History

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 foothills 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.

The new post replaced Camp J.C. Sturgis, started in July 1878, about two miles northwest of nearby Bear Butte, was first named Camp Ruhlen for Lt. George Ruhlen, 17th U.S. Infantry quartermaster officer who supervised the building of the post. It was established by Major Henry M. Lazelle, 1st U.S. Infantry, and companies D and H of the 11th U.S. Infantry on a site selected by Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan, on the east side of Bear Butte Creek, in the Black Hills, fourteen miles northeast of the town of Deadwood, South Dakota.

General Order No. 27, issued at Department of Dakota Headquarters, announced that the Secretary of War had designated the post "Fort Meade" in honor of Major General George G. Meade, of Civil War fame. The first commander was Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis, 7th Cavalry.

The work of building the post, for which an appropriation of $100,000.00 had been made, was begun on August 28, 1878, and completed in August 1879. The original appropriation not proving sufficient to meet the cost of the necessary buildings an additional appropriation of $11,000, and later a special appropriation of $13,000, was made for post hospital.

According to information obtained from an officer in the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, Fort Meade has been garrisoned, since its occupation, as follows:

The original garrison consisted of troops E and M, Seventh Cavalry, and companies F and K, First Infantry, with Major H. M. Lazelle, of First United States Infantry, in command. In June 1879, the garrison was reinforced by the arrival of band and troops C and G, Seventh Cavalry, and on July 10, 1879, by troops A and H, Seventh Cavalry, at which time Col. S. D. Sturgis assumed command of the post. In September 1879, Companies D and H, First Infantry, from Fort Sully, joined, increasing the garrison to four companies of infantry and six troops of cavalry.

On May 13, 1880, companies D, F, H, and K, left for Texas, and were replaced by Companies A, D, H, and K, Twenty-fifth Infantry (colored), with Capt. D. D. Van Valzah, Twenty-fifth Infantry, in temporary command, Col. Sturgis being absent on leave. On May 19, 1881, Col. Sturgis resumed command, but relinquished in June, going to Washington, D. C., to take charge of the Soldiers' Home. From that time the post was commanded successively by Capt. Van Vajzah, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Major Edward Ball, Seventh Cavalry, and Col. Joseph G. Tilford, Seventh Cavalry, until July 1886, when Col. James W. Forsyth was assigned to the command and remained until June, 1887.

In 1887, the four companies of the Twenty-fifth Infantry were replaced by four companies of Third Infantry. In June 1888, the Seventh Cavalry Regiment was sent to Fort Riley, Kansas, and the Third Infantry to some other point, when the post was regarrisoned by the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, consisting of eight troops under the command of Col. Elmer Otis. In January 1891, Col. Otis was superseded by Col. C. H. Carleton, who was retired from active service in June 1897, when Col. John M. Bacon took command of the garrison.[1]

Soon after the beginning of the Spanish–American War, Col. Bacon was ordered to St. Paul, Minnesota, leaving the post in charge of Major Robt. McGregor. Pending the war, the Eighth Cavalry Regiment, which had occupied the post for ten years, was broken up and scattered, the last troops leaving on October 6, 1898, for Huntsville, Alabama, from where they were to be sent to join the army of occupation in Cuba. The garrison, in October 1898, consisted of two troops of the First United States Cavalry, transferred there from the battlefields of San Juan Hill and El Caney.

Fort Meade has quarters and building accommodations for a regiment of ten full troops of cavalry, and as it is regarded, from a strategic standpoint, as the most important inland military post in the whole War Department, it will, doubtless, be increased to its full capacity, and maintained for many years to come, or so long at least, as the government feels it necessary to keep a watchful eye and a restraining hand over the numerous bands of untamed, it might be said, almost untamable, Indians, partitioned off among the various reservations of the Northwest.

