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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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BLUE WATER (Ash Hollow) BATTLEFIELD
Nebraska
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Location: Garden County. The battlefield extends
about 8 miles north up Blue Water Creek Valley from the U.S. 26 bridge
across Blue Water Creek, about 2 miles northwest of Lewellen.
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The Battle of Blue Water was the first major clash
between U.S. soldiers and the Sioux Indians. In 1855, to punish the
Sioux for their depredations following the Grattan Fight near Fort
Laramie, Wyo., the previous year, the Army sent out Col. William S.
Harney and an expedition of 600 men from Fort Leavenworth, Kans. Harney
discovered the Brule Sioux village of Little Thunder in Blue Water Creek
Valley, just above the creek's junction with the North Platte. By a
circuitous route dragoons entered the valley and advanced downstream,
while Harney and a force of infantrymen marched up the valley from the
Platte. Attacked from two directions on September 3, the Indians
scattered, but not before the troops killed 80 warriors, wounded five,
and captured 70 women and children. Four soldiers met death and seven
suffered wounds. The rest of the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes in the
vicinity managed to avoid the troops. The latter moved northwestward to
Fort Laramie and marched over the Fort Laramie-Fort Pierre Road through
the heart of Sioux country to Fort Pierre, on the Missouri River. There
they joined part of the expedition that had come up the Missouri and
spent the winter of 1855-56. For almost a decade most of the Sioux gave
no further serious trouble.
Except for patches of cultivation along Blue Water
Creek, most of the valley is stock range and essentially resembles its
historical appearance. The terrain near the mouth of the creek is
rugged, but the site of the Indian village farther upstream is more
level. Broken hills are on each side, where the Indians took refuge from
Harney's troops. The site is in private ownership, but a 40-acre State
historical park overlooks the battlefield.
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FORT HARTSUFF
Nebraska
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Location: Valley County, on an unimproved road, about 3 miles
northwest of Elyria.
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This fort (1874-81) protected settlers in the
Northern Loup Valley of central Nebraska and the Pawnee Indian
Reservation, in present Nance County, from the raids of roving Sioux who
resided farther north and west. The transfer of the Pawnees to Indian
Territory, the Army's push of the Sioux into the Dakotas, and the
ensuing influx of settlers into the region ended the need for the
post.
After the Army departed, farmers utilized some of the
buildings, constructed mostly of concrete and stone. Traces remain of
practically all of them. Some are mere ruins or shells, but others have
roofs and interior plaster. Fort Hartsuff State Historical Park has
completed restoration of the guardhouse and dispensary and has begun
work on the adjutant's office and the officers' quarters.
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FORT KEARNY
Nebraska
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Location: Kearney County, on an unimproved road,
about 7 miles southeast of Kearney.
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Forts Kearny, Nebr., and Laramie, Wyo., were the
first two posts garrisoned to protect the Oregon-California Trail. The
original Fort Kearny (1846-48) was a two-story log blockhouse not
continuously occupied, along the west bank of the Missouri River at the
eastern edge of the State on the site of Nebraska City. Because this
location was too far from the Oregon-California Trail, in 1848 troops
founded in its stead a new post some 200 miles westward in mid-Nebraska
along the trail on the south bank of the Platte River and about halfway
between Forts Leavenworth, Kans., and Laramie, Wyo. The post guarded the
trail, served as an ammunition depot, and protected peaceable Indians in
the area from hostiles and outlaws. In 1871, the transcontinental
railroad having been completed 2 years earlier and the usefulness of the
trail negated, the Army relinquished the fort.
Fort Kearny State Historical Park, primarily a
recreational area, includes 40 acres of the second Fort Kearny site.
There are no above-surface remains. The State is conducting
archeological excavations and has placed interpretive markers at
building sites. Replicas of the palisade and blacksmith-carpenter shop
have been erected. An interpretive center presents audio-visual programs
and museum displays. The reconstructed blockhouse of the first Fort
Kearny, located on the main street of Nebraska City, Nebr., serves as a
youth center.
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Fort Kearny, Nebr., by William
H. Jackson. (Utah Historical Society) |
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FORT OMAHA
Nebraska
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Location: Douglas County, in northern Omaha,
bounded approximately on the east by 30th Street (U.S. 73), on the south
by Redman Avenue, on the west by 33d Street, and on the north by Laurel
Avenue. The main entrance is on Fort Street, off 30th Street.
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The Post of Omaha came into being in 1863 to train
Civil War Volunteers. Three years later it became headquarters of the
Department of the Platte. In 1868 a new post was activated 4 miles
northwest of the city. Known as Sherman Barracks the first year and then
as Omaha Barracks, in 1878 it was redesignated as Fort Omaha. From 1875
to 1882 and from 1886 to 1888, as commander of the Department of the
Platte, Brig. Gen. George Crook was stationed at the post when he was
not in the field. He directed many major campaigns on the northern
Plains, serving in which were numerous troops that had passed through
Fort Omaha.
The Fort Omaha garrison moved in 1896 to Fort Crook,
which had been activated 5 years earlier about 10 miles south of Omaha
as the New Post of Fort Omaha. The first soldiers had arrived there in
1895. In 1905 the Army reactivated Fort Omaha, and during World War I
used it for a balloon school. The Navy has had jurisdiction over the
base since 1947, and still utilizes it along with other branches of the
Armed Forces for recruiting. Reserve training, and administration.
Seven buildings from the 1870's and 1880's have
survived. One of the oldest is the commanding officer's house, or Crook
House, completed in 1879. Its first tenant was General Crook, and today
the commander of Fort Omaha occupies it. A large two-story brick
structure, asymmetrical in plan, Italianate in style, and crowned by
hipped roofs, it is in good condition. A long one-story porch projects
from its eastern facade. The interior has been altered over the years,
but the exterior has changed little. Fort Omaha is not ordinarily open
to the public.
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WAR BONNET (HAT) CREEK BATTLEFIELD
Nebraska
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Location: Sioux County, on an unimproved road,
about 17 miles northeast of Harrison. Make local inquiry.
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At this site in the extreme northwestern corner of
Nebraska near the Wyoming and South Dakota boundaries occurred one of
the series of defeats inflicted on the Indians after the Custer debacle
in 1876. The victorious Indians had scattered across eastern Montana.
Soon large reinforcements poured up the Missouri. Col. Wesley Merritt,
commanding the 5th Cavalry, en route from Fort Laramie Wyo., to Goose
Creek to reinforce General Crook, learned that 1,000 Cheyennes had left
the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud Agencies in Nebraska to join the
triumphant Sioux of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Merritt delayed his
movement to intercept them. On July 17, 1876, at War Bonnet (Hat) Creek,
Nebr., he whipped them and drove them back to their agencies. In the
battle, "Buffalo Bill" Cody reputedly killed Chief Yellow Hand, an
episode that novelists and Cody publicity agents later turned into
a legend.
The rolling grassland where the battle was fought has
changed little since 1876. The site, in private ownership, is not
designated by any monument or marker and is not open to the public.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitec9.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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