Fort Reno (Wyoming)
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Fort Reno | |
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Old Fort Reno | |
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| Location | Johnson County, E of Sussex on Powder River |
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| Nearest city | Sussex, Wyoming |
| Coordinates | 43°49′39″N 106°14′24″W / 43.82750°N 106.24000°WCoordinates: 43°49′39″N 106°14′24″W / 43.82750°N 106.24000°W |
| Built | 1865 |
| Architectural style | Fort |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000672 |
| Added to NRHP | April 28, 1970 |
Fort Reno also known as Fort Connor or Old Fort Reno, was a wooden Fort constructed established on August 15, 1865 by the United States Army in Dakota Territory in present-day Johnson County, Wyoming. The fort was built to protect travelers on the Bozeman Trail from Native American tribes.
Establishment
One of the primary goals of the Powder River Expedition, of 1865 was to construct a Fort on the Powder River, in Montana Territory or Dakota Territory. The Powder River Expedition's Left, or Western column of about 650 men under the command of Colonel James H. Kidd of the 6th Michigan Cavalry, and accompanied by the three expeditions' overall commander Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor set out from Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory on August 1, 1865. Army units with the column included four Companies of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, Companies E, and K, of the 11th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, Company F, of the 7th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, a detachment of the United States Signal Corps, and a section of two Model 1841 Mountain Howitzer Cannon manned by 14 soldiers of the 2nd Missouri Volunteer Light Artillery Regiment.
On August 15, 1865 Colonel Kidd's column selected the site of the Fort on a bluff above the Powder River. Construction began the same day by the four Companies of the 6th Michigan Volunteer Cavalry Regiment that had recently been transferred from the Army of the Potomac, in Virginia. The new post was named Fort Connor in honor of Brigadier General Patrick Edward Connor, the overall commander of the Powder River Expedition. In August, 1865 Fort Connor was the jumping-off point for the United States soldiers that fought at the Battle of the Tongue River, on August 29, 1865, in present-day Sheridan County, Wyoming. The Left, Right, and Center columns of the Powder River Expedition all finally rendezvoused at Fort Connor on September 25, 1865. The three Columns consisted of detachments from the following regiments, the 2nd Missouri Artillery, 2nd California Cavalry, 6th Michigan Cavalry, 7th Iowa Cavalry, 11th Ohio Cavalry, 12th Missouri Cavalry, 15th Kansas Cavalry, and the 16th Kansas Cavalry, along with detachments of the U.S. Signal Corps, and the Pawnee Scouts. Most of these men marched south to Fort Laramie in October, 1865 to be mustered out of the army, leaving four companies of the 6th Michigan Cavalry under Colonel James H. Kidd to garrison the fort.
Renaming
The Bozeman Trail, built as a way around the Bighorn Mountains, crossed the Powder River at Fort Connor, offering emigrants traveling on it protection. Buildings constructed at Connor had sod-covered roofs and dirt floors. In October 1865, the 6th Michigan and Colonel Kidd turned the garrison of Fort Connor over to Captain George W. Williford, and Companies C, and D, of the 5th United States Volunteer Infantry Regiment, companies of the Galvanized Yankees.
In November 1865, four months after Fort Connor had been built and named after Brigadier General Patrick Connor, its name was changed to Fort Reno, in honor of Major General Jesse Lee Reno, An American Civil War Union Army General who had been Mortally wounded on September 14, 1862, at the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, while commanding the 9th United States Army Corps at Fox's Gap. Fort Reno's name had no connection with Major Marcus Reno, a member of the 7th Cavalry Regiment who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The garrison of the fort endured the harsh winter of 1865–1866, and during this time suffered 33 casualties from desertions, illnesses, one soldier killed by an accidental gunshot, and the death of its commanding officer, Captain George W. Williford, dying of illness on April 29, 1866. Captain George M. Bailey became his successor.[1]
Reinforcement
On June 28, 1866 Colonel Henry Beebe Carrington, and about 700 men of the 18th United States Infantry Regiment reached Fort Reno, relieving Companies C and D of the 5th U.S. Volunteer Infantry.
The 18th Infantry had moved into the Powder River country to begin construction of Fort Philip Kearny, and Fort C. F. Smith on the Bozeman trail farther to the north. When Carrington and the 18th reached the post, only 104 of the original 137 men of Companies C, and D, 5th U.S.V.I. remained, the rest having died mainly of illnesses, and scurvy. Colonel Carrington left two Companies of the 18th Infantry to garrison Reno, and resumed his march north on the Bozeman trail on July 9, 1866, While the 5th U.S.V.I. troops, traveled south, returning to Fort Kearney, Nebraska to muster out of the service on October 11, 1866, "without a single regret."
The newly arrived Regular Army soldiers of the 18th Infantry constructed a log stockade around the unprotected garrison buildings, complete with log bastions on the northwest and southeast corners. They also built a sturdy adobe commanding officer's quarters. In 1867, the post was renovated and expanded. The garrison (whose number ranged from 125 to a high of 300 soldiers) of the 18th Infantry Regiment, and the 27th United States Infantry Regiment, endured the routines of garrison life and the harsh winters and hot summers, occasionally skirmishing with hostile Indians and keeping the southern end of the Bozeman Trail open and passable.[1]
Abandonment and Later History
In 1868, the Treaty of Fort Laramie ended Red Cloud's War and essentially ceded very much ground in the Powder River Country to the Lakota Sioux. Along with Forts C.F. Smith and Phil Kearny, Fort Reno was abandoned as a condition of the agreement. Shortly after the military left, the entire post was destroyed by fire ignited by Cheyenne warriors. Brigadier General George R. Crook's 883 men of the Big Horn Expedition returned to Fort Reno in March, 1876, finding all that was left were some adobe walls and building debris. Nevertheless, he used the site as a supply base for 15 days, about two weeks in March, 1876, leaving the Expedition's wagons, and stationing Companies C, and I, of the 4th United States Infantry Regiment under the overall command Captain Edwin M. Coates for the brief period, and fighting the Fort Reno Skirmish against Cheyenne warriors directly across the river from the abandoned Fort on March 5, 1876. In the 1880s soldiers buried in the post's cemetery were reinterred in the Custer Battlefield National Cemetery, near Crow Agency, Montana.[1]
Regiments Stationed at Fort Reno
| Fort | Commanding Officer | Regiments and Others |
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August–October, 1865
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| October, 1865-April 29, 1866
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| April 29, 1866 – June 28, 1866
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| June 28, 1866 – 1867
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| 1867-April 29, 1868
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| March 5–20, 1876
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Fort Reno today
The Fort's parade ground and surrounding area has generally returned to a natural prairie sod cover. The site, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Sussex, Wyoming, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 28, 1970. There is a large stone monument and several interpretive signs marking the site that are accessible by a gravel road.[2]
Other Fort Reno's
Two other army posts were also named Fort Reno—one Fort Reno Park in the defenses of Washington D.C. during the Civil War, and another frontier outpost Fort Reno (Oklahoma) built in 1874 in what is now Oklahoma.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Robert A. Murray (1968). Military posts in the Powder River country of Wyoming, 1865-1894. University of Nebraska Press. p. 189. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
- ↑ .Fort Reno, Fort Phil Kearny, retrieved August 19, 2012
Photo Gallery
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Fort Reno Monument
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Fort Reno with Powder River in background
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Ruins of a building at Fort Reno
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