“An excellent soldier. A true man loyal, honest cleanly & of sweet disposition. Death ere thou hast killed another good & brave & true as he. Time shall throw a dart at thee.”

Company Descriptive Book
Fort Rice, Dakota Territory
May 11, 1865

What would prompt a hard-bitten file clerk at a desolate outpost in Dakota Territory to write the preceding eulogy for one young soldier?

We may never know the answer to that question, but the State Archives and a subscription-based internet military site reveal this and other stories of a band of “volunteer” soldiers in Dakota Territory.

The eulogy is an anomaly among the 24,000 military records I recently researched to gain a better understanding of 645 Civil War soldiers assigned to the 1st United States Volunteer Infantry (1st USVI). The regiment is probably better known as the “Galvanized Yankees.”

The story of how the soldiers came to occupy Fort Rice, a Dakota Territory military post named after a Civil War casualty, is too long to recount in its entirety here. Here is the short version: President Abraham Lincoln was forced to get creative in finding enough troops to fight on the fronts of two contemporaneous wars. The American Civil War was raging in the East and the aftermath of the US-Dakota War of 1862 was smoldering in the Midwest. To address the troop shortage, Lincoln made an offer to Confederate prisoners of war; in exchange for a vow of loyalty to the Union Army, he would send them to the Midwest to “subdue” the Native Americans instead of sending them back to the Civil War.

Many books, stories and articles have been written about the “Galvanized Yankees” at Fort Rice. For my purposes, though, a more thorough study of the individual soldiers was required. After slogging through the military records, I had a much clearer picture of the individuals and personalities involved.

As with the eulogy to Private George Sampson of Company D at the beginning of this post, hints of their stories began to emerge. Private Sampson was a Virginia farm kid. He was described as being 17 years of age, 5 feet, 9 inches in height with blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. He died in the Fort Rice hospital on May 14, 1865, of “Typhus Fever.” Unfortunately, it is never revealed why he was singled out for such a unique epitaph and why his superior officer would paraphrase a 17^th-century English poem in his honor.

Left: Private George Sampson’s headstone, Custer National Cemetery, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Crow Agency, Montana). The soldiers, including Private Sampson, were disinterred from the Fort Rice cemetery in the early 1900s and reinterred at the Custer National Cemetery
Right: Entry for Private George S. Sampson, Company Descriptive Book, 1865

A composite image of the soldiers at Fort Rice is difficult to assemble. Some details, though, can be noted:

The soldiers, as in most wars, were young. They ranged from 14 to 51 years of age with an average of 24 years. Private Clinton Millsaps, also from Company D and another farm kid, was born in Tennessee. He was the youngest of the lot at the age of 14 and measured in at 4 feet, 10 inches tall, which was 2 inches taller than the Springfield muzzleloading rifle he carried. He also had blue eyes, light hair, and a light complexion. At the tender age of 14 he had several things in common with his fellow soldiers: he was already a veteran of the Civil War, he had served time in a Union military prison, and he had survived the trip to Dakota Territory. Unlike Private Sampson and 101 other individuals at Fort Rice, he would survive to return home after his regiment was disbanded. He served as a “musician” at Fort Rice, probably deemed too short to fight.

The majority of the soldiers at Fort Rice were illiterate, as evidenced by the “x” on the signature line of their Union army “vow of allegiance.” Privates Millsaps and Sampson signed their names to the papers; 337 other members of the regiment (52%) signed with an “x.”

The soldiers of the 1st USVI, the first permanent troops at Fort Rice, were mostly southern kids. They hailed from 19 eastern states, with North Carolina being the most represented at 269 individuals. The remainder of the regiment was populated by men from 20 foreign countries including Prussia, Switzerland, and Ireland.

Fifty-two different professions were embodied at Fort Rice. Their occupations included slaters, coopers, weavers and teamsters. The majority (457 of them) listed “Farmer” as their occupation prior to the Civil War. Despite their collective knowledge, agriculture at Fort Rice was mostly a failure. The grasshoppers were able to muster more troops than the army.

