Ft. Banishment
Bassett, Vol. I, p. 250-60
FORT BANISHMENT
The Union Pacific Railroad was completed across Buffalo
County in the years 1866-67. Some of the tribes of Indians,
more especially the Sioux in Northwestern Nebraska, were not
friendly to the building of the railroad and in order
protect the workmen the general Government stationed troops
in the territory to the north and small army posts--forts
they were called locally--were built for the comfort and
convenience of the troops. One of these frontier posts was
located on the south bank of the South Loup River in the
center of section 16, town No. 12, range No. 14. In the
month of June, 1871, the writer and a considerable number of
colonists who had, in April, settled on claims in the
vicinity of Gibbon, visited the South Loup country in order
to view the land, there being no settlers in the northern
part of Buffalo County at that date. The company camped for
the night at the point where was located this post known as
Fort Banishment. The earthworks--rifle pits--extended, in
the form of a square from the bank of the river to the
south. Within the enclosure were buildings constructed of
oak logs, one for the soldiers, the other for their horses;
the roofs were of poles and willow brush covered with sod
and dirt. It is recalled that nailed on the outer walls of
the buildings were a score or more of the feet of timber
wolves, the feet being much larger than the feet of coyotes.
It might be mentioned that below the fort, on the south side
of the river, was an island embracing several acres, and on
this island--thus protected from prairie fires--was a
considerable growth of oak, yellow and black, many of the
trees from two to three feet in diameter. It seemed that the
trees to build the fort came from this island, access to
which was by means of a beaver-dam bridge over which could
be driven teams with loaded wagons.
When the courthouse was built at Gibbon in 1872, wood to
burn the brick was hauled from the South Loup River, and
practically all the trees on the island referred to were
made into cord wood and hauled away. Much timber, cottonwood
and oak, along the South Loup, of a size suitable for ties
had been cut and used in the building of the railroad.
“Post South Loup Fork”, by Alice Shaneyfelt Howell,
Buffalo
Tales, Vol. 14, No. 6, July-August, 1991
Post South Loup Fork was a small army post established in
1865 in the northeastern part of Buffalo County not far from
the present city of Ravenna. Known locally as Fort
Banishment or Fort Desolation, the military post was built
and manned by troops from Fort Kearny, twenty miles to the
south. Its purpose was to keep an eye on the actions of the
Indians in this uninhabited area and to protect workers as
the railroads planned and laid out their lines westward
across this wilderness land.
What is now Buffalo County was the home and hunting grounds
of the Pawnee Indians. The home of the Sioux was a little
farther west, but close enough for them to fight the
peaceable Pawnee tribes for hunting grounds and to steal
their horses. When settlers began to come into the area
along the Platte River, the Pawnee, who were never a match
in battle with the Sioux, were glad to be on friendly terms
with the white settlers.
Prior to 1864 there were no settlers in Buffalo County
except a few on the Wood River. When the Civil War broke out
and troops were withdrawn from Fort Kearny and other
protective forts, the Indians became unruly. The large
numbers of travelers on the trails invading their hunting
grounds, and the planned building of the railroad along the
Platte valley, added fuel to the fire.
Little official information is presently available regarding
Post South Loup Fork. It was established in May of 1865 and
closed in October of the same year, and was garrisoned by
Company E of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry during that time.
S. C. Bassett,
one of the Gibbon colonists,
visited the site in 1871, six years later. In his
History of Buffalo County,
published in 1916, he wrote the following account, referring
to the post as "Fort Banishment":
The Union Pacific Railroad was completed across Buffalo
County in the years 1866-67. Some of the tribes of Indians,
more especially the Sioux in Northwestern Nebraska, were not
friendly to the building of the railroad and in order to
protect the workmen the general government stationed troops
in the territory to the north and small army posts -- forts
they were called locally -- were built for the comfort and
convenience of the troops. One of these frontier posts was
located on the south bank of the South Loup River in the
center of Section 16, Township 12, Range 14. In the month of
June, 1871, the writer (Mr. Bassett) and a considerable
number of colonists who had, in April, settled on claims in
the vicinity of Gibbon, visited the South Loup country in
order to view the land, there being no settlers in the
northern part of Buffalo County at that date. The company
camped for the night at the point where was located this
post known as Fort Banishment. The earthworks -- rifle pits
-- extended, in the form of a square, from the bank of the
river to the south. Within the enclosure were two buildings
constructed of oak logs, one for the soldiers, the other for
their horses; the roofs were of poles and willow brush
covered with sod and dirt. It is recalled that nailed on the
outer walls of the buildings were a score or more of the
feet of timber wolves, the feet being much larger than the
feet of coyotes. It might be mentioned that below the fort,
on the south side of the river, was an island embracing
several acres, and on this island -- thus protected from
prairie fires -- was a considerable growth of oak, yellow
and black, many of the trees from two to three feet in
diameter. It seemed that the trees to build the fort came
from this island, access to which was by means of a
beaver-dam bridge over which could be driven teams with
loaded wagons. * * * Much timber, cottonwood and oak, along
the South Loup, of a size suitable for ties, had been cut
and used in the building of the railroad.
An incident in Hall County's history refers to "Fort
Desolation". The first settlers of Hall County were members
of a German Colony of some two hundred inhabitants who came
in 1857 and settled about two miles south of present Grand
Island. As protection from the Indians a block house was
constructed and the O.K. Store was fortified. Around all the
buildings an earthen wall was erected. "Fort Independence"
was the name given to this fortification. Although well
supplied generally, they lacked weapons and appealed to the
territorial government for arms and ammunition.
