Fort Keogh

United States Army outpost in eastern Montana

Fort Keogh is a former United States Army post located at the western edge of modern Miles City, in the U. S. state of Montana. It is situated on the south bank of the Yellowstone River, at the mouth of the Tongue River. Colonel Nelson A. Miles, commanding the 5th Infantry Regiment, founded the post in August 1876, in the wake of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, as a base for patrols to prevent the Cheyenne and Sioux involved in the battle from escaping to Canada. The fort was originally known as the Tongue River Cantonment for two years. When relocated one mile west in 1878, it was renamed Fort Keogh in honor of Captain Myles Keogh, who was killed at the Little Bighorn. In 1877, the fort became the headquarters for the newly created District of the Yellowstone (a sub unit of the Department of Dakota), which was commanded by Miles. The development of Fort Keogh as a military installation soon stimulated traders to supply the liquor and other service businesses that were the beginning of Miles City. Today the former military post is a United States Department of Agriculture livestock and range research station. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Shortly after the defeat of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, the Army sent the 5th U. S. Infantry Regiment, under the command of Nelson A. Miles, from Nebraska to the plains of eastern Montana to establish a military fort. The order for development of the fort was signed on August 28, 1876. The Army's intended use for its garrison at the post was to reduce warfare by the American Indians in the region and to persuade them to resettle on reservations. Colonel David S. Stanley had originally scouted the first site of the fort during the Yellowstone Expedition of 1873. He thought the location would be good for supplying troops throughout the region, but the Army did not decide to build the fort until after Custer's overwhelming defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. As developers planned to bring the Great Northern Railway to the region, the U. S. Army was assigned to survey the land and develop maps. The troops came into contact with two tribes of Indians, the Lakota (Sioux) and the Crow. The Sioux had pushed the Crow west of their traditional lands as they moved west, in response to European–American settlers encroaching on Sioux territory. Resentful of the Sioux, the Crow frequently allied with the Army and served as scouts to its expeditions. Miles was well respected as a leader, not only by his troops, but also by the Indians. Promising fair treatment and better lives to the Native Americans, Miles gradually persuaded the Indian nations to settle on the reservations. Not all the nations surrendered immediately. Miles went to battle against the holdouts with his troops, including during the extreme cold of winter. The Sioux and Crow bands migrated through wide areas in the Montana Territory, and troops were engaged in battle with them hundreds of miles from the fort. When the 5th Infantry left the fort in 1888, the 22nd Infantry Regiment (which had had several companies stationed there since 1876), took over the garrison, and the regimental headquarters with the entire regiment were moved to the post in 1888 and would remain until 1896. In 1888, Company H of the 8th U. S. Cavalry arrived to garrison at Keogh after marching from Fort Davis, New Mexico, and Company L of the 8th Cavalry joined the garrison after marching from Fort Hancock, Texas.

Fort Keogh was named for Myles Keogh, a Captain (brevet Lieutenant Colonel) and commander of Company I in the 7th U. S. Cavalry under Lt. Col. (brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer, both of whom were killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Born in Ireland on March 25, 1840, Keogh came from a comfortable background. Wanting adventure, Keogh left the farming to a brother and went off to war. In 1860, he went to Italy after the Pope recruited Irish men to take up the fight to save the Papal States. In those battles, he received two medals. Later Keogh joined the Papal Guard in Rome. Keogh preferred warfare to acting as a guard; he resigned his post and in March 1862 headed to the United States to serve in the American Civil War. He was commissioned as a Captain in the Union Army and proved his ability repeatedly. He won many commendations, and his bravery in the Battle of Gettysburg under Brigadier General John Buford earned him the rank of brevet Major. Keogh took an assignment in the western wars in 1863; he served under Custer until his death in battle. In his book Recollections of Old Milestown, Samuel Gordon described a frontier confrontation. Riverside Park, which still stands today, was rumored to be up for the taking. The "Old West" rule was that if a man were to get four logs placed on the ground in a square, he had the foundation of a building, and could claim the land as his. One such squatter had placed two of the needed logs, and went to get the other two. A second man saw the two logs and an opportunity. He placed his two logs with the two currently on site and stood his ground there. He expected the first man to object and leave. The first squatter was dismissed by the second squatter with, "two logs counted nothing". But the first man pulled out his revolver to settle the dispute. The second man quickly abandoned his claim to the area. Late in the afternoon, tales of the incident reached the fort. Soldiers came out and sent away all the squatters in the area.

Guinness World Records reports that the largest natural snowflake ever recorded, measuring in diameter, fell at Fort Keogh on January 28, 1887.