Garrison life was normal at the post, with the officers’ families joining them as soon as quarters were available. The first women to come to live at Camp Robinson in the winter of 1874-1875 were the wives of Capt. W. H. Jordan, the post commander, and Lt. J. M. Lee, both Ninth Infantry officers.
Social activities included picnics, walks to the nearby buttes, long horseback rides, visits to Indian camps and dances, and fossil hunting in the nearby Bad Lands. Company dances were held with some regularity and social calling was an important part of the daily routine of officers and their ladies. Not all of the women were well impressed by the post. When Surgeon Valentine T. McGillycuddy’s wife joined him at Camp Robinson on December 13, 1876 she noted in her diary: “Commenced enjoying the camp. Finished.”[27] Mrs. McGillycuddy later tempered this first judgment of the post with diary entries that indicate her enjoyment of horseback rides and social calls by such notables as General Crook. Surgeon McGillycuddy’s wife even went along with her husband and a detachment of troops on an extended stay in the Black Hills in 1877.
The officers often entertained prominent Indian chiefs like Spotted Tail and Red Cloud, inviting such leaders to join them for lunch. Lt. John G. Bourke, General Crook’s aide, spent hours learning Indian languages from his native friends. Bourke once had an amusing contest with the Cheyenne medicine man High Wolf. Lieutenant Bourke used an old static electricity generator to deliver a shock to Indians he tempted to reach into a pail of water. The trap was baited with coins. In imitation of songs sung by Indian medicine men, Bourke sang “Pat Malloy” while operating the generator and acquired a reputation for having powerful “medicine.” A challenge match was arranged to test the relative powers of Bourke and High Wolf. There was a liberal prize and side bets by spectators. High Wolf received such a strong electrical charge on his first attempt that he fell and damaged Bourke’s machine. He shrewdly demanded a second chance and won the contest.
Despite the efforts of the post surgeon, medical care was sometimes inadequate to cope with the hazards of the frontier; an August whooping cough epidemic in 1876 claimed the lives of two children at Camp Robinson and was much more severe in the nearby Indian camps. The post surgeon noted in his medical history that “among the remedies employed vaccination has seemed to be very serviceable.”[28]
Some deaths at Fort Robinson were due to disease or natural causes, while others were the result of violence. The first burial at Camp Robinson, on July 3, 1875, was that of Pvt. James Brogan, Company A, Ninth Infantry, who died of “congestion of the brain.” Several victims of gunfights were also buried in the post cemetery. In 1876 “California Joe” (Moses Milner), a civilian hired as a scout for the Mackenzie expedition, was shot and killed by Tom Newcomb. The killing was the result of the scout’s efforts to publicly blame Newcomb for a murder he himself had probably committed. Sgt. Frank Owens, Ninth Infantry, killed Pvt. Eugene Carlton of his company while at a ranch nearby, and Surgeon McGillycuddy was unable to save the life of a Sergeant Casey mortally wounded by a trooper at Camp Canby.
The main center of entertainment for the men of the garrison was the post trader’s store and saloon. When the Sioux Expedition first established Camp Robinson, Mr. John T. Collins, post trader at Fort Laramie, was appointed acting trader by the expedition commander Col. John Smith. Later Major Paddock became post trader at Camp Robinson and held the position until the 1890’s. In efforts to control the results of drinking sprees which accounted for most of the courtmartial offenses, the post trader at Camp Robinson was required to keep a list of men buying drinks. Enlisted men were allowed only two drinks a day and those were to be three hours apart. Unauthorized sources of whiskey and entertainment, available just off the military reservation, made enforcement of this rule difficult. Holidays were marked by excesses among officers as well as enlisted men; Mrs. McGillycuddy’s diary records, in connection with the New Year period in 1876, “Outfit all drunk.”[29]
Standards of discipline changed with commanding officers. When he became post commander at Camp Robinson Colonel Mackenzie directed that the officers’ billiard room in the post trader’s store would be closed and no cards or billiards would be played on Sundays. Court-martials of enlisted men were frequent and punishment sometimes went beyond simple hard labor. One thirty day sentence provided that for twelve days the prisoner was to “stand on a barrel from reveille to retreat allowing one half hour for each meal.” Some sentences were for relatively minor infractions. At Camp Sheridan a musician was court-martialed for disobeying an order relative to the key in which he played “First Call.”[30] Men of the garrison worked six days a week, their routine beginning and ending with the rising and setting sun. On Sunday morning there was a full dress parade and inspection.[31]
Beef and bread, supplemented by wild game and vegetables grown by the soldiers in company gardens, were the main items of diet, although the issued foods included pork, bacon, flour, cornmeal, beans, peas, rice, hominy, coffee, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. Beef was often eaten twice a day; steak for breakfast and roast for lunch, with the evening meal consisting of pancakes or stewed dried apples. Both officers and men could purchase additional foods at the post commissary which carried canned tomatoes, raisins, hams and other items. In addition to post trader Paddock’s store at Camp Robinson, Clay Dear’s store at Camp Canby and J. W. Dear’s at Red Cloud Agency were sources of delicacies. Mrs. McGillycuddy describes her efforts to obtain oysters from these suppliers.
A major problem of the Army during the Indian Wars was desertion. Some men enlisted merely to obtain shelter for the winter or transportation to the West and others became dissatisfied with the rigors of Army life. In contrast were the enlisted men who devoted their lives to the service and formed the noncommissioned core of the Army. Sergeants and corporals often had to back up their commands with more than their chevrons when dealing with unruly members of the ranks. One sergeant of the guard at Fort Robinson so stoutly enforced his commands that the recalcitrant private died of a fractured skull.[32] The sergeant’s action was vindicated by a court inquiry.
The officers were an experienced group and devoted to an Army career. Many had risen, like Guy V. Henry, to the rank of general during the Civil War, only to revert to their regular rank when the Army was reduced to its “peacetime” Indian War size of about 25,000 men. Others came “up from the ranks,” as Emmet Crawford who fought through the War between the States as an enlisted man and noncom and was then commissioned. John G. Bourke graduated from West Point after serving through the Civil War as a private.