Andreas, History of Buffalo
County, 1882, gives
the following account:
"On August 22, 1864, Maj. Gen. Curtis arrived with a cavalry
regiment and one ten-pound cannon. The General inspected the
fortifications and praised the settlers for their skill in
the work. Believing the settlement at Grand Island to be
safe, Gen. Curtis pushed on to Fort Kearny ... Soon after
the visit of Gen. Curtis, a detachment of twenty men, of
Company E, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, under Capt. J. B. David,
was stationed at the fortification at the "O.K. Store," to
help protect the settlement ... there was never any attack.
There were, however, a great many depredations committed by
the soldiers themselves. Several of them took grain and
cattle by force and it was impossible to secure their
punishment ... There was general happiness throughout the
settlement when they were afterwards ordered away to a
station on the Loup River, familiarly known among the old
settlers and soldiers as Fort Desolation on account of the
loneliness of the station, there being no settlement in the
region."
William Stolley, one of the leaders of the German Colony
above referred to, corroborates the story, writing that
"Captain Davis and his men were ordered away from here and
had to set up camp about thirty-five miles up the South Loup
River in the wilderness ... at that time this place was
generally called Fort Desolation."
Yet another name for the fort is found in one of the army
reports of July 1865 where reference is made to "Camp
Conner." General Patrick Conner was then in charge of the
Military District of the Plains, which included Fort Kearny
and Post South Loup Fork.
In 1866 when the Burlington surveyed the land over which
their railroad line would be laid twenty years later, the
surveyor noted on the survey plat, "deserted soldiers'
quarters."
Ravenna people knew about the old fort and generally called
it Fort Banishment. It was there before Erastus Smith
settled on Beaver Creek in 1874 and before the town was
founded in 1886. The old fort grounds at the bend of the
river just south of town was a scenic place, a place for
swimming, for school picnics and other outdoor gatherings.
Children loved to play around the sod embankments. A few
artifacts have been found over the years - a bullet, shell
casing, percussion cap, mule shoe nail, and square nails.
Erosion from floods gradually destroyed the fort site, and
finally, the flood of 1947 took away the little evidence
remaining that there had been a military post at that place.
T. H. McClintock, who later came to Litchfield, had been a
member of Company E, Seventh Iowa Cavalry stationed at the
fort. In an article in the
Ravenna News of May 18, 1894, he
relates that in the spring of 1864 the Company commenced the
building of the sod fortification. He further stated that:
Company E was one of the companies stationed at that time at
Fort Kearny. As punishment for stealing a barrel of
commissary whisky and declaring mutiny, the Company was
banished to the then barren and desolate region of the South
Loup. The Company was required to stay four months and
thoroughly scout the Loup Country which at that time was
infested by a large number of hostile Indians. The men suffered great privations and their lives were in
constant danger. The only man of the Company who was killed
by the Indians, however, was M. S. Grubb, Mr. McClintock's
bunk mate and intimate friend. Grubb was killed by Indians
near Buckeye Valley, which was between here (Ravenna) and
Gibbon while on his way to Fort Kearney with the mail.
Similar accounts have been related by others as to the men
assigned to duty at the outpost, and as to the killing of
Mr. Grubb while in service at the fort. The military
installation has been described as an "emergency" post, as
an "outpost for disciplinary purposes", and as "sort of a
penal colony, and soldiers guilty of infraction of the rules
... were detailed for duty at Fort Desolation or Fort
Banishment." The official name of Post South Loup Fork was
apparently unknown, at least never used, locally.
Despite its various names, differences in descriptions of
its construction, and variations in the dates of use as a
military post, the fort is a part of Buffalo County's rich
history that should be remembered. S. C. Bassett, who wrote
several newspaper articles about the fort before his
published History of Buffalo County in 1916, said it well in
a Ravenna News column of April 12, 1895, "And Old Fort
Banishment -- why permit its name and location to sink into
oblivion? While as a Fort it is hardly worthy of mention,
yet it is a milestone marking the end of the reign of the
wild animals and still wilder men in the valley of the Loup
and the Beaver, and the coming of the home builders with
their ways of enterprise, thrift, peace and civilization."
Lois Johnston – Ravenna Genealogical & Historical Society
(October 20, 2005)
Last surviving member of the group who found the site of Ft.
Banishment on August 22, 1982. Group also included Paul
Toukey [who donated the log cabin to Trails & Rails] and Roy
Lindsey whose specialty was frontier military forts and was
in charge of Fort Hartsiff for many years.
Located on the north side of the Loup River on a school land
section. No public access to the site. All traces washed
away by shifting of the river bed over the years and finally
by the flood in 1947. Just a small piece of the embankment
remains, about 75’. They dug a hole 2 ˝ foot deep where a
furrier’s fire had been, and found a tinned can (which she
described as a Civil War version of MRE), a bullet casing, a
bullet & a percussion cap. Lindsay said it was unusual to
fine these three pieces of ammunition together in one site.
SOURCES
Bassett,
History of Buffalo County, 1916, pp. 259-260;
Andreas, History of Nebraska, 1882, p. 933
Stolley, History
of the First Settlement of Hall County, Nebraska, pp. 53-57
The Ravenna News, May 18, 1894, Apr. 12, 1895; Aug. 12,
1904; Sept. 13, 1906, July 5, 1907, Oct. 4, 1912, Oct. 30,
1914
Stout, History of Company E First Nebraska Cavalry
Jenkins, A Place called Banishment
Interview with John Ludwickson, Highway Archeologist, Nebraska State Historical
Society
Interview with Lois Johnsten of Ravenna
Tales of Buffalo County,
Vol. 1, pp. 10-13
Archives of State Historical Society and
Buffalo County Historical Society.
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