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CIVIL WAR FROCK COAT LAPEL FROM FORT PEMBINA, ND

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This lapel comes from the left side of US army dress coat discarded by a soldier at Fort Pembina, ND, and was excavated in wet, anaerobic soil that has preserved leather and cloth in remarkable condition. The fabric shows some tears and raggedness, but is soft, pliable, and displays well, showing the buttonholes and some of the chest with the color only shifting from blue to a light brown and olive. We lined this up against Civil War infantry enlisted frock coats and it matches in construction, size and placement of the buttonholes, etc. This is in keeping with the time frame of the fort, which was established in 1870, a point at which the army was still issuing Civil War uniforms from its vast stores, with patterns only beginning to change around 1872 and being phased in after that as adopted and eventually available for issue. An early photo of an infantry company at Fort Pembina, available online, clearly shows them wearing Hardee hats and Civil War infantry frock coats.

The excavations at the fort were conducted on private property with the owner’s permission. Situated in the Red River Valley in North Dakota near the Canadian border, the 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, 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, but would also be in place in a Civil War collection. The excavations at this site have provided a real insight into the material culture of a small garrison in the postwar frontier army.  [sr] [ph:m]

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