Fort Shaw (originally named Camp Reynolds) was a United States Army fort located on the Sun River 24 miles west of Great Falls, Montana, in the United States. It was founded on June 30, 1867, and abandoned by the Army in July 1891. It later served as a school for Native American children from 1892 to 1910. Portions of the fort survive today as a small museum. The fort lent its name to the community of Fort Shaw, Montana, which grew up around it.
Fort Shaw is part of the Fort Shaw Historic District and Cemetery, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 11, 1985.
Founding the fort Most of what was to become Montana became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Although first organized into an incorporated territory in 1805 as part of the Louisiana Territory, it was not until large numbers of farmers, miners, and fur trappers began moving into the region in the 1850s that the government of the United States paid much attention to the area. The creation of the Montana Territory in 1864 came about, in part, due to the rapid influx of miners after the gold strikes of 1862 to 1864 in the southwest part of the state.
Camp Reynolds was established on the site on June 30, 1867. The camp was established by Major William Clinton, in command of four companies of the 13th Infantry Regiment. The site was about upstream from the confluence of the Sun and Missouri rivers. It was about upstream from the point where the Mullan Road crossed the river. It was also about upstream from the site of the former St. Peter's Mission, which had been evacuated in April 1866 after the Piegan Blackfeet killed four white settlers nearby (one almost on the doorstep of the mission). The first Blackfeet Indian Agency office, established in 1854 by Isaac Stevens (Governor of the Washington Territory), was also nearby. The 13th Infantry Regiment previously established Camp Cooke near the mouth of the Judith River in July 1866, and Camp Reynolds was intended to keep the Mullan Road open and prohibit further Native American attacks on settlements to the south.
On July 4, 1867, the United States Department of the Army issued orders to have the name of the encampment changed to Fort Shaw in honor of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, a Union Army officer who commanded the all-black 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. The post's name was changed on August 1, 1867. Initially, Fort Shaw was to have had barracks space for six companies of infantry, but this was scaled back to four companies after the U.S. Army decided to build Fort Ellis near present-day Bozeman, Montana. Fort Shaw, along with Fort Ellis, was one of two principal U.S. Army forts intended to protect the burgeoning mining settlements of south-central and southwest Montana.
Construction of the fort When first established, Fort Shaw consisted of officers and men housed in canvas tents. Construction of log cabin housing began in August 1867, and by late fall the men had constructed barracks for half the soldiers, a temporary storehouse, and three officers' huts. But only half of the post hospital was erected before cold weather forced construction to halt and the men to enter winter quarters. The finished buildings were only barely habitable and the men and officers very cramped, but the winter was not a harsh one. The remaining structures were raised and finished in the spring and summer of 1868. During 1869, the structures were made more comfortable and military decorations added. Floors were hard-packed dirt (and remained so throughout the fort's existence).
Fort Shaw was constructed around a square parade ground on each side. The interior and exterior building walls were made of adobe bricks in size. Exterior walls were thick, while interior walls were thick. The interior walls of the seven officers' quarters were finished in white plaster, and had glass windows set in white-painted wood casements. There were four U-shaped infantry barracks, each on a side and with ceilings. Barracks walls were unfinished, and had four windows ( in size). Each barracks contained several rooms: A sergeant's room (), a storeroom (), a mess room (), kitchen (), laundry (), and sleeping quarters/recreation room (). Roofs were boards at first, but shingled as shingles became available.
A number of other buildings were also constructed. These included a commissary and quartermaster storehouse (), which in its interior included a commissary officer's office (); a company clerk's office (); a room for issuing stores (); two storerooms (); and a quartermaster's office (). The U-shaped storehouse also had a cellar and a () yard, enclosed by a gate. Other buildings included a guardhouse (with stone prison cells) and quarters for the company band (, with a high ceiling); a T-shaped hospital (); two-story commanding officer's quarters (), with bedroom, dining room, sitting room, kitchen, servants' room, and two garret rooms; and duplex officers' quarters (), each including a front room, back room, kitchen, servants' room, garret room, and a shared single mess room. A chapel, post school, library, bakery, ordnance (weapons and ammunition) room, magazine, water tanks, outhouses, and outdoor brick washing sinks made up the rest of the post.
Fort Shaw was so well laid out and constructed that it was called the "queen of Montana's military posts".
A cemetery was located west of the post, and a vegetable garden about east.
Life at the fort The military reservation extended along the length of the Sun River Valley from present-day Vaughn, Montana, upstream for . Fort Shaw was located almost on the slopes of Shaw Butte, which was two-thirds of the way up the valley to the west, and was about above the river. The river was shallow and easily forded almost anywhere along its length, except during the spring freshets.
