b'The disparity of construction and condition of the forts varied upon location and importance. Whereas encampments like Fort Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota, Fort Robinson in Nebraska, Fort Thomas and Camp Verde in Arizona, and Fort Assinniboine and Fort Keogh in Montana were well-built structures, sans the obligatory wooden stockade but with barracks, officers quarters, and spacious main installations built of brick and stone (and in the case of Custer\'s quarters well-lit).Places like Fort Concho in Texas and Fort Rice in North Dakota were more or less rudimentary and the home of the persecuted and very unhappy men of the 10th Cavalry who had nothing more than tents to sleep in, while their white officers were bedded down inside a brick building. And as for Fort Rice, it was a mosquito-ridden, unsanitary dumping ground for officers out of favor with George Custer. It was too small, too congested, and too close to the river with all sorts of critters paying the officers, men, and dependents unwelcome visits.Even in the best forts - like Fort Abraham Lincoln, freshIf a town was nearby, the enlisted soldier could find meat and produce were scarce and when ordered often arrived frozen or spoiled. Lieutenant Donald McIntosh,feminine company at the local drinking hole (saloon) who was trapped and killed while trying to flee withor the bordello, gamble his wages away, or drown his Reno\'s command at the Little Big Horn, spoke bitterly of having apples delivered to the fort, only to have themsorrows in whiskey or beer. Alcoholism almost reached arrive frozen (Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer\'s Cavalry, Bison Books, University of Nebraska, Lincoln,epidemic proportions at the frontier forts. Nebraska, 1986, p. 92). Even onions were a delicacy, and the fresh game needed to be salted quickly.lured them from their nest. Locked in horror for a few Frontier medicine also hadn\'t improved much since theseconds, I sat stone still, for my unwelcome visitors"Young min, I conghratulate yiz on bein assigned to moi Civil War. Most garrisons did have a doctor on dutywere sprawled between me and both dining room andthrupe, becos previously to dis toime, I vinture to say but he was usually not much better than a "sawbones." hall doors. But here the instinct of self-preservationthat moi thrupe hadhad more villins, loyars, teeves, A gunshot wound to the stomach or abdomen moretwanged sharply on my mental wires, and I came alivescoundhrils and I might say, dam murdhrers than enny often than not was usually fatal, amputations of limbsagain. I had learned the lesson of vibratory effect onudder thrupe in de United States Ormy. I want yiz to pay common, laudanum a common drug to ease pain,reptiles, so I cautiously lifted my feet to the rounds ofsthrict attintion to jooty - and not become dhrunken however with the danger of becoming addicted. my chair and, leaning forward the low window, raised itvagabonds, wandhrin all over the face of God\'s The forts would also usually have a joint deploymentnoiselessly, quickly, and literally hurled my ninety-twoChreashun, spindin ivry cint ov yur pay with low bum-of both cavalry and infantry, though the cavalry officerpounds of being through it and on to the porch, where Imers. Avoide all timptashuns, loikwoise all discipashuns, was the one usually in command while his trooperscarefully and swiftly closed the sash before the draughtso that in toime yez kin become non- commissioned were in the fort. The infantry commander would assumecould disturb the rattlers, then ran around the back tooffizurs, yez\'ll find yer captin a very laynent man and command if the cavalry went out on campaign. Forthe kitchen" (Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer\'svery much given to laynency, fur Oi niver duz toi no example, it was Captain William S. McCaskey of the 20thCavalry, pp. 229-230). man up bee tumbs unless he duz bee late for a roll call. Infantry who took command at Fort Abraham LincolnSarjint, dismiss de detachment" (Herr and Wallace, The in the late spring of 1876 when the fort\'s commander,Mrs. Gibson\'s faithful maid Lizzie had a pan of boilingStory of the U.S. Cavalry, pp. 145-146).Colonel George Armstrong Custer, and his 7th Cavalrywater, and after assuring the frightened officer\'s wife rode off to their date with destiny. It