The army had vast stocks of Civil War material left over at the end of the war. These supplies, along with the reduction of the postwar army meant U.S. troops were getting Civil War gear well into the 1870s. This comes from excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, conducted on private property with the owner’s permission, a fort established in 1870 by troops of the 20^th US Infantry and garrisoned until 1895. Uniform and equipment items recovered were in a remarkable state of preservation from the anaerobic conditions of the dig.

This piece shows the typical loose weave of the army issue Civil War blanket and also part of the darker colored end stripe running along the middle of this piece. These blankets measured about 5 ½ feet by 7 feet, and featured dark end stripes and a loosely stitched “U.S.” made of yarn in the center. Officially designated as gray in color with black end stripes and letters, the logwood dies with iron mordants usually oxidized to a brownish color in short order, leaving most examples colored just like this. They were replaced in the early 1870s by a better quality blanket in 1873 and one changing the color of the end stripes and US to blue in 1876.

Situated in the Red River Valley in North Dakota near the Canadian border, Fort Pembina was established in 1870 and in operation until 1895. Trading posts existed earlier in the area as part of the fur trade, and the first U.S. military post there was temporary- manned by a detachment of Minnesota troops in 1863-1864 following the 1862 Sioux uprising. In March 1870 a new fort was established south of the Pembina River and about 200 yards west of the Red River, completed by July and named in honor of Gen. George H. Thomas. The name was changed to Fort Pembina in September and the initial garrison consisted of two companies of the 20^th US Infantry. Their main duty was to provide security for settlers worried about Sioux returning south from Canada, but the troops were more occupied with escorting boundary surveys along the Canadian border and preventing Fenian raids heading north into Canada.

The fort included enlistedmen’s barracks, officers’ quarters, guard house, ordnance storehouse, company kitchen, root house, laundress’s quarters, quarters for civilian employees, hospital and hospital servant’s house, a barn for the “hospital cow,” quartermaster and commissary offices and storehouse, stables, wagon shed, etc. The garrison reached peak strength in 1878 af 200, but the average was about 125 enlisted men and 8 officers. An October 1885 return listed 97 men, 2 field pieces, 1 mountain howitzer, 100 rifles, 19 pistols, 23 mules, and 9 wagons. By 1890 the post had just 23 men, and after an 1895 fire destroyed some 19 buildings it was decided to abandon the fort rather than rebuild, the last detachment left in September. The property was turned over to the Interior Department and later sold in 1902.

This is in remarkably good condition for an excavated piece and very displayable. It would fit a Civil War collection but also has a tight provenance to an Indian War post garrisoned by the U.S. army for a well-defined period that encompasses the 1870s and 1880s Indian Wars.  [sr] [ph:m]

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