Supplying Custer: The Powder River Supply Depot, 1876 by Gerald R. Clark

In Supplying Custer, Clark presents the findings of his archaeological investigation at the mouth of the Powder River and his hypothesis that the supply difficulties faced by the US Army contributed to Lt. Col. George Custer’s famous defeat by the Northern Plains tribes at the Battle of Little Bighorn. It is an interesting and informative read that imparts a great deal of military historical data specific to the army’s support network during the time of the 1876 Sioux War. Clark’s description of the army’s supply system at that time in the Great Plains shows how difficult it could be to navigate the bureaucracy supporting a military while simultaneously fighting a war against a savvy and capable foe.

In chapter 1, Clark introduces us to the contemporary landscape of southeastern Montana by describing his discovery of the site in the late 1970s as part of a Fish, Wildlife and Parks roads project. He gives a brief accounting of the site and the surrounding features before delving into a clarification of the army’s complicated organization in general and its supply system in 1876. Feuding between the Quartermaster’s Department and the Subsistence Department, a rift between operational line commanders and staff generals, graft in the federal government, as well as problems with horses, livestock, and pack trains all served to make the processes of feeding and transporting troops in the Northern Plains that much more arduous. The role of civilian goods traders, called sutlers, is also described in this chapter, and their importance to the army is made abundantly clear; in short, they provided those things soldiers want while in the field: tasty foodstuffs, tobacco, and alcohol.

Chapters 2 and 3 provide a historical overview of events in the lower Yellowstone River area of southeastern Montana, beginning with white incursions into Native territories at the turn of the nineteenth century, continuing through the battles and skirmishes of the Sioux War of 1876, and finally coming to rest after the railroad-inspired housing boom of the early 1900s. The 1876 supply depot at the mouth of the Powder River is the setting of chapter 4, and Clark goes into more depth with a history of this brief time. Based on his research, he tells us in detail about the sutlers’ and commissary’s wares, the soldiers’ purchases, and their diet and habits while at the depot. He then delves into troop movements and steamboat travel in the Northern Plains theater of operations. Chapter 5 is devoted to analyzing the material evidence uncovered during Clark’s archeological fieldwork and attempting to pin down dates of occupation for the site. Conclusions are laid out in chapter 6.

Clark makes a plausible argument for his site being the army’s Powder River Depot, and the history and physical evidence support his supposition that it was occupied by European Americans around the time of the Sioux Wars. Ultimately, though, Clark concludes that the artifacts cover too broad a time frame to pinpoint the site’s period of occupation to just a few scant months during the summer of 1876, and that Custer’s defeat was not the result of supply woes. It is a modest ending to a fascinating book.