Fort Dodge, Kansas, general orders and circulars

Abstract: This series (4 in. (3 oversize v.)) contains copies of general orders and circulars. The general orders deal with subjects deemed of sufficient importance to be promulgated to the garrison as a whole, including acts of Congress; War Dept. orders and regulations; and such information as the time and order of marches, hours assigned to different beats & signals, the assembling of guard mounts & detachments, the appointment of courts-martial, police regulations, and the strength & composition of units assigned to perform various duties. The circulars consist of issuances also promulgated to the garrison at large but, in contrast to general orders, dealing primarily with internal post matters such as inspections, drills, parades, payment of troops, guard mounts, funerals, conduct & dress, and holiday observances. Included are disciplinary orders and court records describing offenses, judgment, and punishment. The order topics document policy and soldier life at Fort Dodge (Kan.) Subjects range from daily schedules to specifics such as illegal gambling.

Administrative History:

The establishment of Fort Dodge was a direct outgrowth of the Plains campaigns of 1865. By January 1865, the Plains Indians had been driven from the area between the Platte and the Arkansas Rivers, but the tribes that had fled north of the Platte and south of the Arkansas continued to threaten the settlements of western Kansas and the immigrant routes west. Therefore, Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, the commander of the Department of the Missouri, devised a two-pronged campaign to take place in the spring of 1865 against the northern and southern Plains Indians. The campaign against the Kiowas, Apaches, and Arrapahoes to the south of the Arkansas River was to be led by Bvt. Brig. Gen. James H. Ford, the commanding officer of the District of the Upper Arkansas.

On March 17, Ford received word that large bands of Comanches, Apaches, and Kiowas were encamped on the Cimarron and on Crooked Creek. When this report was relayed to General Dodge, he ordered Ford "to make arrangements to put a post at or near" the site of old Fort Atkinson, an abandoned army post near the Cimarron Crossing of the Arkansas River. On April 5, Capt. Henry Pearce left Fort Lamed, Kans., with a company of Kansas volunteers to establish the new post. He selected a site located 6 miles east of Fort Atkinson that both guarded the Santa Fe Trail and stood midway between the two major Indian crossings on the Arkansas River, the Cimarron and the Mulberry. Captain Pearce officially established the post on April 10, 1865, and named it in honor of the departmental commander, General Dodge.

Although the Plains Campaigns of 1865 ended with the signing of the Treaty of the Little Arkansas on October 17, 1865, Fort Dodge remained an important factor in the settlement of the West. Because of its location in western Kansas, the garrison of Fort Dodge was assigned the duty of guarding the Arkansas River from central Kansas into the Colorado Territory. From 1865 to 1878, troops stationed at Fort Dodge were almost continually involved in scouts and marches and played major roles in the campaigns of Gen. Winfield S. Hancock in 1867, Gen. Philip H. Sheridan in 1868 and 1869, and Gen. Nelson A. Miles in 1874 and 1875.

After the Miles campaign in 1875, the troops at Fort Dodge were mainly occupied with routine garrison duties and were only occasionally involved in skirmishes with Indians. As early as 1878, Maj. Gen. John Pope, commander of the Department of the Missouri, believing that Fort Dodge no longer had any military
value, petitioned the War Department to close the post and transfer its garrison to either Fort Riley or Fort Leavenworth. Pope's proposal received strong support from people throughout Kansas who wanted the fort's 43,000 acre reservation opened for settlement. On December 15, 1880, the Secretary of the Interior
was directed to open approximately two-thirds of the reservation to settlers. On April 5, 1882, the garrison at Fort Dodge received orders to prepare to abandon the post. Although the last company was transferred from Fort Dodge to Camp Supply, Indian Territory, on October 2, 1882, the post quartermaster
and several enlisted men remained until December 1 in order to complete the removal of equipment and supplies.

Following the closing of Fort Dodge, the War Department appointed a civilian to serve as caretaker of the buildings and equipment remaining there. In 1889 the part of the reservation containing the fort's buildings was transferred to the Department of the Interior, and the remaining reservation lands were opened to settlers. The Kansas Legislature then petitioned Congress to sell the post buildings and grounds to the State of Kansas. Congress agreed, and the post barracks, hospital, and storehouses
were converted into a State soldiers' home that opened in February 1890 and is still in operation.

After the abandonment of Fort Dodge, its records were sent to the Adjutant General's Office in Washington, D.C. Clerks in that office numbered the volumes and prepared lists of the numbered books. The number assigned to each volume by the Adjutant General's Office appears in parentheses in the table of contents to this microfilm publication. These numbers are useful only as a more precise method of identifying the volume. For several volumes whose numbers have been lost due to decaying bindings,
an "n.n." for "no number" is given.

Scope and content:

Among the issuances of Fort Dodge are three volumes of general orders and circulars. General orders were issued to the entire garrison in order to announce instructions and to disseminate information of general concern, such as time and order of marches; acts of Congress; War Department regulations; hours for different beats and signals, guard mounting, and the assembling of detachments; and the appointment of general courts-martial and courts of inquiry.

The three volumes of fair copies of Fort Dodge general orders and circulars are dated January 1866-March 1881. The general orders for 1866 to 1871 in volume 1 are arranged by year and thereunder numerically. The orders for 1872 were not arranged in exact numerical order, but they have been filmed in correct order. The circulars for 1866 in volume 1 are filed chronologically among the general orders. Those circulars dated 1867-72 are arranged chronologically and have been filmed following the general orders in volume 1. Some of the circulars for this period are numbered. The general orders and circulars in volumes 2 and 3 are generally arranged by year with numbers assigned to the general orders. Volume 3 also includes 1881 court-martial orders. These are arranged chronologically among the general orders and circulars but are numbered separately from the general orders.

Associated materials: Other records of Fort Dodge (Fort Dodge, Kan.) are on Kansas Historical Society microfilm rolls MS 147-150, MS 152-MS 153, MS 155-MS 161, MS 985-MS 1005, and MS 1045.

Indexes: There are name and subject indexes to the general orders in volume 1 and to part (July 1872-December 1877) of the orders and circulars in volume 2. Volume 3 also contains an index, but it is incomplete.

Related materials: In Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917, Record Group 94, are post returns for Fort Dodge, January 1866-October 1882. The returns are monthly reports that were submitted to the Adjutant General by the post commander. They show the names of organizations and officers stationed at Fort Dodge and statistical information, such as the number of enlisted men present, the total number of officers present, and the number of sick on post. These returns are reproduced on roll 319 of NARS Microfilm
Publication M617, Returns From U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916 (Kansas Historical Society microfilm roll MS 249).

Finding Aid Bibliography: United States, National Archives and Records Service. Headquarters Records of Fort Dodge, Kansas, 1866-1882. Washington : National Archives Trust Fund Board, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1977.

Use and reproduction: Public record

Reproduction: Microfilm. Washington [D.C.] : The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1960. Kansas Historical Society microfilm roll MS 151, available for research or inter-library loan.

Holder of originals: Originals at the National Archives (U.S.) (Washington, D.C.)

General Note: Similar to roll 23 of the Headquarters records of Fort Dodge, Kansas, 1866-1882 (National Archives (U.S.) microfilm publication M989).