High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The trader post scandal involved Secretary of War William W. Belknap who received quarterly kickback payments derived from an illicit Fort Sill tradership contract between Caleb P. Marsh and sutler John S. Evans. In 1870, Sec. Belknap lobbied Congress, and on July 15 of that year was granted the sole power to appoint and license sutlers with ownership rights to highly lucrative "traderships" at U.S. military forts on the Western frontier. The power to appoint traderships by the Commanding General of the Army, at that time William T. Sherman, was repealed. Having been granted the sole power to appoint traderships, Sec. Belknap further empowered those traderships with a virtual monopoly. Soldiers stationed at forts with Belknap appointed sutlers could only buy supplies through the authorized tradership. These monopoly traderships were considered to be excellent investments, and were highly prized. Soldiers on the Western frontier, who were...