Cabinet photograph
Sergeant with foot officer's sword and flag
Matousek, Chicago, Illinois, ca. 1898
Photographic Study Collection, 2002.170
Between 1864 and 1870 the "Indian Question"
was a major problem confronting the congress and
executive department. Two conflicting forces were
evident. One demanded the Indian problem be settled
by peaceful methods, while the other saw no solution
except by the use of force. Moreover, within the
executive department this conflict raged between
the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of
the Interior and the War Department. Indian Affairs
supervised all Indian superintendents and agents
and authorized the distribution of annuities. However,
whenever Indian hostilities broke out, the War Department
was compelled to intervene until they could be put
down. As a consequence, the authority of the two
departments overlapped and, therefore, clashed oftentimes
with disastrous results.
General Philippe Regis Denis
de Keredern de Trobriand records in a journal entry
of July 1867 his understanding of the "Indian
Question." Chatting with pioneers in Omaha,
Nebraska Territory, De Trobriand writes, "The
majority were convinced that the simplest and only
means of settling the 'Indian Question' was to exterminate
'all the vermin'...Others, more just and more moderate,
believe that the whites have been far from blameless...These
latter informants are few in number, and while they
declare that the poor Indians have been treated
like dogs, that they have been lied to, robbed,
pillaged, and massacred, they would be just as prompt
as the others in shooting on sight any red-skin
suspect that crossed their path. The destiny of
the white race in America is to eat up the red men,
and in this rising tide of population that rolls
towards the setting sun there is not one who is
backward in taking his bite."
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Cabinet
photograph
Portrait of two soldiers with packs
DeVos, Warsaw, Indiana, ca. 1890
Photographic Study Collection, 2002.175
These infantrymen, wearing five-button fatigue coats
and kepis (or forage caps), hold model 1873 Springfield
"trapdoor" rifles. In full field equipment,
these soldiers have knapsacks, blankets and bedrolls.
A McKeever cartridge box is seen near the standing
soldier's hip.
Initial medical examinations of new recruits were
regulated by the U.S. Army. After the recruit strips
and bathes the medical officer was to "examine
him stripped; to see that he has free use of all limbs;
that his chest is ample; that his hearing, vision,
and speech are perfect...; that he has no tumors,
or ulcerated or extensively cicatrized [scar tissued]
legs, no rupture or chronic cuteaneous [sic] affection;
that he has not received any contusion, or wound of
the head, that may impair his faculties; that he is
not a drunkard; is not subject to convulsions; and
has no infectious disorders..., nor any other to unfit
him for military duty." Oftentimes, these exams
were carelessly done. Upon their arrival from the
recruit depot, they were examined again and many were
then found medically unfit for duty.
Beginning in 1884 each new recruit was issued a copy
of The Soldier's Handbook, a pocket-sized,
leather-bound volume that provided him with the basic
knowledge of what the army expected of him and how
to take care of himself. Prior to this the recruit
had to learn this information by observation and instruction.
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In the field picture below are U.
S. infantry troops wearing five-button fatigue blouses,
campaign hats, and Mills-cartridge belts. They hold
Springfield rifles with fixed bayonets and at their
feet are haversacks, canteens and cups.
Troops, assembled for campaign service at a regimental
headquarters, were sometimes escorted for a few miles
by a band, usually playing "The Girl I Left Behind
Me." The infantry in a column swung out with
"blanket rolls and haversacks slung over their
shoulders, and their tin cups, which hung from the
haversack, rattled and jingled as they marched."
According to Old Fort Snelling Instruction Book
for Fife, "The Girl I Left Behind Me"
was probably an old Irish tune. It became a popular
British marching song under the title "Brighton
Camp." In the years before the American revolution,
it was often played when a British naval vessel set
sail or an army unit left for service abroad. "The
Girl I Left Behind Me" was adopted by the Americans
and has become a traditional army song especially
associated with the Seventh Infantry. It was also
a favorite with the troops at Fort Snelling in the
19th century. Even today it is played at the United
States Military Academy at West Point as part of the
medley for the cadet's final formation for graduation."
