Construction of Cantonment Reno commenced, after the location of the post having been established two days prior.
Cantonment Reno (Ft. McKinney)
This is really interesting for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it shows a real change in the Army's strategy for defeating the Sioux. Ever since the end of Red Cloud's War in the 1860s the Army had not maintained a post in the Powder River Basin. Indeed, Cantonment Reno is just a couple of miles away from where Ft. Reno had been. Ft. Reno, Ft. Caspar and Ft. Phil Kearney had all been abandoned after that successful Sioux campaign, ceding hundreds of square miles to Sioux and Cheyenne control. Red Cloud had been enormously successful.
But now the Army was back, and a post like Cantonment Reno was a major interdicting presence on the southeastern edge of the Basin.
Red Cloud's War had concluded in 1868. The Sioux and Cheyenne dominance in the Powder River Basin had been brief.
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