Post by Lawtonka on Apr 20, 2006 17:57:43 GMT -6
Please, nevermind the mug next to the rock. Growing up at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, I never even had a hint that Custer would have had anything to do with Fort Sill, nor was I aware of the Battle of Washita and the killing of Black Kettle and others. I was enchanted by the history of Geronimo's band of Apaches, the Kiowa and Commanches.
After 30 plus years in 1999 during a revisit to the old post of Fort Sill, while riding around.....we found this. Custer and the 7th Cav. had camped here on what is now a golf course near Medicine Creek.
The men of the 7th wanted to name the new fort, "Fort Elliott" in honor of Major Joel Elliott who was kill just within a week or so before they camped here and Sheridan was slecting the site for Fort Sill.
The marker reads:
The 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, General Custer Commanding, camped here in open dug-outs January-February 1869 during Sheridan's winter campaign and the founding of Fort Sill.