Department of Dakota
Encyclopedia
A subdivision of the Division of the Missouri, the Department of Dakota was established by the United States Army
on August 11, 1866 to encompass all military activities and forts within Minnesota
, Dakota Territory
and Montana Territory
. The Department of Dakota was initially headquartered at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and then moved to St.Paul in March 1867. The department was discontinued in 1911.
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
on August 11, 1866 to encompass all military activities and forts within Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
and Montana Territory
Montana Territory
The Territory of Montana was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 28, 1864, until November 8, 1889, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Montana.-History:...
. The Department of Dakota was initially headquartered at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and then moved to St.Paul in March 1867. The department was discontinued in 1911.
Commanders
- Brevet Major General Alfred H. Terry, (Sept. 18, 1866-May 17, 1869)
- Major General Winfield S. Hancock, (May 17, 1869-Jan. 2, 1873)
- Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry, (Jan. 2, 1873–1886)
- Brigadier General Thomas Howard Ruger (1886–1891)
Minnesota
- Fort RidgelyFort RidgelyFort Ridgely was a United States Army outpost near the Dakota reservation in southwestern Minnesota . Built between 1853–1855, it played an important role in the Dakota War of 1862...
(1853–67) - Fort RipleyCamp RipleyCamp Ripley is a military and civilian training facility operated by the Minnesota National Guard located near the city of Little Falls in the central part of the state. The location of the camp was selected in 1929 by Ellard A. Walsh, Adjutant General of the State of Minnesota...
(1849–77) - Fort Snelling (1819–1994)
Montana
- Fort AssinniboineFort AssinniboineFort Assinniboine, a fort in Montana and within the military Department of Dakota, was built in 1879, in the aftermath of the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and the disastrous defeat of U.S. Army forces led by General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. The fort is located in...
(1879–1911 ) - Fort BentonFort Benton, MontanaFort Benton is a city in and the county seat of Chouteau County, Montana, United States. A portion of the city was designated as a National Historic Landmark District in 1961. Established a full generation beforethe U.S...
(1869–81) - Camp Cooke (1866–70)
- Fort CusterFort Custer (Montana)Fort Custer was established during the Indian wars in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army to control the Sioux, Cheyenne and Crow Indians near present-day Hardin, Montana...
(1877–98) - Fort EllisFort EllisFort Ellis was an early United States Army outpost established August 27, 1867 to the eastern side of present-day Bozeman, Montana. The fort was established to protect and support settlers moving into the Gallatin Valley. The post was named for Civil War Colonel Augustus van Horne Ellis who was...
(1867–86) - Fort KeoghFort KeoghFort Keogh is located on the western edge of Miles City, Montana. Occasionally spelled Fort Keough. Originally a military post, today it is a United States Department of Agriculture livestock and range research station. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places...
(1876–1924) - Camp Lewis (1874)
- Fort Logan (1869–80)
- Fort Maginnis (1880–90)
- Camp Merritt (1890)
- Fort MissoulaFort MissoulaFort Missoula was established by the United States Army in 1877 on land that is now part of the city of Missoula, Montana, to protect white settlers in Western Montana from possible threats from the native American Indians, such as the Nez Perce....
(1877–1918, 1921–1947) - Camp Poplar RiverCamp Poplar RiverCamp Poplar River was established during the Indian wars in the Department of Dakota by U.S. Army to maintain order, keep non-agency Indians away, and help capture the Indians who disturbed the peace and would not conform to reservation boundaries of the Fort Peck Agency, which in 1878, was...
(1880–93) - Camp PorterCamp PorterCamp Porter, Montana Territory, was established as a single-year camp in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army, to provided protection to Northern Pacific Railway construction crews during the Indian Wars.-Established:...
(1880–81) - Fort ShawFort Shaw, MontanaFort Shaw is a census-designated place in Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 274 at the 2000 census. It is part of the 'Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area'.-Geography:...
(1867–91)
North Dakota
- Fort AbercrombieFort AbercrombieFort Abercrombie, in North Dakota, was an American fort established by authority of an act of Congress, March 3, 1857. The act allocated twenty-five square miles of land on the Red River in Dakota Territory to be used for a military outpost, but the exact location was left to the discretion of...
(1858–77) - Fort Abraham LincolnFort Abraham LincolnFort Abraham Lincoln State Park is located seven miles south of Mandan, North Dakota. The park is home to On-A-Slant Indian Village, the blockhouses and the Custer house...
(1872–91) - Cantonment Badlands (1879–83)
- Fort Berthold (1864–67)
- Fort BufordFort BufordFort Buford was a United States Army base at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in North Dakota, and the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881....
(1866–95) - Camp Hancock (1872–77)
- Fort PembinaPembina, North DakotaPembina is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 592 at the 2010 census.The area of Pembina was long inhabited by various indigenous peoples...
(1870–95) - Fort RansomFort Ransom, North DakotaAs of the census of 2000, there were 70 people, 37 households, and 19 families residing in the city. The population density was 233.1 people per square mile . There were 44 housing units at an average density of 146.5 per square mile...
(1867–72) - Fort RiceFort RiceFort Rice was a frontier military fort in the 19th century in what was then Dakota Territory and what is now North Dakota....
