
| location | Morton County in North Dakota (USA) | |
| surface | 407 ha | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 46 ' N , 100 ° 51' W | |
|
||
| Setup date | 1907 | |
| administration | North Dakota Parks and Recreation Dept. | |
The Fort Abraham Lincoln was a continuation of the US Army from 1872 to 1891 on the Missouri River in what is now the US state of North Dakota . Around the historic site, 407 acre Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park is designated as a state park- type memorial . It contains a reconstructed Mandan Indian village and the site of the former fort with reconstructed buildings. It is 11 km south of the village of Mandan .
The mandan
In the park is the former village of the Mandan Indians On-a-slant , which was inhabited from around 1575 to 1781. The village has been partially reconstructed and gives an insight into the life of the Plains Indians before the arrival of the whites.
History of the fort
On June 14, 1872, two companies of the US 6th Infantry Regiment began building Fort McKeen on the west bank of the Missouri , named after the Civil War hero Colonel H. Boyd McKeen. It was part of the military bases built to protect the Northern Pacific Railroad as it built its tracks through the Missouri Valley and further west. On November 18, 1872, the fort was renamed Fort Abraham Lincoln . In 1873 the Congress approved the expansion of the site to include cavalry quarters. In 1874 three companies of the 6th and 17th US Infantry Regiments and six companies of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment were stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln. and six companies under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer , who also took command of the fort. Custer had also been in command of the fort since 1873. In total, the fort had a crew of 650 men and was the largest military base on the northern prairies. The fort was also the headquarters of the military district center of the Dakota military area. The fortifications of Rice, Stevenson and Hancock also belonged to the central defense district.
The strong garrison of the fort did not stop the Indians from attacking. In 1873 they attacked the fort three times; in an attack in 1874, they captured the fort's herd of mules.
The fort was the starting point of several military expeditions into the hostile Indian country: On June 20, 1873 the land surveying expedition began along the Yellowstone River . The 95-day expedition was attacked on various occasions by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors. On July 2, 1874, Custer led an expedition with over 1,000 men in the Black Hills , the tribal area of the Lakota. Gold was discovered during the expedition, which lasted until August 30, 1874.
Tom Custer, a brother of George A. Custer, captured Rain in the Face , a chief of the Hunkpapa- Lakota , in 1874 and interned him at Fort Abraham Lincoln. Rain in the Face managed to escape from there.
General Terry began a major offensive against the Lakota in the summer of 1876, in which the occupation of the fort was involved. The offensive ended in fiasco - 265 men under Custer lost their lives on June 25, 1876 in the Battle of Little Bighorn , among them George A. Custer himself.
After the battle, Fort Abraham Lincoln remained the site of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment, which was reorganized, for six years. The Lakota were defeated by the end of 1877 and lived on Indian reservations in the future . The importance of Fort Abraham Lincoln decreased noticeably. After the 7th US Cavalry Regiment had been moved to Fort Meade , Fort Abraham Lincoln remained in operation for nine years; It was given up in 1891. Over the years that followed, farmers used the remains of the fort to build their homes.
Everyday life in the fort
The everyday life of the crew in Custer's time consisted of two hours of drill a day, as well as work such as chopping wood, cleaning or cooking. The men also had time for card games or billiards . A baseball team was formed in Captain John Benteen's company , playing against teams from Fort Randall , Fort Rice and Yankton .
The officers lived in better houses, and Custer even had a luxurious house built for him with ten rooms and eight toilets for $ 4,000 . The officers' food was also better than that of the crew. They were allowed to billet their family in the fort, also in contrast to the crew. Their wives could only get a job as a laundress in the fort. Custer allowed civilians to run businesses such as a hairdressing salon or photo studio in the fort.
The fort comprised a total of 78 buildings.
The state park
The park area was donated to the State of North Dakota by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 , so that the park is now the oldest state park in North Dakota. However, the area was not expanded and developed until 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps , which built a visitor center and paths and began the reconstruction of Fort Abraham Lincoln and the Mandan village. From the late 1980s to the 1990s, other buildings in Mandan Village and the fort, including General Custer's home, were reconstructed.
Various buildings of the fort were reconstructed from 1934 and can be visited: The Victorian house of Custer, a shop, barracks of the crew, stables and the granary have been preserved. The fort has been declared a Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park , which also includes reconstructed earth huts from a Mandan Indian village called On-A-Slant Village . There is also a campsite and huts for travelers in the 4 km² park. It is accessed by Highway 1806.
The park has a campsite and a total of 10 kilometers of hiking trails.
literature
- Dietmar Kuegler: Fort Abraham Lincoln . In: Magazine for American Studies, Issue 3, 2007
Web links
- State Park website
- Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation: Official website (English).
- Virtual tour (Engl.)
- Brief description on www.discoveramerica.com (German)