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PIECE OF US ARMY BLANKET FROM FORT PEMBINA, NORTH DAKOTA

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This piece of a US Army military issue blanket comes from excavations at Fort Pembina, ND, conducted on private property with the owner’s permission, a fort established in 1870 by troops of the 20^th US Infantry and garrisoned until 1895. Uniform and equipment items recovered were in a remarkable state of preservation from the anaerobic conditions of the dig.

Excavations show that soldiers at the post were equipped with everything from Civil War surplus clothing and gear to the most up-to-date trial gear and a wide variety of privately purchased material. The Civil War blankets measured about 5 ½ feet by 7 feet, and featured dark end stripes and a loosely stitched “U.S.” made of yarn in the center. Officially designated as gray in color with black end stripes and letters, the logwood dies with iron mordants usually oxidized to a tan or light brown color in short order, though this is certainly stained a bit darker from wet, anaerobic soil conditions that, ironically, also preserved it. The Civil War issue blankets were replaced by a better quality blanket in 1873 and one changing the color of the end stripes and US to blue in 1876, though it is tough to tell which pattern this comes from.

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, 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 piece for comparison with non-excavated examples, but very displayable on its own 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.  [sr][ph:L]

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