Montana Territory Volunteer Militia

The Montana Territory Volunteer Militia was an Militia organized in Montana Territory in 1867 as a result of increased incidents with Native Americans.

History
With sharply increased settlement in Montana Territory at the end of the American Civil War, incidents with Native Americans on Montana’s Benton Road and the Bozeman Trail increased dramatically. On May 4, 1867, G. S. Townsend of the U.S. War Department wrote to the acting Territorial Governor of Montana Thomas Francis Meagher on behalf of the U. S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton concerning raising a Montana Territorial Militia:

By the end of April, 1867, a Volunteer Militia of 80 men had already been organized, and by the end of May, that number had grown to 150, consisting mostly of mounted horsemen. Acting Governor Thomas Francis Meagher commissioned Thomas Thoroughman, an ex-Confederate Lieutenant Colonel, a Brigadier General to command the Montana Militia in spring of 1867, and commissioned Walter W. De Lacy Colonel. In May, 1867, the Montana Volunteer Militia under Thoroughman and De Lacy built Fort Elizabeth Meagher at the mouth of Rocky Creek, in Gallatin County, Montana to provide settlers protection from "hostile" Sioux and Crow Native Americans. At the end of July, 1867 the Volunteer Militia force numbered 513 men present for duty, consisting of 32 officers and 481 enlisted men. Desertions were common, and in the summer a detachment of about one hundred men stationed on the Yellowstone River deserted at once. On July 1, 1867, Acting Governor Meagher drowned in the Missouri River at Fort Benton, Montana while receiving a shipment of ammunition for the Montana Militia. Governor Green Clay Smith then demoted Thomas Thoroughman to Colonel, giving him principal responsibility in the Gallatin Valley. At the end of July, Governor Green Clay Smith "issued a proclamation...calling for the service of 800 men for six months from the 1st of August, and inviting the old force to reenlist."

The arrival of United States Army Regiments in Montana Territory from 1866 to 1867 including companies of the 2nd Cavalry, 7th Infantry, 18th Infantry, and 27th Infantry, relieved the need for a Territorial Militia, and after fighting no battles, the Montana Territory Volunteer Militia was disbanded by January, 1868.