Fort Buford
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Fort Buford State Historic Site
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Fort Buford's 1872 Commanding Officer's Quarters
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| Location | Williams County, North Dakota, SW of Williston near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers |
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| Nearest city | Williston, North Dakota |
| Coordinates | 47°59′11″N 104°00′05″W / 47.98639°N 104.00139°WCoordinates: 47°59′11″N 104°00′05″W / 47.98639°N 104.00139°W |
| Built | 1866 |
| NRHP Reference # | 75001308 |
| Added to NRHP | April 1, 1975 |
Fort Buford was a United States Army Post at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in Dakota Territory, present day North Dakota, and the site of Sitting Bull's surrender in 1881.
Company C, 2nd Battalion, 13th Infantry, 3 officers, 80 enlisted men and 6 civilians commanded by Capt. (Brevet Lt. Col.) William G. Rankin, first established a camp on the site on June 15, 1866, with orders to build a post, the majority of which was built using adobe and cottonwood enclosed by a wooden . The fort was named after the late Major General John Buford, a Union Army cavalry general during the American Civil War.
The second night after arrival the camp was attacked by a band of the Hunkpapa Lakota led by Sitting Bull, they were driven off with one soldier wounded. The next day, the same group attacked and attempted to drive off the company's herd of beef cattle, but were repulsed and two Lakota killed. Parties of men cutting and rafting logs from the mouth of the Yellowstone were often attacked and driven to camp, where the fighting often lasted from two to six hours with losses on both sides.
Three civilian wood cutters were killed at the mouth of the Yellowstone in December. Lieut. Hiram H. Ketchum with sixty men reacted, drove off the Indians and recovered the bodies with slight loss to his detachment. According to the regimental history, the Lakota boasted that they intended to annihilate the soldiers and during the winter they besieged the post. The siege cut off the garrison from the nearby Missouri River and forced them to sink shallow wells near their quarters in order to obtain fresh water. The shallow well water they drank was contaminated, by the post's and/or human waste, and caused dysentery. From December 21–24 a large group of the Hunkpapas repeatedly attacked and captured the post's ice house and sawmill located near the river and opened fire on the post. The attackers were not repelled until Rankin ordered his two 12 pound Napoleons to return fire. Captain Rankin's wife spent the winter in camp, enduring the hardships and dangers with the troops in garrison.
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