Food was largely imported. A limited supply of fish was obtained from the Sun River, which at that time was a clear, swift-running stream with a stony bottom. Wild game (bighorn sheep, black-tailed deer, elk, pronghorn, and white-tailed deer), ducks, geese, prairie chicken, rabbits, and sage-grouse were often hunted for food, but were scarce in the area and not relied on heavily for food. Nearby ranches supplied the post with vegetables, albeit at very high prices. Flour was usually shipped in from the east, as the Montana-grown summer wheat produced bread which was dark and heavy.
Fuel was scarce. Wood grew only sparsely in the valley, and the post imported wood logs for fuel and construction at the cost of from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains about to the west. Lignite coal was obtained from mines in the Dearborn River valley, about away, and used for both heating and cooking.
Water, too, was a problem. The valley was very well-drained by the river, and no springs were located near the post. Water was obtained by digging a long trench from the river to the post. Although a steam engine was later used to pump water from the river to various building via wooden pipes, these pipes often became clogged or froze in winter. Below-ground wooden pipes were laid in 1885 to rectify the problem.
Forage for animals was also an issue. Since the strong drainage inhibited the growth of grass, hay had to be imported from elsewhere in Montana, primarily the Missouri River valley to the east.
Disease was common. Influenza, fever, and diarrhea (particularly in the spring) were common. Although smallpox regularly killed hundreds of Native Americans in the area each year, few members of the Army came down with the disease.
Fort Shaw was not an isolated post. Mail was delivered three times a week, the fort served as a post office for the local populace, and there was a telegraph office for both civilian and military use.
History of the fort
Early leadership
Major William Clinton's command of Fort Shaw was only temporary. On August 11, 1867, Colonel Isaac Van Duzen Reeve transferred the 13th Infantry Regiment's headquarters to Fort Shaw. Lieutenant Colonel G. L. Andrews was regimental second-in-command, and named headquarters commandant, overseeing the operations of the fort itself. During their tenure at the fort, a steam engine was brought in to pump water from the river to the kitchens and sinks. The unit also received breech-loading rifles, which greatly increased its effectiveness. About 33 civilians were employed at the fort as well, working as blacksmiths, carpenters, clerks, masons, and saddlers. One of Colonel Reeve's first actions was to disarm the Montana Militia, a short-lived paramilitary organization formed by Acting Governor Thomas Francis Meagher in 1864 and supplied with arms by the U.S. Army. Reeve acted quickly, and the militia was disbanded by October 1, 1867.
General Phillipe Régis de Trobriand took command of Fort Shaw on June 4, 1869. A steam engine (whether a second one or a replacement is unclear) was brought to the fort in 1869. Excessive drinking and desertion by his troops were a constant problem. General Trobriand and the 13th Infantry Regiment left Fort Shaw on June 11, 1870. His unit was replaced by the headquarters company and six companies of the 7th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel John Gibbon.
Command of Colonel Gibbon and fighting in the Indian Wars Gibbon worked to improve living conditions at Fort Shaw. He improved the roofing of the barracks buildings, had the exterior walls of all buildings plastered, expanded the storehouses, and expanded and improved the corrals and stables. Irrigation for the fort's vegetable garden was completed, and companies assigned to maintain each plot. In 1871, he obtained a plow for tilling the garden. He also worked to expand the fort's civilian workforce, adding carpenters, masons, and sawmill operators. Desertion and theft of fort supplies, both major problems, were also reduced.
Gibbon also worked to improve security in the area. He began surveying and constructing a road between Fort Shaw and Camp Baker (near present-day White Sulphur Springs) to provide better communications with that post and to better monitor the movements of Native American groups and bands. This so improved security in the area that Gibbon counseled against the construction of a blockhouse at Camp Baker because it would send a signal to whites that the area was still not free from Native American attack. Gibbon also used his troops to scout out the little-explored area of the Rocky Mountain Front. These explorations led to the rediscovery and accurate mapping of Lewis and Clark Pass.
The area around Fort Shaw was a hotbed of conflict between Native Americans and white settlers in the late 1860s. A series of Piegan Blackfeet and Sioux raids between 1865 and 1869 left several whites dead. In mid-1869, two innocent Piegan Blackfeet were killed in retaliation in broad daylight in the town of Fort Benton, Montana, about to the northeast of Fort Shaw. One of them was the brother of the Piegan leader Mountain Chief, who initiated a series of reprisals which killed about 25 white settlers. In response, General Philip Sheridan ordered Major Eugene Baker to take two companies of the 2d Cavalry Regiment from Fort Ellis and two companies of infantry from Fort Shaw and attack Mountain Chief's band of Piegans. Baker attacked the Piegans on the morning of January 23, 1870. Unfortunately, he attacked the wrong band: The Piegans were led by Heavy Runner, a Piegan Blackfeet who had signed a peace agreement with the United States. When Heavy Runner rushed out of his camp with his peace treaty in hand, he was shot dead. In what became known as the Marias Massacre, more than 173 Piegean Blackfeet (including 53 women and children) were murdered.