
	FORT ABERCROMBIE DAKOTA TERRITORY 1857 TO 1877 GATEWAY TO THE DAKOTAS


	POST HISTORY

From 1858 to 1877, Fort Abercrombie was a key military post in Dakota Territory. A military presence at the post played an important role in the non-Indian settlement of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Its military mission consisted of three broad charges: keeping the Sioux (Dakota) West of the James River to prevent raids on the settlements in Minnesota and the Dakota Territory; protect the steamboat and flatboat traffic on the Red River; and to protect wagon trains traveling overland to Montana. Later, Fort Abercrombie’s mission was changed to protecting the railroad as it was being built; establishing peace between the local Indian tribes; and to serving as the hub of military mail routes from Fort Stevenson via Fort Totten and from Fort Wadsworth (Sisseton) via Fort Ransom.

In 1870, Fort Abercrombie was the site for the Sioux Chippewa Peace Conference. The Sioux Chippewa Peace Conference resulted in the cessation of all Indian Hostilities in the immediate vicinity of the fort. It is a notable exception to the many Indian treaties broken in later years. The Sioux Chippewa Peace Conference was fostered by a Catholic priest, Father Genin. Father Genin was famous for his understanding of the Indians and his great work among the tribes near Fort Abercrombie. The conference lasted three days and was attended by 900 picked Sioux and Chippewa. Outrages by both tribes against the white men near Fort Abercrombie were also discontinued from this time on. Father Genin had his own banner, a white field marked with a red cross which is said to be the forerunner of the Red Cross Flag in use today.

The original Fort Abercrombie was established by authority of an act of Congress, March the 3^rd, 1857. This act provided the authority to erect a fort large enough to house four companies of Infantry and one company of Cavalry. The site of the fort was left largely to the discretion of Lt. Colonel John J. Abercrombie after whom the fort was named. This act did however, provide that the fort be built on the Red River of the North in Minnesota Territory.

The order for the building of the fort was issued June 24^th, 1858 and issued from the General Headquarters of the U.S. Army. Its exact location was described as Latitude 46 degrees, 27 minutes North, and Longitude 96 degrees and 28 minutes West, and about 15 miles North of the confluence of the Ottertail and Bois de Sioux Rivers and in the Territory of Minnesota.

The military reservation that surrounded the fort, comprised an area of 25 square miles, with Fort Abercrombie being almost in the exact center of this reservation. Approximately the same amount of the reservation being on the Minnesota Side of the Red River as was on the North Dakota side.

Lt. Colonel Abercrombie lived in residence with a company of the 20^th U.S. Infantry on the first fort site, but his stay was brief. Regular Army troops continued to occupy the fort until the Civil War broke out in the summer of 1861. There then followed a series of Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Companies under a variety of commanding officers who used the garrisoning of the fort as an opportunity to train their men before they left for the Civil War battlefields.

Other notable army units that served at Fort Abercrombie included in 1864 to 1865 Company A of the 1^st US Volunteer Infantry and later a company of the famous 7^th United States Cavalry regiment.

Company A of the 1^st US Volunteers was made up of "Galvanized Yankees or White-washed Rebs." In other words, these soldiers were former soldiers of the Confederate States of America, who had worn gray or butternut uniforms before they accepted the blue uniform of the United States Army in exchange for freedom from the United States Military Prisoner of War Camps where many of these soldiers had endured much of the Civil War.

Description of Post

Fort Abercrombie forms a rectangle 675' x 625'. It is enclosed by a stockade of logs projecting above the ground from 8 to 12 feet. There are blockhouses of hewn logs at the northeast and southwest corners.

Notes

Fort Abercrombie is troubled by locusts, which usually arrive in July. By September the crops, with the exception of potatoes and other tubers, is completely destroyed

The fort's supply depot is St. Paul, 245 miles distant. The route is via railroad to St. Cloud, thence by wagons in the summer months and sleds in the winter. It is a 3-day stage ride from Ft. Abercrombie to St. Cloud. The stage runs three times a week.