A Soldier – Doctor of Our Army: James P. Kimball, Late Colonel and Assistant Surgeon-General, U. S. Army

Much of the Dakota Territory was grassland. Indigenous animals in the area included deer, bison, pronghorn, coyotes, and prairie dogs. Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath wrote of the hunt:

“The winter of ’77 and ’78 at Fort Custer was a severe one, and snow was deep. Game was plentiful, and wagonloads of frozen trout, freshly caught, men brought to the Post. Of all the game I liked black tail deer the best with the back strop of the buffalo a close second. The “back strop” consisted of a long piece of flesh running above the backbone and along the spine. It was sometimes 3 feet long and of a diameter of 6 or 8 inches, and when cut across, furnished fine good sized steaks.”