Railroad Survey of 1873

By editor

Forsyth, Rosebud County, Montana

In the summer of 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad undertook a survey along the northern banks of the Yellowstone River, a venture emblematic of the ceaseless advance of American expansion across the vast western plains. This enterprise was not merely an engineering endeavor but a movement fraught with the perils and complexities of military, political, and cultural confrontation. The land south of the Yellowstone remained under the dominion of the Lakota Sioux, whose sovereignty was yet unbroken by treaty or conquest, rendering the survey a perilous undertaking that necessitated a formidable military escort.

The command entrusted with providing security to the surveyors was led by Colonel David S. Stanley, a veteran officer of the Union Army whose reputation for discipline and organization was well known. Stanley’s force in 1873 was considerable, comprising eighteen companies of infantry, a train of 275 wagons bearing supplies and equipment, three artillery pieces, and ten companies of the Seventh Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer. This assemblage was no mere escort but a mobile army, a rolling fortification, whose presence was meant both to protect and to intimidate.

The route taken by Stanley’s expedition has left a durable imprint upon the landscape; the roads that now traverse the north side of the Yellowstone River often follow the very path blazed by his troops during that summer. The survey itself was of great strategic importance, as the Northern Pacific sought to chart a route that would link the burgeoning settlements of the Pacific Northwest with the rail networks of the eastern states, thus knitting together the far-flung regions of the continent.

Yet the expedition was marked by tensions not only with the native inhabitants but also within the command. Lieutenant Colonel Custer, a figure both celebrated and contentious, presented a challenge to Stanley’s authority. Known for his impetuousness and ambition, Custer’s temperament clashed with the more measured discipline of Stanley. A mere fortnight into the march, these tensions erupted into an open confrontation. Stanley, anticipating difficulty with Custer, responded with disciplinary measures, ordering the cavalryman to the rear of the column. However, Stanley’s own command was compromised by bouts of intemperance. Custer, noted for his abstention from alcohol, leveraged Stanley’s weaknesses to undermine his authority. According to accounts, officers recognized that Stanley’s episodes of binge drinking contributed to the discord and took the extraordinary measure of disposing of the expedition’s liquor supply to restore order. Within a day, Stanley rescinded his sanction against Custer, and the march proceeded without further incident.

The presence of the Lakota, who maintained control over the unceded territory to the south, cast a constant shadow over the expedition. During the summer, there were two skirmishes between the military column and Lakota warriors. Though these encounters were minor and inflicted no decisive harm, their tactical nature left an indelible impression upon the officers. The Lakota employed hit-and-run tactics, engaging in swift assaults before melting away into the plains. This led Custer and many of his fellow officers to conclude that the Sioux would not stand in prolonged combat but would scatter upon the display of sufficient military force.

This assumption proved tragically flawed. The belief that the Lakota were prone to retreat under pressure influenced the strategic decisions of the officers in the years that followed. It would be, in part, this miscalculation that culminated in the disastrous Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, where Custer and his men suffered a calamitous defeat. The encounters during the 1873 survey thus served as a prelude to that larger conflict, a glimpse into the underestimation of a determined and capable adversary.

The broader context of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s ambitions must not be overlooked. The construction of the railroad was a monumental enterprise, aimed at binding the Pacific Coast to the eastern states and opening the northern tier of the continent to settlement and commerce. The survey along the Yellowstone was intended to identify a practicable route through the rugged and contested terrain of Montana Territory. Yet the year 1873 also saw the eruption of the Panic of 1873, a financial crisis that precipitated a prolonged economic depression. The consequences for railroad construction were immediate and severe: the Northern Pacific halted work along the Yellowstone, abandoning the route that Stanley and his troops had surveyed.

When the railroad finally resumed construction nearly a decade later, it chose a different path, running south of the Yellowstone River and thus avoiding the contested lands that had necessitated such a significant military presence. This decision altered the development of the region, directing the flow of settlers and commerce away from the northern bank where Stanley’s march had once cut a trail.

Reflecting upon the events of 1873, one perceives the complexity of the American frontier in its final stages of transformation. The military escort, the surveyors, the Lakota warriors, and the ambitions of the railroad all intersected upon the banks of the Yellowstone, a river that had witnessed centuries of encounter and struggle. Colonel Stanley’s march was more than a mere logistical operation; it was an episode in the unfolding drama of empire and resistance, of progress and preservation.

In the words of Stanley himself, recorded in his official reports, the expedition was undertaken “to open the way for the iron horse, whose coming will assuredly change the face of this region and bring it within the fold of the Union.” Yet that opening also presaged the fading of the indigenous world, the shifting of frontiers, and the inexorable advance of a new order upon the plains of Montana.

See also

• Railroad Survey of 1873 at Forsyth, Rosebud County
• Custer Campsite -- June 22, 1876 at Rosebud, Rosebud County
• Captain Ball's Scout at Crow Agency, Big Horn County