Many more stories were revealed in the archives, but my space has come to an end. The stories of desertions, drownings, “accidental” shootings, court martials, sentences of “death by musketry,” acquittals, deaths from various diseases, and even a couple of deaths at the hands of the Native Americans they had come to subdue must wait for another day.

One of the strengths of our museum collection is the military uniform collection. Ranging from the Civil War era to Operation Desert Storm, there are hundreds if not thousands of pieces, both from peacetime and from major wars. Prior to the expansion project of the ND Heritage Center, the space we had to house this collection was very limited. As a result, uniforms of different time periods were stored together in fairly cramped conditions.

Pictured is the original row in storage for military uniforms. Because space was very limited, items were overcrowded and a bit random, with the uniforms of different branches of service, time periods, and countries mixed together.

With the recent expansion of the Heritage Center, the Museum Division was fortunate to receive an additional 5,000-6,000 square feet of storage space, and we have been working hard to fill and organize it. We saw an opportunity to rehouse the military uniform collection. Starting in late August, I began transferring the collection over to the new area.

The first step was figuring out a hanging system for the uniforms. The system needed to work with existing shelving units, but ready-made hanging components from manufacturers can be cost-prohibitive. That meant coming up with a custom solution ourselves. After a few trips to the hardware store, we decided to use ¾” conduit that I cut in-house, and then secured it to the shelves with screws and conduit hangers.

The hardware we used for the hanging system was very simple: sections of ¾” conduit cut to fit the width of each column of shelving, hung from the shelf above it with screws and conduit hangers. The screws fit through existing holes in each shelf. The total cost for the hanging system will be under $200, and all of the components were purchased at a local hardware store.

After the hanging system was in place, it was time to start transferring the uniforms. It seemed to be the perfect project for me, because I got my start in museums as a costumed tour guide at Fort Mackinac, a state historic site in Michigan. In addition to firing a rifle and cannon, we spent a good deal of time talking about the uniforms we wore. I thought I knew army uniforms. I soon found out that I had quite a bit to learn.

I decided to arrange the uniforms in chronological order, separated by branch of service. The items I started with were accepted as early as the 1920s, and I don’t think they had been cataloged since that time. Most had no photos on file and vague or sometimes very inaccurate descriptions, which can make it difficult to determine the date of a uniform, especially from more obscure interwar periods. Over the last month, I have spent quite a bit of time leafing through reference books and performing Google searches. At one point, I even contacted a historian at the North Dakota National Guard for assistance. It has been challenging, but honestly quite fun. I am expanding my own knowledge and adding information to our files, while at the same time, majorly improving the storage conditions for an important part of our collection.

An artist named Henry Alexander Ogden was commissioned by the US government from the 1890s to the early 1900s to create illustrations of US Army uniforms from throughout American history. This Ogden illustration, found in a reference book[1], was especially useful in identifying the M-1902 dress blouse you see in the background. The 1902 dress uniform is similar in appearance to the US Army’s current class A uniform.

As items are placed in their new location, I try to make sure there are a few inches between garments to ensure they don’t touch. I also make sure any hangers used are adequately padded. Both things help to prevent strain and potential damage to the materials and make the uniforms easier to access.

The military uniform collection will now be housed in two rows of storage instead of just one, allowing us to decompress them and even leave room for expansion. Uniforms are arranged chronologically and separated by branch of service. So far, I have rehoused uniforms dating from 1860-1906.

So far, I have made it to 1906 with another century’s worth of uniforms to rehouse. It is a challenging project, but one I am excited to continue!

[1] Langellier, John P. Fix Bayonets: The U.S. Infantry from the American Civil War to the Surrender of Japan. London: Lionel Leventhal Limited, 1998.

