The response to Custer's defeat was a rapid military build-up in the
region, fueled by a national passion for revenge. "Milestown was born in
the fall of 1876 when Colonel Miles [at Fort Keough], becoming tired of
having the
coffee-doolers loafing at the Tongue River Cantonment, had a stake set
about two miles east of the post, and ordered all the hangers-on to move
to
the other side of the marker. By evening on the day Miles had issued his
ultimatum, these civilians had a few tents set up and two saloons and a
gambling house in operation. This infant village was a vigorous , lusty,
man's town, which provided its customers with alcolhol, the necessities
to support life on the frontier, and women."
(Brown and Felton, The Frontier Years).
The youngest general in the Union army at the end of the Civil War. His motives in the summer of 1876? To run for president of the United States. It was said of him, that the only thing he knew how to do was chargeA duty or responsibility laid upon or entrusted to one. Care, custody, or superintendence. A command or injunction; exhortation..