Fort Abraham Lincoln

The Northern Pacific Railroad was moving westward and needed military protection. Companies B and C of the 6th Infantry built the first post, Fort McKeen, on the west bank of the Missouri River, across from Bismarck. On November 19, 1872, the fort’s name was changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln. The following year, Congress authorized the fort to have an addition of cavalry troops added to the mix. The fort was moved about five miles to the river bluffs.

Fall 1873 saw the arrival of six companies of the 7th U.S. 7th Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. That year (1873), troops of the 7th escorted the Yellowstone Survey Expedition.

Fort Abraham Lincoln had grown to include some 78 different buildings and was home to three companies of the 6th and 17th Infantries and six companies of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. It was one of the largest and most famous of the Northern Plains forts.

Custer and the 7th Cavalry would find themselves on an expedition in 1874 to the Black Hills of present-day South Dakota. They didn’t know it at the time but they were lighting the fuse to a massive clash that would heavily involve the regiment. They spent two months exploring the Back Hills and discovered gold on French Creek. Custer sent a telegram that would attract the attention of the nation:

“… gold has been found at several places, and it is the belief of those who are giving their attention to this subject that it will be found in paying quantities. I have on my table forty or fifty small particles of pure gold…most of it obtained today from one panful of earth.”

News of the gold strike sent tens of thousands of treasure seekers to the Black Hills. This was in violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. This naturally angered the Sioux and led to the Battle of the Little Big Horn two years later.

It was from Fort Lincoln, on May 17, 1876, Custer and the 7th Cavalry set out on the campaign against the “hostiles”. On June 25, the 7th Cavalry attacked an Indian village along the banks of the Little Big Horn River in what is now southeast Montana. The battle itself has been debated since it ended and is way beyond the scope of this website post. But after the fight, the steamer Far West brought the wounded, along with the news of the disaster, back to the fort.

In 1877 the fort’s troops participated in the Montana campaign against the Nez Perces. When the Indians surrendered in October, the troops then escorted them from Fort Keogh, Montana to Bismarck, North Dakota.

The fort continued to be the headquarters of the 7th Cavalry until June of 1882 when they were transferred to Fort Meade, South Dakota. By the end of the 1880s the railroad had been completed, most of the Indians had been confined to reservations, and local settlers were numerous. The Army evacuated the fort in 1891, by which time it was already falling into ruins and being dismantled by settlers.

Today, the fort is the Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, which includes the sites of both Fort McKeen and Fort Abraham Lincoln, as well as several restored Mandan Indian earth lodges. The locations of numerous buildings have been marked. Three blockhouses at Fort McKeen have been reconstructed. The original flagpole of Fort Abraham Lincoln stands in front of the Custer House, a Victorian-style home, which has been reconstructed and is open for living history tours. Also reconstructed are the commissary storehouse, which houses a gift shop, the enlisted men’s barracks, granary and stable.

Fort Lincoln Photo Album - photos from various trips to Fort Abraham Lincoln