Oops! We have found a few errors in North Dakota: People Living on the Land (ndstudies.gov/gr8) since it was published in October 2014. However, because it is an online curriculum, we can make changes quickly. Though there are good reasons to provide students with paper textbooks (there is nothing like the feel of a book in your hands), one of the great advantages of a web-based curriculum is the ease of correcting errors (typographical or factual) that nearly every textbook contains.

During our first introduction of this 8^th grade curriculum to teachers, one of the participants noted that a sentence about the U.S. Constitution stated that it was written in 1889 (instead of 1789, as we all know). Well, that was embarrassing. After teaching U.S. History for 17 years, I should have seen that typo immediately. However, the error was quickly and easily corrected.

One day while thinking about nothing of importance, it struck me that in writing the introduction to the role of North Dakotans in World War II, I had failed to mention the outcome of the war. Adults of my age generally know that the Allies defeated Germany, Italy, and Japan in 1945. For eighth graders, that event is far in the distant past and the conclusion of the war needed to be clarified. And, it was – just one day later.

Differences of opinion are harder to resolve. Take for instance the photo of the Bakken oil region at night that was published by NASA a few years ago. The photo illustrated a section about how oil development had changed western North Dakota. (You can find the photo in Unit IV, Lesson 1, Topic 5, Section 3, Image 18.)

This NASA satellite photograph has state lines superimposed. The bright lights in the Bakken are caused by gas flares, drilling rig lights, and other night-time activity.

In the photo, the lights of the Bakken make it appear to be a city as large as Chicago. Recently, the Energy and Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota published a similar satellite image, but the lights (whether from flares, drilling rigs, or other activity) appear individually and do not make the Bakken look like a great new urban center.

This satellite photograph of North Dakota shows the lights of the Bakken on the left side and the lights of Chicago in the lower right side. Minneapolis-St. Paul is the bright area just right of center. This photo was provided by the University of North Dakota-EERC. Technicians at the EERC adjusted the photo for atmospheric conditions that caused the Bakken lights to glare in the NASA photo. Photo courtesy EERC.

The problem is that NASA is a darn good resource and that image has strength. Nevertheless, driving through the Bakken at night is not like driving through Chicago. How to present the concept of major changes in western North Dakota without distortion? By presenting the problem to students.

If we publish both images along with some material about how the photos conflict, students can discuss whether to trust or to challenge resources. Through guided discussions with their teachers they can learn an important life skill of analyzing information before they decide to accept or reject what they read or hear. Part of what we learn in school is about “stuff.” The other part is about how to become a learning person. North Dakota: People Living on the Land is part of both processes.

If you remember my previous posts about the SEND program (http://blog.statemuseum.nd.gov/blog/please-dont-eat-artifacts), then you know we have educational trunks that provide history-related objects and information to classrooms throughout the state. Students can touch real things that represent and interpret the history they are learning about. Of the trunk topics we have available, the Fur Trade trunk is always one of the most popular. It is packed with interesting objects that reveal what the world was like when Europeans and Native Americans first engaged in commercial activity together. Just one object can be used to teach a multitude of concepts. For example, this is a leg-hold trap from the trunk:

Leg-hold, spring trap from the Fur Trade SEND trunk

The jaws are welded shut so people of all ages can safely handle the object. It is made of steel and is about 27.5” long, including the chain. The long spring on each side of the jaws (as opposed to coil springs) makes it a double, long-spring trap. There is also a round pan with a maker’s mark on it.

Close up photograph of the trap pan displaying the manufacturer’s logo

The pan gives us a lot more information to think about. It is stamped: Oneida Victor 1, Made in U.S., Reg. U.S. Pat of Animal Trap Co. Lititz, PA. There is also a large, noticeable “V” cut into the steel pan. An internet search for the term “Oneida Victor” reveals that the Oneida silverware company traces its roots back to a religious commune in New York that owned several enterprises over the years, including a company that was once the leading manufacturer of game traps.¹

What other discussions can this object spark? If we are working with a group of students in a classroom, I would expect a lot of students to have questions about what trapping is. Some students might have first-hand experience with trapping, especially if they live on a farm or their family hunts and fishes. This object might generate a conversation about the ethics of hunting, fishing, and trapping, especially with an adult audience. It would be good for the person leading the discussion to have an understanding of the history of trapping and changes in best practices and standards that the trapping community has developed in response to changing viewpoints on hunting and trapping ethics.

