Fort Robinson: Outpost on the Plains

by Roger T. Grange

The first meeting of the commission was held on September 17 in the council room of the agency, but the Indians refused to attend, saying they would sign no treaty under duress. Despite Spotted Tail’s warnings of possible trouble, the commission agreed to move the treaty site to a point some eight miles east of Camp Robinson where a meeting was held under a lone cottonwood tree. The assembled throng of Indians numbered several thousand, with large numbers from each of the several Sioux agencies. A troop of cavalry lined each side of the canvas shelter provided for the commissioners. Young Man Afraid of His Horses ranged his friendly camp police behind the hostile Indian warriors, and his assistance in the ensuing troubles was credited with preventing disaster once again.

Both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were scheduled to speak in favor of selling the Black Hills but just as Red Cloud began to make his oration Little Big Man, armed to the teeth, threatened to shoot the first Indian who spoke in favor of ceding the Black Hills to the white men. Spotted Tail advised the commissioners to return to the safety of Camp Robinson immediately—advice which they took.

The dismal failure of the treaty effort almost assured a war with the hostile Sioux. The coming campaigns were to be led by the Army’s supreme Indian fighter, General George Crook, who had taken command of the critical Department of the Platte the previous spring and had immediately set about to bring the companies of the Third Cavalry up to full strength.

General Crook’s first campaign against the hostiles was no more successful than the Black Hills treaty efforts had been. When cavalrymen led by Colonel Reynolds attacked and managed to destroy the greater part of a hostile camp on the Little Powder River on March 17, 1876 they were forced to withdraw rapidly from the captured village. In an ensuing running fight the captured Indian horse herd changed hands so many times that General Crook had the remaining ponies killed to prevent their recapture. The destruction of the property of one camp did not drive the hostiles to the agencies in submission; if anything it stiffened their resistance.

With the spring campaigns inconclusive, Crook prepared for the summer. The summer campaign of 1876 was designed to trap the hostiles between three columns: Gibbon from the west, Terry and Custer from the east, and Crook from the south. Crook’s force numbered 1,774 men and Terry had 1,873. To raise these columns all posts in the Departments of the Platte and Dakota were stripped of their garrisons. Crook’s column met Crazy Horse and the hostiles on June 17, 1876 in the Battle of Rosebud Creek and, although the General claimed a victory when the Indians left the field, he fell back to his base camp to await reinforcements. On June 25 at the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Black Moon led the same hostiles and crushed Custer’s command. Even before the Omaha Military Headquarters had heard of Custer’s defeat, the Indians at Red Cloud Agency were discussing it. Frank Yates, one of the traders at the agency, was a brother of the Captain Yates who fell with Custer. When the rumors were reported to him he went to Camp Robinson where officers rejected the possibility of such a disaster. They telegraphed Omaha but no word had yet reached officers there.

On July 17, 1876, seventeen officers and 346 men of the Fifth Cavalry commanded by Col. Wesley Merritt passed through Camp Robinson on their way to reinforce Crook. They paused long enough to intercept a group of about eight hundred Cheyenne Indians who were leaving Red Cloud Agency. The Indians claimed to be going on a buffalo hunt, but it was feared that they were attempting to join the victorious hostiles. Met by the troops, the Indians were forced to return to the agency after a brief skirmish. During the fighting Yellow Hand was killed by gunfire and the scout “Buffalo Bill” Cody took his scalp in an incident which was later much publicized and embellished.

The great Indian victories brought an end to the Peace Policy, and on July 22, 1876 control of the Indian agencies was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the War Department and on June 31 Lt. O. Elting of Camp Robinson became the acting agent at Red Cloud Indian Agency. In August the officers discovered a serious shortage in Indian Department funds and the Army had to loan needed supplies for issue to the Indians at the agency.

Crook’s column remained in the field throughout the summer, following the battles of the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn. In September, while marching towards the Black Hills, Crook found that his supplies were exhausted, and his men ate their dying mounts in the famed “Horsemeat March.” A small detachment was sent ahead to obtain supplies. Led by Capt. Anson Mills and including Lieutenant Crawford of the Third Cavalry, the advance party discovered and captured a Sioux camp in the Battle of Slim Buttes, obtaining a considerable supply of meat. Additional supplies were taken by troops from Camp Robinson to meet the expedition in the Black Hills. Crook and his staff left the troops, came in to Robinson, and went on to Fort Laramie. On October 23 and 24, 1876 the men of his command reached Camp Robinson, where the expedition was disbanded. The sick and wounded were placed in the post hospital, and Contract Surgeon Valentine T. McGillycuddy was assigned to duty there.

Col. Ranald Mackenzie had come to Camp Robinson with eight companies of cavalry in August. Mackenzie assumed the command of the post and the additional troops were quartered in three temporary cantonments. One of these, Camp Canby, was the original Sioux Expedition cavalry camp. The others were called Camp Custer and Camp of the Second Battalion, Fourth Cavalry. In October groups of recruits of 85 and 224 men arrived to bring the companies up to strength. Colonel Forsyth reported some companies consisted of nearly two-thirds recruits, owing to recent discharges of disabled soldiers.

For the brief period when the men of both Crook’s and Mackenzie’s commands were there, Camp Robinson and its cantonments were very crowded. General Crook took advantage of the temporary presence of the fifty-three companies of troops at the post to hold a conference with Indian leaders at Red Cloud Agency and in no uncertain terms demanded loyal behavior of them.