Fort Meade (South Dakota)

Fort Meade
Meade County, on the east side of Bear Butte Creek, in the Black Hills, 14 miles northeast of Deadwood, South Dakota.
Fort Meade, Dakota. Bear Butte, 3 miles distant.
Site information
Controlled by	United States
Site history
Built	1878
In use	1878-1944
Battles/wars	Indian Wars
Garrison information
Past commanders	Major Henry M. Lazelle, 1st Infantry Captain Van Vajzah, 25th Infantry Major Edward Ball, 7th Cavalry Colonel Joseph G. Tilford, 7th Cavalry Colonel James W. Forsyth, 7th Cavalry Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis, 7th Cavalry Colonel Elmer Otis, 8th Cavalry Colonel Caleb H. Carlton, 8th Cavalry Colonel John M. Bacon, 8th Cavalry Major Robert McGregor, 8th Cavalry
Garrison	1st U.S. Infantry 7th U.S. Cavalry Twenty-fifth Infantry 8th U.S. Cavalry 3rd U.S. Infantry 10th U.S. Cavalry 4th U.S. Cavalry

Fort Meade was established in 1878 as a cavalry fort to protect the new settlements in the northern Black Hills, especially the nearby gold mining area around Deadwood. Several stage and freighting routes passed through Fort Meade en route to Deadwood.

For most of the past 120 years, there has been some military presence at Fort Meade, near Sturgis, South Dakota. Many cavalry and infantry units were stationed here, including the 7th U.S. Cavalry after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Buffalo Soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, and the 4th U.S. Cavalry which saw the transition from horses to mechanization. Fort Meade still serves as a training site for the South Dakota National Guard and an Army National Guard Officer Candidate School. It is also home of Fort Meade National Cemetery.

By order of Gen. Sheridan, issued in response to numerous appeals of the settlers of the Hills for military protection against persistent Indian depredations, a temporary United States military camp was established in August, 1876, on Spring creek a little north of Bear Butte (known to the Cheyenne as Náhkȯhévóse, not to be confused with the sacred Cheyenne mountain Nóávóse/Nóvávóse—″Gift Butte″ or ″Offer Butte″, the Bear Butte northwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, where Sweet Medicine received the covenant of the Sacred Arrows, and where Cheyennes go to pray and fast), and named Camp Sturgis, in honor of the gallant Lieut. J. G. Sturgis, or "Jack Sturgis," as he was familiarly called by his comrades, who fought and fell with Custer on the hills overlooking the Little Big Horn. During the occupation of this camp, the present site of Fort Meade, situated just outside the eastern foot-hills of the Black Hills, and on the south side of Bear Butte creek, was selected and located as a permanent United States military post, which was established and garrisoned on August 31, 1878.