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CIVIL WAR-INDIAN WAR UNIFORM COAT LAPEL FROM FORT PEMBINA

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This strip of cloth shows three buttonholes indicating it is from the lapel of a coat and the spacing suggests it is from an army fatigue blouse. This comes from excavations at Fort Pembina, a small frontier garrison in North Dakota, where wet, anaerobic soil conditions have preserved discarded leather and cloth in remarkable condition.

It is tough to tell which pattern of uniform this came from, but the number and spacing of the buttonholes suggests it may be from an 1874 pattern 5-button fatigue blouse, though the garrison, like other US army postwar units, was uniformed in Civil War material well into the 1870s. The color shifted from blue to a slightly greenish brown and shows some stains, but is still pliable. Soldiers had a clothing allowance, but since overdrawing it resulted in deductions from pay, there was a tendency to keep garments in service as long as possible or salvage pieces for other purposes. Campaigning took a heavy toll as well and contemporary accounts make clear that troops had a very ragged appearance after a short time in the field.

Fort Pembina, in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, was garrisoned from 1870 to 1895 and recoveries show the garrison was supplied with the Civil War uniforms and gear left over in government warehouses, and then later with newer patterns as they were adopted and issued, along with a good amount of privately purchased material. The excavations were conducted on private property with the owner’s permission. 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, 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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