This also opens up a lot of opportunities to talk about and study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) topics in relation to land and resource management. Students could be presented with a real life problem: develop a beaver management plan in an urban area. They would need to figure out the range of modern beaver habitat (they can be found in forty-nine states). Students would need to figure out how many beavers the local ecosystem can support, how many are estimated to be living there, and what the best options are for population control. This will also raise some interesting issues for the students including how to coordinate their efforts and how to educate the public about an often controversial issue. What a great example of project-based learning connecting current events to real history—bringing history to the classroom in a relevant way!

Minnesota History. “MHS Collections: Society Collects Animal Traps.” Winter (1972): 146-148, accessed September 2, 2015. http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/43/v43i04p146-148.pdf.

Documenting, conserving, preserving, and protecting peoples’ stories are at the heart of historic preservation. Some ways to do this are through written and photographic documentation, recording oral histories, and saving historic buildings/structures and archaeological sites. Oftentimes, you will hear us refer to these things as “cultural resources.”

My job as an archaeologist exists because of a law passed by Congress in 1966 called the National Historic Preservation Act (16 USC 470).  In part it reads, “The preservation of our irreplaceable heritage is in the public interest so that its vital legacy of cultural, educational, aesthetic, inspirational, economic, and energy benefits will be maintained and enriched for future generations of Americans.” It created the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, State Historic Preservation Offices, the National Register of Historic Places, and the National Historic Landmark Program.

Each state has a State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). The North Dakota SHPO is located in the lower level of the Heritage Center in Bismarck. Our office serves a variety of functions, including developing and maintaining a statewide program—based on state and local needs—that supports and promotes historic preservation. This involves planning to meet challenges unique to our state; advocating for historic preservation policy at state and local levels; and empowering communities, organizations and citizens to action.

Some activities of the North Dakota SHPO:

We are the repository for the documentation of recorded historical and archaeological sites in North Dakota. Part of my job is processing the paper and digital records of these sites. Currently, there are nearly 70,000 site forms on file. The SHPO staff, federal agencies, state agencies, tribal governments, and specialists utilize these records daily.

Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to consider the impact that federally funded or permitted projects will have on cultural resources. At the SHPO, we advise and assist federal agencies in this process, review project design plans, identify cultural resources, and assess and resolve determinations of adverse effect. This process gives a local voice to the federal planning and decision-making process.

The Certified Local Government (CLG) program provides for a voluntary, formal partnership between the local, state and federal governments which establishes a commitment to historic preservation. North Dakota has seven CLGs: Buffalo, Devils Lake, Dickinson, Fargo, Grand Forks, Pembina County, and Walsh County.

Income tax credits encourage private sector investment in the rehabilitation and reuse of historic buildings. The program allows the owner of a certified historic structure to receive 20% of the amount spent on qualified rehabilitation costs as a direct, federal income-tax credit. We review program applications to ensure the work complies with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards.

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) recognizes cultural resources that are considered important in the past and worthy of preservation. We write and solicit nominations to the NRHP. Listing in the NRHP puts no restriction upon a private property owner, who may alter or dispose of their property in any way they wish without any prior approvals. Listing in the NRHP does help protect cultural resources from potentially harmful federal actions.

Alan & Gail Lynch at the Lynch Knife River Flint Quarry National Historic Landmark dedication.
Photo courtesy of the North Dakota SHPO

Awareness and application of historic preservation programs enhance our community identity, increase economic development, and provide a local voice in federal undertakings. We are planning events in 2016 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act. We hope you will join us.

