Camp Robinson was renamed Fort Robinson in January 1878. It remained an
important post and its garrison was called upon in several Indian
emergencies after the death of Crazy Horse.
Garrison life was normal at the post, with the officers’ families
joining them as soon as quarters were available. The first women to come
to live at Camp Robinson in the winter of 1874-1875 were the wives of
Capt. W. H. Jordan, the post commander, and Lt. J. M. Lee, both Ninth
Infantry officers.
Social activities included picnics, walks to the nearby buttes, long
horseback rides, visits to Indian camps and dances, and fossil hunting
in the nearby Bad Lands. Company dances were held with some regularity
and social calling was an important part of the daily routine of
officers and their ladies. Not all of the women were well impressed by
the post. When Surgeon Valentine T. McGillycuddy’s wife joined him at
Camp Robinson on December 13, 1876 she noted in her diary: “Commenced
enjoying the camp. Finished.”[27] Mrs. McGillycuddy later tempered this
first judgment of the post with diary entries that indicate her
enjoyment of horseback rides and social calls by such notables as
General Crook. Surgeon McGillycuddy’s wife even went along with her
husband and a detachment of troops on an extended stay in the Black
Hills in 1877.
The officers often entertained prominent Indian chiefs like Spotted Tail
and Red Cloud, inviting such leaders to join them for lunch. Lt. John G.
Bourke, General Crook’s aide, spent hours learning Indian languages from
his native friends. Bourke once had an amusing contest with the Cheyenne
medicine man High Wolf. Lieutenant Bourke used an old static electricity
generator to deliver a shock to Indians he tempted to reach into a pail
of water. The trap was baited with coins. In imitation of songs sung by
Indian medicine men, Bourke sang “Pat Malloy” while operating the
generator and acquired a reputation for having powerful “medicine.” A
challenge match was arranged to test the relative powers of Bourke and
High Wolf. There was a liberal prize and side bets by spectators. High
Wolf received such a strong electrical charge on his first attempt that
he fell and damaged Bourke’s machine. He shrewdly demanded a second
chance and won the contest.
Despite the efforts of the post surgeon, medical care was sometimes
inadequate to cope with the hazards of the frontier; an August whooping
cough epidemic in 1876 claimed the lives of two children at Camp
Robinson and was much more severe in the nearby Indian camps. The post
surgeon noted in his medical history that “among the remedies employed
vaccination has seemed to be very serviceable.”[28]
Some deaths at Fort Robinson were due to disease or natural causes,
while others were the result of violence. The first burial at Camp
Robinson, on July 3, 1875, was that of Pvt. James Brogan, Company A,
Ninth Infantry, who died of “congestion of the brain.” Several victims
of gunfights were also buried in the post cemetery. In 1876 “California
Joe” (Moses Milner), a civilian hired as a scout for the Mackenzie
expedition, was shot and killed by Tom Newcomb. The killing was the
result of the scout’s efforts to publicly blame Newcomb for a murder he
himself had probably committed. Sgt. Frank Owens, Ninth Infantry, killed
Pvt. Eugene Carlton of his company while at a ranch nearby, and Surgeon
McGillycuddy was unable to save the life of a Sergeant Casey mortally
wounded by a trooper at Camp Canby.
The main center of entertainment for the men of the garrison was the
post trader’s store and saloon. When the Sioux Expedition first
established Camp Robinson, Mr. John T. Collins, post trader at Fort
Laramie, was appointed acting trader by the expedition commander Col.
John Smith. Later Major Paddock became post trader at Camp Robinson and
held the position until the 1890’s. In efforts to control the results of
drinking sprees which accounted for most of the courtmartial offenses,
the post trader at Camp Robinson was required to keep a list of men
buying drinks. Enlisted men were allowed only two drinks a day and those
were to be three hours apart. Unauthorized sources of whiskey and
entertainment, available just off the military reservation, made
enforcement of this rule difficult. Holidays were marked by excesses
among officers as well as enlisted men; Mrs. McGillycuddy’s diary
records, in connection with the New Year period in 1876, “Outfit all
drunk.”[29]
Standards of discipline changed with commanding officers. When he became
post commander at Camp Robinson Colonel Mackenzie directed that the
officers’ billiard room in the post trader’s store would be closed and
no cards or billiards would be played on Sundays. Court-martials of
enlisted men were frequent and punishment sometimes went beyond simple
hard labor. One thirty day sentence provided that for twelve days the
prisoner was to “stand on a barrel from reveille to retreat allowing one
half hour for each meal.” Some sentences were for relatively minor
infractions. At Camp Sheridan a musician was court-martialed for
disobeying an order relative to the key in which he played “First
Call.”[30] Men of the garrison worked six days a week, their routine
beginning and ending with the rising and setting sun. On Sunday morning
there was a full dress parade and inspection.[31]
Beef and bread, supplemented by wild game and vegetables grown by the
soldiers in company gardens, were the main items of diet, although the
issued foods included pork, bacon, flour, cornmeal, beans, peas, rice,
hominy, coffee, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper. Beef was often eaten
twice a day; steak for breakfast and roast for lunch, with the evening
meal consisting of pancakes or stewed dried apples. Both officers and
men could purchase additional foods at the post commissary which carried
canned tomatoes, raisins, hams and other items. In addition to post
trader Paddock’s store at Camp Robinson, Clay Dear’s store at Camp Canby
and J. W. Dear’s at Red Cloud Agency were sources of delicacies. Mrs.
McGillycuddy describes her efforts to obtain oysters from these
suppliers.
A major problem of the Army during the Indian Wars was desertion. Some
men enlisted merely to obtain shelter for the winter or transportation
to the West and others became dissatisfied with the rigors of Army life.
In contrast were the enlisted men who devoted their lives to the service
and formed the noncommissioned core of the Army. Sergeants and corporals
often had to back up their commands with more than their chevrons when
dealing with unruly members of the ranks. One sergeant of the guard at
Fort Robinson so stoutly enforced his commands that the recalcitrant
private died of a fractured skull.[32] The sergeant’s action was
vindicated by a court inquiry.
The officers were an experienced group and devoted to an Army career.
Many had risen, like Guy V. Henry, to the rank of general during the
Civil War, only to revert to their regular rank when the Army was
reduced to its “peacetime” Indian War size of about 25,000 men. Others
came “up from the ranks,” as Emmet Crawford who fought through the War
between the States as an enlisted man and noncom and was then
commissioned. John G. Bourke graduated from West Point after serving
through the Civil War as a private.
Promotion was slow in the small army of the Indian War period. It was
not at all unusual to spend a decade or more as a lieutenant, and an
equal period faced a new captain before he could hope to become a field
officer. The families of officers and enlisted men alike shared the
rigors and isolation of frontier service. The years of campaigning
against hostile Indians required a devotion to duty of the highest
order.