Camp Merritt (Rosebud County, near Lame Deer, Montana)
Rosebud County, near Lame Deer · Montana · Indian Wars
History & Significance
Throughout the 1880s soldiers from Fort Keogh on the Yellowstone River had been periodically stationed near the Northern Cheyenne Agency on the Tongue River. In 1891, after several Cheyenne were arrested for stealing cattle, Brigadier General Wesley Merritt ordered a permanent military camp to be established at Lame Deer Agency, and Camp Merritt was established in December of that year.
Fort Keogh troops who garrisoned it were on a three-month rotation basis. As a sub-post of Fort Keogh, soldiers remained stationed at the camp until 1899 when it was abandoned.
The camp was located in Rosebud County near Lame Deer, in the heart of Northern Cheyenne lands during a period of intensive federal efforts to restrict Native American movement and enforce agency authority. While modest in scale compared to major frontier forts, Camp Merritt represented the Army's increasing military presence in southeastern Montana during the final years of the Indian Wars era.
Key Facts
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Merritt_(Montana)
- https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/84935
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lame_Deer,_Montana