The Army
Learn how the largest military post west of the Mississippi brought security and prosperity to North Montana.



A photograph of the inside of an enlisted men's barracks

 

            After the defeat of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Little Big Horn in 1876 and the Battle of the Bear Paws in 1877, many of the Indians of the northern plains had left the United States seeking refuge in Canada.  This included Sitting Bull and what remained of the fighting force that defeated Custer.
            Although Sitting Bull and his braves were too poor, exhausted and hungry to present any real threat to white settlers now moving into the northern plains, the U.S. Army viewed them as a menace capable of conducting raids across the border.  The Army’s fear led to the creation of Fort Assinniboine – one of the most strategic military outposts of the old west.

            Located 6 miles south of what is today Havre, the fort was constructed in 1879.  Unlike most forts of that time, Fort Assinniboine was built mostly of brick and had many comforts that other wooden or adobe forts of the time didn't have.  Hot water and indoor plumbing are two such examples.
            The fort was composed of about 100 brick, stone and wooden buildings that served the needs of about 600 troops.  It contained housing for married officers and enlisted men as well as barracks for single officers and men.  A library, officers hops room, and Fort Traders Building were also a part of the fort complex.  As a regimental headquarters, Fort Assinniboine also had a hospital, regimental band, and a half-mile-long parade ground.  Built to be an offensive rather than a defensive post, the fort never had a stockade.

Map of Fort Assinniboine
            When it was first built, Fort Assinniboine was the largest military post in Montana and was originally composed of about 700,000 acres that encompassed all of the Bear Paw Mountains and what today is Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.
            No great battles were ever fought by the troops at Fort Assinniboine – leaving boredom to be the one enemy no military commander could defeat.  Like most military bases of that time, Fort Assinniboine attracted a large variety of gin mills and bordellos around its perimeter.  Drunkenness and desertion were common problems at the fort and the guardhouse was kept quite busy trying to modify troop behavior.  But Fort Assinniboine did allow for some pleasures as hunting and fishing in the waters of the Bear Paw Mountains offered some escape from the tedium.
            Among the notable people stationed at Fort Assinniboine was a young lieutenant named John J. 
Pershing, who would latter rise to the rank of general and command American Expeditionary Forces in Europe during WW I.  His nickname “Black Jack Pershing” was earned while he was stationed at Fort Assinniboine and where he was in charge of a unit of the black 10th Cavalry also known as buffalo soldiers.
            Perhaps the most significant legacy of the fort was less in the protection it offered settlers and more in the development of a Hi-Line economy.