PIECE OF AN INDIAN WAR M1872 FATIGUE BLOUSE OR DRESS COAT FROM FORT PEMBINA, ND

$295.00

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Item Code: 1052-608

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This is a piece from the lapel of a US Army jacket showing part of the blue outer fabric, the lining and the remains of five corroded brass buttons. From the size and spacing of the buttons this is probably from one of the 9-button pleated M1872 fatigue blouses or the the 9-button dress coats of the 1870s and 1880s, but would not be from one of the earlier 4-button or later M1874 5-button blouses with wider spacing to the buttons. This comes from the excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, conducted on private property with the owner’s permission, where the soil conditions have preserved cloth and leather in remarkable condition, giving some real insight into the material culture of a small, frontier US Army post of the Indian Wars period.  Measures approx. 10” x 2”.

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 20th 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, a good study item for the weave and texture of the cloth, and very displayable. There is a chance this from a Civil War surplus dress coat, which was used by the army until the introduction of the 1870s patterns, but in any case it 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:L]

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