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REGULAR ARMY MODEL 1872 KEPI FROM FORT PEMBINA, NORTH DAKOTA

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This Model 1872 officer’s kepi comes from excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, conducted on private property with the owner’s permission. The fort was established in 1870 by troops of the 20^th US Infantry and garrisoned until 1895. Uniform and equipment items were in a remarkable state of preservation from the anaerobic conditions of the dig and as would be expected from an early Indian War post, show a mix of Civil War commercial and issue items retained by soldiers, sold by retailers from old inventory, or issued by the army out of surplus stocks, along with later material, both commercial and issue.

The cap is a Model 1872 fatigue cap. These followed the lines of the Civil War chasseur pattern caps and remained regulation as the fatigue cap into the 1890s. The fabric has shifted in color to to a light brown, and has scattered white stains, but remains supple. There are two short, narrow slits on the lower front of the slanting top and two or three very small holes on the rolled top edge of the crown. The lining is long gone, but the leather stiffener in the crown is there and much of the sweatband. The cap has a 1 ¼” band around the base and rises to about 1 3/4” in front. The visor is about 2 inches deep, unbound, and rounded. It appears to have been a replacement by the soldier to keep the cap in service, and likely avoid a charge to his clothing allowance for a new one. It appears to have been loose when excavated and has been reattached with some matching thread for display and is stable.

Model 1872 caps as a pattern are not hard to find. They were used for decades by national guard, fraternal and masonic groups, veterans’ groups, military academies, etc. Finding one that had regular army use at a frontier post, however, is near impossible. 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, escort boundary surveys along the Canadian border, and, ironically, prevent raids north into Canada by Fenian groups.

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 of 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: without knowing the background, one might take it as a “barn find” or “attic find,” though without the moth damage. It is very displayable, and has a tight provenance to an Indian War post garrisoned by the U.S. army for a well-defined period encompassing the plains Indian Wars.  [sr][ph:L]

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