History
With sharply increased settlement in Montana Territory at the end of the American Civil War, incidents with Native Americans on Montana’s Benton Road and the Bozeman Trail increased dramatically. On May 4, 1867, G. S. Townsend of the U.S. War Department wrote to the acting Territorial Governor of Montana Thomas Francis Meagher on behalf of the U. S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton concerning raising a Montana Territorial Militia:
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The most studied and written about episode in U.S. history, the Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people. War broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.
The Bozeman Trail was an overland route connecting the gold rush territory of Montana to the Oregon Trail. Its most important period was from 1863–68. Despite its name, "the major part of the route in Wyoming used by all Bozeman Trail travelers in 1864 was pioneered by Allen Hurlbut". Many miles of the Bozeman Trail in present Montana followed the tracks of Bridger Trail, opened by Jim Bridger in 1864. The flow of pioneers and settlers through territory of American Indians provoked their resentment and caused attacks. The challengers to the route were newly arrived Lakotas and their Indian allies, the Arapahoe and the Cheyenne. The United States put emphasis on a right to "establish roads, military and other posts" as described in Article 2 in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851. All parties in the conflict had signed that treaty. The Crow Indians held the treaty right to the contested area and had called it their homeland for decades. They sided with the whites. The U.S. Army undertook several military campaigns against the hostile Indians to try to control the trail. Because of its association with frontier history and conflict with American Indians, various segments of the trail are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department, was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army, also bearing responsibility for naval affairs until the establishment of the Navy Department in 1798, and for most land-based air forces until the creation of the Department of the Air Force on September 18, 1947.
"In answer to your telegram of April (28) twenty eight in relation to Indian invasion, I am instructed by the Sec'y. of War to inform you that authority has been given by this department to Liet. Genl. Sherman, to call out, organize, officer, arm and subsist such militia force in Montana Territory as he deems necessary for the protection of that Territory, against hostile Indians. Any suggestion you make to Genl. Sherman at St. Louis on matter relating to this subject, will receive his attention. Acknowledge receipt."
— G. S. Townsend to Acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas F. Meagher, May 4, 1867
By the end of April 1867, a Volunteer Militia of 80 men had already been organized, and by the end of May, that number had grown to 150, consisting mostly of mounted horsemen. Acting Governor Thomas Francis Meagher commissioned Thomas Thoroughman, an ex-Confederate Lieutenant Colonel, a Brigadier General to command the Montana Militia in spring of 1867, and commissioned Walter W. De Lacy Colonel. [1] In May 1867, the Montana Volunteer Militia under Thoroughman and De Lacy built Fort Elizabeth Meagher at the mouth of Rocky Creek in Gallatin County, Montana to provide settlers protection from "hostile" Sioux and Crow Indians. By the end of July 1867, the Volunteer Militia force numbered 513 men present for duty, consisting of 32 officers and 481 enlisted men. Desertions were common, and in the summer a detachment of about one hundred men stationed on the Upper Yellowstone River deserted at once. On July 1, 1867, Acting Governor Meagher drowned in the Missouri River at Fort Benton, Montana while receiving a shipment of ammunition for the Montana Militia. Governor Green Clay Smith then demoted Thomas Thoroughman to Colonel, giving him principal responsibility in the Gallatin Valley. At the end of July, Smith issued a proclamation "calling for the service of 800 men for six months from the 1st of August, and inviting the old force to reenlist." [2]
Fort Elizabeth Meagher, named for the wife of Thomas F. Meagher, secretary and former acting governor of the Montana Territory, was established in May, 1867 eight miles east of the town of Bozeman, Montana at the mouth of Rocky Creek by Brigadier General Thomas Thoroughman and Colonel Walter W. De Lacy of the Montana Territory Volunteer Militia. The post's mission was to provide settlers protection against hostile Crow and Sioux Native Americans who were expected to invade the area following the murder of John Bozeman in April 1867. The main post stockade, and a picket-post erected on the approaches to Bridger Pass, were designed to block the passes through the mountains into the valley. The post was abandoned in August 1867 when nearby Fort Ellis was built.
Gallatin County is a county in the U.S. state of Montana. With its county seat in Bozeman, it is the third-most populous county in Montana, with a population of 89,513 in 2010.
The Sioux, also known as Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or to any of the nation's many language dialects. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and Lakota.
The arrival of United States Army regiments in Montana Territory from 1866 to 1867, including companies from the 2nd Cavalry, 7th Infantry, First Battalion, 13th Infantry and Second Battalion, 18th Infantry (redesignated the 27th Infantry), relieved the need for a Territorial Militia, and after fighting no battles, the Montana Territory Volunteer Militia was disbanded by January 1868.
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution. As the oldest and most senior branch of the U.S. military in order of precedence, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which was formed to fight the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775.
The 2nd Cavalry Regiment, also known as the 2nd Dragoons, is an active Stryker infantry and cavalry regiment of the United States Army. The Second Cavalry Regiment is a unit of the United States Army Europe, with its garrison at the Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany. It can trace its lineage back to the early part of the 19th century.
The 7th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment in the United States Army. In its 200-year history it has participated in 12 wars, been awarded 78 campaign streamers, and 14 unit decorations. The regiment has served in more campaigns than any other infantry unit in the United States Army.
