AUG 27: New Fort in Montana Territory

An example of the terrain near Fort Ellis in Montana Territory. (Credit: Library of Congress)

On Aug. 27, 1867, Fort Ellis is established near present-day Bozeman, Montana. Troops from the fort participated in many major campaigns of the Indian Wars.

The fort was established by the War Department to protect and support settlers moving into the Gallatin Valley of Montana. The post was named for Col. Augustus van Horne Ellis, a Union soldier killed in July 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg. Five troops of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment and infantry companies from the 7th Infantry Regiment were posted at the fort.

Col. John Gibbon. (Credit: Library of Congress)

In spring 1876, Col. John Gibbon and a combined force from the 2nd Cavalry and 7th Infantry regiments marched east from Fort Ellis on April 1st to join the larger campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes.  Gen. George Crook and the Wyoming Column had orders to proceed north from Fort Fetterman, located on the North Platte River near present-day Douglas, Wyoming. Brig. General Alfred H. Terry and the Dakota Column, with Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, were proceeding west from Fort Abraham Lincoln near present-day Bismarck, N.D.

Gen. George Crook. (Credit: Library of Congress)

On Monday, June 26, 1876, 7th Infantry Lt. James H. Bradley, chief of scouts for Gibbon’s Montana Column, was scouting the valley of the Little Bighorn as ordered. He followed an Indian trail to a Bighorn River crossing, where three Crow scouts, who were with Custer’s 7th Cavalry regiment, related how, the day before, hundreds of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors had wiped out Custer and most, if not all, of his immediate command. Bradley hurried back to report the horrible news to Gibbon and Terry. 

The next day, Gibbon and Terry witnessed the catastrophe that had befallen Custer and his command at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Fort Ellis was closed on August 2, 1886.