The present post buildings consist of twenty-five sets officers' quarters, four double sets barracks, two single sets barracks, adjutant's office, quartermaster's office, guard house, officers of the guard room, two quartermaster's storehouses, one commissary, one set band quarters, post exchange, one granary, nine stables, one quartermaster's stable, new hospital of two wards, built in 1896; chapel, schoolhouse, post office, post hall, library, ordnance storehouse, powder magazine, one bakery, two ice houses, one saw mill, one steward house, and a beautifully located post cemetery fenced in.

In June 1879, the horse named Comanche, who survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was brought to Fort Meade by the Seventh Cavalry Regiment. There he was kept like a prince until 1888 when he was taken to Fort Riley, Kansas. He died at Fort Riley a few years later and was buried with military honors. Shortly thereafter the horse's remains were sent to a taxidermist, and in the early 1900s Comanche was displayed at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. A restoration of the display was completed in 2005.

It was here that the "Star Spangled Banner" first became the official music for the military retreat ceremony, long before it became the National Anthem. In 1892, the post commander Colonel Caleb H. Carlton, 8th Cavalry, began the custom of playing the "Star Spangled Banner" at military ceremonies and requested that all people rise and pay it proper respect long before it became the National Anthem.

The move to establish a national sanitarium at Hot Springs, SD, began in the early 1890s.  In September 1898, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) passed a resolution at its National GAR encampment, held in Cincinnati that year, requesting that Congress establish a national sanitarium at Hot Springs. After several attempts, the bill was approved and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 29th, 1902.  Citizens of Hot Springs donated the land, valued then as at least $50,000, for "This Home [that was] the child of the Grand Army."

The Battle Mountain Sanitarium was the 10th and final facility built by the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS).  Bath, the last National Home, was constructed in New York during the 1880s by the GAR.  Battle Mountain was not intended for use as a soldier’s home; instead, it was a short-term treatment facility for current residents of the NHDVS who suffered from lung or respiratory problems.  Their transportation costs to sanitarium were paid for by the NHDVS.

According to NHDVS annual reports, "Preference was given to soldiers and sailors suffering from sub-acute and chronic rheumatism, neuritis, the early stages of interstitial nephritis, skin disease, and morbid conditions due to defective elimination. Cases of pulmonary tuberculosis where the general condition is such to justify a reasonable hope of recovery or improvement under favorable conditions shall be admitted to the Sanitarium. Applicants admitted for such time only as may be necessary to effect a cure or relief of the disabilities from which he is suffering. When a member has received all benefits that can reasonably be expected from the special treatment and various forms of hydro-therapeutics here available, he will be required to take his discharge from the Sanitarium or accept transfer to one of the Branch Homes.  336 beds could be increased to 416 whenever necessary."

Thomas R. Kimball of Omaha, Nebraska, was selected as the architect for the sanitarium.  Ground broke for the facility on August 13, 1903 and the main group of buildings (Adm. Bldg., service bldg, bath house, chapel, library and laundry, and 6 ward buildings) was completed April 1, 1907.  Bath house waters (medicinal hot water) were furnished from Mammoth Spring to all parts of the building. Two fine plunge baths were supplied with hot and cold water.  A Tubercular Barrack for consumptives was constructed in the rear of the main Sanitarium group. "It will contain 40 beds and can be extended to 100 if necessary, making possible for 500 sick people at Battle Mtn. Sanitarium."  The sanitarium was seen as potentially useful for the thousands of malaria-stricken soldiers from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. 

One of the few documented Civil War veterans known to be of Asian Pacific heritage, Edward Day Cohota, lived at the sanitarium.

During World War I hospital facilities were desperately needed for injured soldiers and the Battle Mountain Sanitarium was made available to the Public Health Service for a term of up to five years.  In 1930, all 11 NHDVS facilities, including Battle Mountain Sanitarium, were transferred to the Veterans Administration. Today all of them continue to operate as Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Taken from "Celebrating A Century of Caring for America's Heroes"