The Creek War (1813–1814), also known as the Red Stick War and the Creek Civil War, was a regional war between opposing Creek factions, European empires and the United States, taking place largely in today's Alabama and along the Gulf Coast. The major conflicts of the war took place between state militia units and the "Red Stick" Creeks.
Henry Dodge was a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, Territorial Governor of Wisconsin and a veteran of the Black Hawk War. His son was Augustus C. Dodge with whom he served in the U.S. Senate, the first, and so far only, father-son pair to serve concurrently. Henry Dodge was the half brother of Lewis F. Linn. James Clarke, the Governor of Iowa Territory, the son-in-law of Henry Dodge.
Thomas Francis Meagher was an Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848. After being convicted of sedition, he was first sentenced to death, but received transportation for life to Van Diemen's Land in Australia.
James William Forsyth was a U.S. Army officer and general. He was primarily a Union staff officer during the American Civil War and cavalry regimental commander during the Indian Wars. Forsyth is best known for having commanded the 7th Cavalry at the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890 during which more than 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota were killed and 51 were wounded.
Fort Reno also known as Fort Connor or Old Fort Reno, was a wooden Fort established on August 15, 1865 by the United States Army in Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming. The fort was built to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail from Native American tribes.
The Colorado Territory was formally created in 1861 shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked the American Civil War. Although sentiments were somewhat divided in the early days of the war, Colorado was only marginally a pro-Union territory. Colorado was strategically important to both the Union and Confederacy because of the gold and silver mines there as both sides wanted to use the mineral wealth to help finance the war. The New Mexico Campaign was a military operation conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Henry Sibley to gain control of the Southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado, the mineral-rich territory of Nevada and the ports of California. The campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory and an attempt to cut the supply lines between California and the rest of the Union. However, the Confederates were defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico and were forced to retreat back to Texas, effectively ending the New Mexico Campaign.
The 8th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Indian Wars and the American Civil War.
The 1st Regiment California Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent its entire term of service in the western United States.
Fort Ellis was a United States Army fort established August 27, 1867, east of present-day Bozeman, Montana. Troops from the fort participated in many major campaigns of the Indian Wars. The fort was closed in 1886.
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.
The present-day state of Nebraska was still a territory of the United States during the American Civil War. It did not achieve statehood until March 1867, two years after the war ended. Nevertheless, Nebraska contributed significantly to the Union war effort.
The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an American Civil War era military regiment recruited in Oregon for the Union Army. The regiment was formed in November 1864. At full strength, it was composed of ten companies of foot soldiers. The regiment was used to guard trade routes and escorted immigrant wagon trains from Fort Boise to the Willamette Valley. Its troops were used to pursue and suppress Indian raiders in eastern Oregon and the Idaho Territory. Several detachments accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon. The regiment's last company was mustered out of service in July 1867.
Clarence Edmund Bennett (1833–1902), usually referred to as Clarence E. Bennett, a graduate of West Point, a career American Army officer who saw duty almost exclusively in Western frontier assignments, served in the American Civil War in California, New Mexico and Arizona Territories and later in Reconstruction occupation forces and frontier duty during the later Indian Wars.
Brevet Brigadier General Lester Sebastion Willson,, was a U.S. Civil War officer in the Union Army, Assistant Quartermaster General of New York, and a Montana merchant and politician in Bozeman, Montana. He was married at Albany, New York, on March 2, 1869, to Miss Emma D. Weeks, a native of Vermont. He died in Bozeman, Montana on January 26, 1919.
The history of Washington in the American Civil War is atypical, as the territory was the most remote from the battlefields of the American Civil War. The territory raised a small number of volunteers for the Union Army, who did not fight against the Confederate States Army but instead maintained defensive positions against possible foreign naval or land attacks. Although the Indian Wars in Washington were recent, there were no Indian hostilities within the area of modern Washington, unlike the rest of the western states and territories, during the Civil War. At the start of the American Civil War, modern-day Washington was part of the Washington Territory. On March 3, 1863, the Idaho Territory was formed from that territory, consisting of the entirety of modern-day Idaho, Montana, and all but southwest Wyoming leaving the modern-day Washington as Washington Territory.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, regular U.S. Army troops in the District of Oregon were withdrawn from posts in Oregon and Washington Territory and sent east. Volunteer cavalry and infantry were recruited in California and sent north to Oregon to replace the Federal troops and keep the peace and protect the populace. Oregon also raised the 1st Oregon Cavalry that was activated in 1862 and served until June 1865. During the Civil War, emigrants to the newfound gold fields in Idaho and Oregon continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864 - 1868 Snake War. The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment was formed in 1864 and its last company was mustered out of service in July 1867. Both units were used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort emigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders. Several infantry detachments also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon.
Ferdinand Leigh Claiborne (1773-1815) was an American military officer most notable for his command of the militia of the Mississippi Territory during the Creek War and the War of 1812. Claiborne was the brother of William C. C. Claiborne and father of John Francis Hamtramck Claiborne. He was a descendant of Colonel William Claiborne (1600–1677), who was born in Crayford, Kent, England and settled in the Colony of Virginia.
This is a Timeline of pre-statehood Montana history comprising substantial events in the history of the area that would become the State of Montana prior to November 8, 1889. This area existed as Montana Territory from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.
