Fort Dilts | |
Nearest city | Rhame, North Dakota |
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Coordinates | 46°16′43″N103°46′33″W / 46.27861°N 103.77583°W Coordinates: 46°16′43″N103°46′33″W / 46.27861°N 103.77583°W |
Area | 8.3 acres (3.4 ha) |
Built | 1864 |
NRHP reference No. | 80002907 [1] |
Added to NRHP | November 10, 1980 |
Fort Dilts was a makeshift sod fort built near Rhame, North Dakota, United States, in September 1864 to fend off attacks by Hunkpapa Sioux Indians led by Sitting Bull [2] upon an encircled wagon train of would-be gold-miners and a small military escort of convalescent soldiers. [3]
The wagon train had set out from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, under the command of Captain James L. Fisk of the U.S. Quartermaster Corps. [4] In 1864, amidst the American Civil War, the Dakota Territory was relatively short of military protection. On September 2, the party came under attack by Sitting Bull and a group of Hunkpapa Sioux. Two days later, still harassed by the Sioux, the expedition found a suitable spot and constructed a defensive perimeter out of sod stacked 6.5 feet (2.0 m) high and 300 feet (91 m) in diameter. [3] The defenders named it Fort Dilts in honor of Corporal Jefferson Dilts, one of eight U.S. Army soldiers who had been killed, out of 50. A number of civilians also died. [4] Lieutenant Smith and fifteen others managed to reach Fort Rice. General Sully organized a rescue expedition consisting of 300 men from the 30th Wisconsin, 200 from the 8th Minnesota, 100 from the 7th Iowa Cavalry (dismounted) and 100 each from the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry, Bracketts Battalion and the 6th Iowa Cavalry. The Minnesota units rendezvoused at Fort Ripley to head west. The defenders were rescued on September 20. [3] When the wagon moved out, a wagon with poisoned food was left behind by Minnesotans that had lost family in the Sioux Uprising. [5] Upon reaching Fort Rice the wagon expedition disbanded. [6]
Fort Dilts State Historic Site has been a North Dakota historic site since 1932. [4] : 2 As "Fort Dilts", it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The listing was for 8.3 acres (3.4 ha) with one contributing site and one contributing structure. [1] Remaining at the site are a sod enclosure, wagon ruts, several grave markers, and an interpretive sign. [4]
The Lakota are a Native American people. Also known as the Teton Sioux, they are one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux people. Their current lands are in North and South Dakota. They speak Lakȟótiyapi—the Lakota language, the westernmost of three closely related languages that belong to the Siouan language family.
Marmarth is the largest city in Slope County in the U.S. State of North Dakota with a population of 143 as of 2014. It is situated in the southwestern part of Slope County, along the Bowman County line in the southwestern part of North Dakota, just seven miles east of the Montana border. Marmarth was founded as a railroad town along the Milwaukee Road from Seattle, WA to Chicago, IL. By 1920, Marmarth had over 1,300 residents. The town's population declined during most of the 20th century and was only 143 in 2014. There is one restaurant and one bar still located in Marmarth in 2013.
Fort Snelling is a former military fortification and National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Minnesota on the bluffs overlooking the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The military site was initially named Fort Saint Anthony, but it was renamed Fort Snelling once its construction was completed in 1825.
Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.
The Battle of Killdeer Mountain took place during Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully's expedition against the Sioux Indians in Dakota Territory July 28–29, 1864. The location of the battleground is in modern Dunn County, North Dakota. With a total of more than 4,000 soldiers involved, Sully's expedition was the largest ever carried out by the U.S. army against Indians.
The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyoming, when Sioux warriors killed 31 American soldiers in the Grattan Massacre, and the final came in 1890 during the Ghost Dance War.
Fort Ridgely was a frontier United States Army outpost from 1851 to 1867, built 1853–1854 in Minnesota Territory. The Sioux called it Esa Tonka. It was located overlooking the Minnesota river southwest of Fairfax, Minnesota. Half of the fort's land was part of the south reservation in the Minnesota river valley for the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute tribes. Fort Ridgely had no defensive wall, palisade, or guard towers. The Army referred to the fort as the "New Post on the Upper Minnesota" until it was named for three Maryland Army Officers named Ridgely, who died during the Mexican–American War; Randolph and Lott Henderson were killed in action and Thomas died in Baltimore, Maryland in Dec 1847.
The Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake was a skirmish in July 1863 in Dakota Territory between United States army forces and Santee, Yankton, Yanktonai and Teton Sioux. The Sioux attempted to capture the pack train of the army and retired from the field when they were unsuccessful.
The Hunkpapa are a Native American group, one of the seven council fires of the Lakota tribe. The name Húŋkpapȟa is a Lakota word, meaning "Head of the Circle". By tradition, the Húŋkpapȟa set up their lodges at the entryway to the circle of the Great Council when the Sioux met in convocation. They speak Lakȟóta, one of the three dialects of the Sioux language.
The Battle of Whitestone Hill was the culmination of the 1863 operations against the Sioux or Dakota people in Dakota Territory. Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village September 3–5, 1863. The Native Americans in the village included Yanktonai, Santee, and Teton (Lakota) Sioux. Sully killed, wounded, or captured 300 to 400 Sioux, including women and children, at a cost of about 60 casualties. Sully would continue the conflict with another campaign in 1864.
Running Antelope or Tȟatȟóka Íŋyaŋke (1821–1896) became a head chief of the Húŋkpapȟa in 1851. Known for his bravery in war, and skills in oratory and diplomacy, Running Antelope was one of four Huŋkpapȟa principal chiefs who acted as close advisors to Sitting Bull during the Plains Indian Wars. His belief that compromise with the whites was in their best interests led to his eventually distancing himself from Sitting Bull. He is the only Native American depicted on U.S. paper money, but the picture caused ill will as the Series 1899 $5 Silver Certificate pictured Running Antelope as a chief wearing a Pawnee head dress as the original Sioux head dress was too tall for the engraving.
Fort Buford was a United States Army Post at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in Dakota Territory, present day North Dakota, and the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.
The 8th Minnesota Infantry Regiment was a Minnesota USV infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Indian Wars and the American Civil War.
Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Battalion was a Minnesota USV cavalry battalion that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The area that eventually became the U.S. state of Montana played little direct role in the American Civil War. The closest the Confederate States Army ever came to the area was New Mexico and eastern Kansas, each over a thousand miles away. There was not even an organized territory using "Montana" until the Montana Territory was created on May 26, 1864, three years after the Battle of Fort Sumter. In 1861, the area was divided between the Dakota Territory and the Washington Territory, and in 1863, it was part of the Idaho Territory.
Fort Rice was a frontier military fort in the 19th century named for American Civil War General James Clay Rice in what was then Dakota Territory and what is now North Dakota. The 50th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment became the garrison in October 1865.
James Liberty Fisk was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War who promoted settlement of the western United States. He led four expeditions from Minnesota to Montana in the 1860s.
The Battle of the Badlands was fought in Dakota Territory, in what is now western North Dakota, between the United States army led by General Alfred Sully and the Lakota, Yanktonai, and the Dakota Indian tribes. The battle was fought August 7–9, 1864 between what are now Medora and Sentinel Butte, North Dakota. It was an extension of the conflict begun in the Dakota War of 1862. Sully successfully marched through the badlands encountering only moderate resistance from the Sioux.
The Department of the Northwest was an U.S. Army Department created September 6, 1862 to put down the Sioux uprising in Minnesota. Major General John Pope was made commander of the Department. At the end of the Civil War the Department was redesignated the Department of Dakota. Immediately upon arriving in St. Paul General Pope sent letters to the Governors of Iowa and Wisconsin for additional troops to assist the 5th Minnesota Infantry Regiment. From Iowa he got the 27th Iowa Infantry Regiment and from Wisconsin he received the 25th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Both quickly crossed the border to assist with the uprising. The 25th Wisconsin was in Minnesota three months and the 27th Iowa was there a month before both headed south. After they departed, the Minnesota District would be garrisoned by Minnesota units: 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Infantry Regiments, 1st and 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiments plus Minnesota Independent Cavalry Battalion as well as the 3rd Minnesota Light Artillery Battery. In 1864 companies of the 30th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment would see service in the Minnesota and Dakota Districts too.
The Battle of Pease Bottom, also called the Battle of the Bighorn River was a conflict between the United States Army and the Sioux on August 11, 1873 along the Yellowstone River opposite the mouth of the Bighorn River near present-day Custer, Montana. The main combatants were units of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, and Native Americans from the village of the Hunkpapa medicine man, Sitting Bull, many of whom would clash with Custer again approximately three years later at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in the Crow Indian Reservation.