(1864–78) - Fort Seward (1872–77)
- Fort StevensonFort StevensonFort Stevenson was a frontier military fort in the 19th century in what was then Dakota Territory and what is now North Dakota. The fort was abandoned in 1883 with the sale of all buildings and property. In 1901 the lands encompassing the Fort Stevenson Military Reservation were sold to Black and...
(1867–83) - Fort TottenFort Totten State Historic Site-History:Established on July 17, 1867, the fort was first built to watch over the surrounding Indian Reservation after a group of the Sioux tribe moved to the area after 1867. The soldiers were stationed to enforce the peace and guard transportation routes. The fort was decommissioned in 1890...
(1867–90) - Fort YatesFort Yates, North DakotaFort Yates is a city in Sioux County, North Dakota in the United States. It is the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and county seat of Sioux County...
(1874–1903)
South Dakota
- Fort BennettFort BennettFort Bennett was originally called the Post at Cheyenne River Agency and was established during the Indian wars in the Department of Dakota by the U.S. Army to control the Sioux.-History:...
(1870–91) - Fort Dakota (1865–69)
- Post at Grand River Agency (1870–75)
- Fort Hale (1870–84)
- Fort MeadeFort Meade (South Dakota)Fort George Gordon Meade was established in 1878 as a cavalry fort to protect the new settlements in the northern Black Hills, especially the nearby gold mining area around Deadwood. Several stage and freighting routes passed through Fort Meade enroute to Deadwood.For most of the past 120 years,...
(1878- ) - Fort RandallFort Randall, South DakotaThe Fort Randall Military Post was established in 1856 to help keep peace on the frontier. It was located on the south side of the Missouri River in South Dakota, just below the present site of the Fort Randall Dam. The site for the fort was selected in 1856 by General William S. Harney...
(1856–1892) - Fort Siseton (1876–89)
- Fort Sully (1863–66)
- Fort ThompsonFort Thompson, South DakotaFort Thompson is a census-designated place in Buffalo County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 1,282 at the 2010 census, making it the largest settlement on the Crow Creek Reservation.-Geography:...
(1864–71) - Fort Wadsworth 1864-76
- Post at Whetstone Agency 1870-72
Wyoming
- Fort BridgerFort BridgerFort Bridger was originally a 19th century fur trading outpost established in 1842 on Blacks Fork of the Green River and later a vital resupply point for wagon trains on the Oregon Trail, California Trail and Mormon Trail. The Army established a military post here in 1858 during the Utah War until...
1858-1878, 1880–1890 - Fort CasparFort CasparFort Caspar was a military post of the United States Army in present-day Wyoming, named after 2nd Lieutenant Caspar Collins, a U.S. Army officer who was killed in the 1865 Battle of the Platte Bridge Station against the Lakota and Cheyenne...
1855-1867 - Fort FettermanFort FettermanFort Fetterman was a wooden fort constructed in 1867 by the United States Army on the Great Plains frontier in the Dakota Territory approximately 11 miles northwest of present-day Douglas, Wyoming. It was located high on the bluffs on the south side of the North Platte River...
1867-1882 - Fort HalleckFort Halleck (Wyoming)Fort Halleck was a military outpost that existed in the 1860s along the Overland Trail and stage route in what is now the U.S state of Wyoming. The fort was established in 1862 to protect emigrant travelers and stages transporting mail between Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah and named for Major...
1862-1866 - Fort LaClede 1863-1869
- Fort Laramie or Fort John 1849-1890
- Fort McKinney 1876-1894
- Fort Phil KearnyFort Phil KearnyFort Phil Kearny was an outpost of the United States Army that existed in the late 1860s in present-day northeastern Wyoming along the Bozeman Trail. Construction began Friday July 13, 1866 by Companies A, C, E and H of the 2nd Battalion, 18th Infantry, under the direction of the regimental...
1866-1868 - Fort Rawlins 1868-?
- Fort RenoFort Reno (Wyoming)Fort Reno was a wooden fort constructed in 1865 by the United States Army on the Great Plains frontier in the Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming...
1865-1868 - Fort RobinsonFort RobinsonFort Robinson is a former U.S. Army fort and a present-day state park. Located in the Pine Ridge region of northwest Nebraska, it is west of Crawford on U.S. Route 20.- History :...
1874-1948 - Fort David A. Russell 1867-1948
- Fort SandersFort Sanders (Wyoming)Fort Sanders was a wooden fort constructed in 1866 on the Laramie Plains in southern Wyoming, near the city of Laramie. Originally named Fort John Buford, it was renamed Fort Sanders after General William P. Sanders who died at the Siege of Knoxville during the American Civil War. This was the...
1866-1882 - Fort Fred Steele 1868-1886
- Fort WashakieFort WashakieFort Washakie was a U.S Army fort in what is now the U.S. state of Wyoming. The fort was established in 1869 and named Camp Augur afterGeneral Christopher C. Augur, commander of the Department of the Platte. In 1870 the camp was renamed Camp Brown in honor of Captain Frederick H. Brown who was...
1878-1913 - Fort YellowstoneFort Yellowstone-See also:* Grand Loop Road Historic District* Lake Fish Hatchery Historic District* Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District* North Entrance Road Historic District* Roosevelt Lodge Historic District* Old Faithful Historic District* US Post Office-Yellowstone Main...
1886-1918