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INDIAN WAR SOLDIER’S SOCK FROM FORT PEMBINA, ND

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This comes from the excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, and appears to be the 1877 pattern army sock, which was medium gray in color, had white toes, and the weave of the heel running parallel with the leg and nearly at a right angle to the foot. We show an illustration from McChristian’s excellent book, The US Army in the West, 1870-1880, who discusses this pattern. The ribbing does not appear as heavy on the leg portion as we have seen on other examples, but that may be due to wear. The color has shifted to a dark and light brown, and shows white and gray stains, but the weave of the heel and color of the toe seems to fit those specifications. The toe shows some holes and the leg is torn and missing the upper portion- usually 14 inches from top to bottom, but the sock (stocking in army terminology) is in fair condition from the wet, anaerobic conditions of the soil, and displays well. It is also very rare: after all, who would save them? They would be too useful not to use up in civilian life and not have enough eye-appeal or sentimental value to preserve as a memento.

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 site were conducted on private property with the owner’s permission and have yielded a trove of material casting light on the material culture of the fort’s garrison, who were equipped with Civil War material well into the 1870s and then later patterns as they were adopted and became available for issue. This is in remarkably good condition for an excavated piece, is very displayable, and 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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