This McKeever pattern cartridge box comes from the excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, and preserved the front of the box with the fastening stud in place on the top of the front and the embossed US in oval still visible, and with portions of the sides and back. The box shows stains and dirt, with the brass hinge rod on the bottom and much of the stitching gone, but is a real relic of a small US army fort on the postwar frontier in the 1870s-1890s.

The McKeever pattern cartridge box was adopted in 1874, went into production in 1875, and remained in service for several decades with minor changes. The box had a front and back section opening at the top and hinged on a brass rod on the bottom so that the front section would flip downwards giving the soldier access to twenty cartridges in cloth loops, ten in each compartment. The box remained in service for decades. Minor changes included a slight swell in one side of the box to accommodate a gun tool, and later a slightly taller box to take the longer cartridge with heavier bullet. It was intended the soldier wear two of these boxes on campaign, giving him forty rounds, but various forms of thimble style belts were preferred in the field and the McKeever generally saw service only in garrison and on guard duty.

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.

Excavations at the fort site were done on private property with owner’s permission and have yielded a variety or artifacts including leather and cloth that were well preserved by anaerobic conditions of the dig and offer insight into the material culture of the postwar frontier army, showing gradual changes from Civil War surplus to more modern uniforms and gear as they were adopted and became available starting in the 1870s.    [sr] [ph:L]

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