Civil War Began 155 Years Ago Today – Wyoming Was Busy

It was 155 years ago today, in 1861, that The Civil War started when the southern state’s Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in the middle of the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

At that time, Wyoming did not exist. It was a part of the Idaho, Utah and Dakota territories that was acquired in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and was inhabited mostly by the Shoshone, Arapaho, and Crow tribes. Fur traders and settlers made their way through the area during the 1840’s and The US Army built forts to protect them, but most of those soldiers were relocated back east to accommodate the War Between the States.

The present day Powder River Basin of Wyoming had been set aside for the Sioux, in 1851 but after gold was discovered in Montana in 1863, John Bozeman discovered a shortcut through the lands and the federal military Powder River campaign was on, dealing with the native tribes of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, according to NPS.

Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota was the most upset by the intrusion of whites and his nation was the most successful against the United States. A treaty ordained the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation and proclaimed their lands to include the western half of what is now South Dakota, Montana and most of Wyoming. Gold miners found a new route to the gold fields thanks to the Union Pacific Railroad. That agreement held until 1874, when General George Custer made his disastrous way into The Black Hills.

Though “Wyoming” was not part of the Civil War which started on April 12^th of 1861 and ended in 1865, many Native Americans played their part. It wasn’t until 1890 that President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill that made Wyoming the 44th state to join the Union.