Although there are several lyrical versions of the
song, here is a most common one:
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Boudoir card photograph
Five soldier squad with bugler and rifles
W. S. Zinn, Minneapolis, Minnesota, ca.
1890
Photographic Study Collection, 2003.270
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I'm
lonesome since I crossed the hill,
And o'er the moor and valley.
Such heavy hearts my thoughts do fill
Since parting with my Sally.
I see no more the fine and gay,
For each does but remind me
How swift the hours did pass away
With the girl I left behind me.
Oh, ne'er shall I forget the night;
The stars were bright above me,
And gently lent their silvery light
When first she vowed she loved me,
But now I'm bound to Brighten's camp;
Kind heaven may favor find me,
And send me safely back again
To the girl I've left behind me. |
The
bee shall honey taste no more.
The dove become a ranger,
The dashing waves shall cease to roar
Ere she's to me a stranger.
The vows we registered up above
Shall ever cheer and bind me
In constancy to her I love,
The girl I've left behind me.
My mind her form shall still retain
In sleeping or in waking,
Until I see my love again,
For whom my heart is breaking.
If ever I should see the day
When Marshall have resigned me,
Forevermore I'll gladly stay
With the girl I left behind me. |
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print
Officers at Fort Shaw
W. S. Hawes, Anaconda, Montana, ca. 1895
Photographic Study Collection, 2000.068
Dress uniform elements, including dress helmets with
dyed horsehair plumes, pictured here are largely from
the 1880s and an unusual sight on frontier posts.
In the summer of 1871, Frances Marie Antoinette Mack
married Fayette Washington Roe, newly graduated from
West Point, and joined his infantry regiment at Fort
Lyon, Colorado. By October 1878 Lieutenant Roe was
stationed at Fort Shaw, Montana Territory on the banks
of the Sun River. Built in 1867 and first named Camp
Reynolds, then changed in honor of a Civil War soldier,
Colonel Robert Shaw, Fort Shaw was established as
a military post in 1876.
In May 1885 after returning to "this dear old
post" from the East, Mrs. Roe revels in army
life in the West, "I love army life in the West,
and I love all the things that it brings to me - the
grand mountains, the plains, and the fine hunting.
The buffalo are no longer seen; every one has been
killed off, and back of Square Butte in a rolling
valley, hundreds of skeletons are bleaching there
now."
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Three
years later and preparing for reassignment, Roe writes,
"We know that when we leave Fort Shaw we will
go from the old army life of the West - that if we
ever come back, it will be to unfamiliar scenes and
a new condition of things. We have seen the passing
of the buffalo and other game, and the Indian seems
to be passing also." |
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On September 21, 1866, the
9th Cavalry Regiment was activated at Greenville,
Louisiana under the command of Colonel Edward
Hatch and transferred to the New Mexico District
in 1875-76. Two companies were stationed at
Fort Bayard, one at Fort McRae, two at Fort
Wingate, three at Fort Stanton, one at Fort
Union, one at Fort Selden, and one at Fort Garland.
In New Mexico, the Buffalo Soldiers participated
in campaigns against Victorio, Geronimo, and
Nana.
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Stereograph
Ninth U.S. Cavalry—Dismount!
Strohmeyer & Wyman Publishers, New York,
New York, 1898
Photographic Study Collection, 2004.235
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In a letter dated February 25, 1880 Colonel
Hatch describes to General Pope the conditions
in which the Buffalo Soldiers pursued the Apache,"...the
work performed by these troops is most arduous,
horses worn to mere shadows, men nearly without
boots, shoes and clothing. That the loss in
horses may be understood when following the
Indians in the Black Range the horses were without
anything to eat five days except what they nibbled
from piñon pines, going without food
so long was nearly as disastrous as the fearful
march into Mexico of 79 hours without water,
all this by forced marches over inexpressably
[sic] rough trails...It is impossible to describe
the exceeding roughness of such mountains as
the Black Range and the San Mateo. The well
known Modoc Lava beds are a lawn compared with
them."
In 1898 elements of the 9th cavalry regiment
fought in Cuba during the Spanish- American
War and took part in the charge up San Juan
Hill.
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Stereograph
Troop A, Ninth U.S. Cavalry—Famous
Indian Fighters
Strohmeyer & Wyman Publishers, New York,
New York, 1898
Photographic Study Collection, 2004.048
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