was Captainthat all would be fine ("you stay outta this and leaveThe captain may have been very serious, but his issues with McCaskey (who would retire from the Army with theeverything to Lizzie"), the maid grabbed a pair ofthe vernacular caused much mirth amongst the recruits.rank of major general) who had the terrible duty tolong tongs, closed in on the unsuspecting rattlers, inform Libbie Custer, Maggie Calhoun, and the othersand dumped each one of them into the boiling water,The more fortunate men, enlisted or otherwise, were that they were widows. killing them all. But this wasn\'t the last of Mrs. Gibson\'sthose who found themselves stationed at a Fort Abraham incredulous surprises, for at lunchtime, as Mrs. GibsonLincoln or a Fort Robinson which were clean, spacious, Katherine Gibson, who penned a wonderful yet poignantwas about to dig into a plate of what she assumed to beoften the home headquarters of the department or memoir of her time with the 7th Cavalry, went out Westchipped beef on toast, what appeared was another kindregimental commanding officer, and where, if they to stay with her sister who was married to Lieutenantof food, surrounded by strips of bacon. It was rattlesnakehad families with them, would have a decent place to Donald McIntosh of the 7th Cavalry but ended up beingmeat. Horrified, Mrs. Gibson refused to eat the platelive while they were on duty.There are the celebrated married to Captain Francis Gibson of the same regiment.of snake meat despite the urging of her maid. But thenmemoirs written by Elizabeth Custer, by Francis Roe, She wrote in her posthumous memoirs that one nightLieutenant Jack Sturgis appeared, and when he dug intothe wife of the lieutenant who was among the first to she was awoken in her tent by what she thought was onethe snake with gusto, Mrs. Gibson was too ashamed notdiscover the bodies of Custer and his men, by Martha of the enlisted men\'s dogs. But it was no dog - it was ato. The young Jack Sturgis, who had recently graduatedSummerhayes here in Arizona, by the aforementioned wolf, and the reality hit her moments after the wolf wasfrom West Point, asking to be assigned to his father\'sKatherine Gibson, and many others, all of whom were killed by a sentry\'s shot (Katherine Gibson Fougera, Withcommand, had but nine more months to live - he wasable to share decent (for the frontier) living quarters with Custer\'s Cavalry, Bison Books, University of Nebraska,the only officer of the 7th stationed at Fort Rice to losetheir officer husbands. Children too, were a joy, first to Lincoln, Nebraska, 1986, pp. 128-130).his life at the Little Big Horn, his body was never foundtheir families but also to the enlisted men who played (Katherine Gibson Fougera, With Custer\'s Cavalry, pp.with them whenever possible as another kind of relief to That was nothing compared to the very unwelcome230-234). alleviate their boredom and loneliness. When some died visitors she came upon, crawling across her livingas a result of the childhood diseases that often plagued quarters one very cold fall morning in 1875. As Mrs.LIFE IN THE FORTS: the isolated garrisons, the whole garrison usually shared Gibson relates:"During one of the early chill spells inThe enlisted men, arriving at comfortable forts made ofthe grief of the bereaved family.September I was about to stretch myself and yawn whenbrick, stone, and adobe, or hastily put-together dumps something caught my eyes, and I sat bolted uprightmade of wood and stone, would often be greeted byUsually, these enlisted men or younger officers in their instead. My incredulous gaze beheld a long rattlesnakethe captain commanding. In one celebrated case, Johnearly 20s had no wife or children and if the fort was undulating across the floor towards the stove, and inBourke, who later served admirably under Crook indesolate, fly-blown, dusty, and miles away from even its wake followed a retinue of offspring. Evidently thethe Sioux campaign of 1876-77 would write aboutthe slightest outpost of civilization, the mundane and reptiles had been hibernating somewhere under thea memorable talk given to recruits by an Irish-bornmonotonous days and nights were torture. Many tried rotting old floor, and the quiet warmth of the room hadcaptain who had never mastered American English: continued on page 46ArizonaRealCountry.com May 2020 45'