This collection is open for research.
Telegrams received by the post of Fort Assinniboine in 1881 were purchased by the Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections from Mrs. Jeanne M. Irving of Olympia, Washington, on April 5, 2004.
Fort Assinniboine was established by the United States Army during the summer of 1879 in Hill County, Montana Territory, near present day Havre, Montana. A huge complex of brick buildings, Assinniboine was the largest military post in Montana Territory. Among the military companies garrisoned at the fort was the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers. During the early 1880s, soldiers at Assinniboine were called on to monitor the movements of Sitting Bull's band of Hunkpapa Lakota and to continually escort members of the Cree and other Canadian First Nations back across the border. The fort was actively used until 1911. Today, the site is part of the Northern Agriculture Research Center, operated by Montana State University, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Louden Minugh was a New Jersey fisherman who enlisted in the U.S. Army at New York City on August 23, 1879. Twenty-two year old Minugh was assigned to Company C, Eighteenth Infantry and posted to Fort Assinniboine that fall. He remained at the post for his entire enlistment term, mustering out as a sergeant with an "excellent character" rating on August 22, 1884. Minugh later became a rancher and storekeeper in Harlem, Montana. It is unknown how Minugh came into possession of the 1881 telegrams from Fort Assinniboine. The documents were eventually inherited by his granddaughter, Jeanne Minugh Irving.
This collection was processed 2009 April 28
The Fort Assiniboine telegrams received are "true copies," verified exact duplicates of original transmissions that were mailed from the office of origin to Lietenant Colonel Henry M. Black, 18th United States Infantry and commanding officer of Fort Assiniboine in 1881. The majority came from the headquarters of the military District of Montana in Helena, and are signed by Lietenant George L. Turner, Acting Assistant Adjutant General. Other telegrams are from the headquarters of the Department of Dakota at Fort Snelling, Minnesota; Fort Buford, Dakota Territory; and Forts Maginnis, Shaw, and Keogh, Montana Territory. The telegrams address the movements of troops, disposition of supplies, court martial proceedings, and other routine military matters. Of particular interest are several messages dated in January 1881 concerning the movements of Sitting Bull and the Army's failed attempt to capture his camp in the Milk River area of Montana Territory. Other military movements against the Hunkpapa Lakota, Canadian Cree, Piegans (Blackfeet or Piikuni), and Métis are also discussed in the telegrams.
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
The telegrams have been chronologically arranged.