See preservation50.org for events across the United States.

Guest Blogger: Amy Bleier

Amy Bleier is a Research Archaeologist in the Archaeology and Historic Preservation Division. One of Amy’s tasks is to assist with the production of the North Dakota Archaeology Awareness poster.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: we get a lot of historical and genealogical research requests, working in the Archives. They range from simple (“Can you make a copy of this page from The Wonder of Williams: The History of Williams County?”) to the complicated (“I was in here once ten years ago and looked through five different collections, where I found a letter from a woman homesteader. I should have made a copy of it then…can you help me find it now?”).

Warning: This post is interactive, with few pictures and lots of color.

Knowing where and how to look, and what your sources and available options are, will help you to get started in any quest. We do have a lot to draw from, as you may recall from my mini tour of the Archives in my first post—newspapers, manuscript collections of all sorts of topics, state records, pictures, film, audio, posters, scrapbooks, etc. So, where do you start?

The answer is…it depends. Not every path works for every type of research. The key is to get as much information as possible, and then start looking wherever you can, in whatever might apply.

Doing research often kind of reminds me of reading a Choose Your Own Adventure Book. When I was younger, these books were kind of a big deal. You start off with a basic story line, typically written with second person narration. Something occurs (something cataclysmic, of course). Then you get a choice. Like:

You’ve fallen into a well. Your dog is nearby. You…

Call his name, in hopes that he will come to you! Turn to page 5.
Ignore him, and decide to try and climb up the rope you notice hanging down. Turn to page 59.

You can always change your mind, and you can always try something else, so every time you read the book, you get something different. Unless, of course, you read all of the endings first so you could avoid the pitfalls for the character ending in horrible death, and then pick your favorite ending, like I always did. Not quite what you were *supposed* to do, but it worked for me!

Let’s try it. Here’s an example, similar to requests we’ve received (but made up for these purposes):

I want to find out what happened to my grandfather’s sister, who came somewhere around North Dakota sometime after 1870 and may have died or left before 1920. Her name was Ida Hanson, but I don’t know what her name was after she got married (if she got married). Her brother’s name was Ole Hanson. He settled in Wisconsin. Can you help me?

Step 1: Gather Information
Proceeding with this request can be tough on many different levels.

1. We do not know how accurate this information is. There is a line that is walked when individuals rely on a family story. This requestor already has admitted they do not know if Ida married. So we do not know how accurate the requestor’s knowledge is.
2. The information requested is for a woman in the territorial and early statehood days. We have some written records from this time period, but not too many. Also, many records of the time mainly documented a male presence, referring to husbands and fathers over wives and daughters.
3. We may not be able to answer this question simply because it is so broad. If we don’t find something like, say, an obituary or biography, we may not have “what happened” in our collections.
4. Any name Hanson is sort of like John or Jane Smith up here. And might be spelled Hansen, instead

So, what do you do?
Option #1
You assume the requestor is unsure and needs to recheck sources. Contact them by going to the green box.
Option #2
You have already checked with the requestor, or assume the requestor is correct in part or all of the information they have. Go to Step 2.

Step 2: Apply Sources
Now that we are assuming the request is possible, we have to start checking. What can we check? Perhaps we can take a look at a cemetery index to see if there is a death date. But we are not sure where she settled, other than (possibly) North Dakota, and our cemetery indices are by county only. And if she married, when she passed away, she would have been buried under her married name, not her maiden name. The state death index we have access to is 1900 on, and not before. We have some marriage records pre-1925, but not all, and they are separated by county, so we’d need to know some idea of location if we check those sources. So maybe we can take a look at a census record. Through sites like Ancestry.com (which we have a free library subscription access to), we can do keyword searches by name and state and hope for the best.

What do you do?

Option #1
You take a look at the census, and find a match! A few thousand, in fact, and not all match the facts you have. You assume that the first unmarried Ida Hanson (within reason) is a good possibility, and check to see if there is a listing in the death index for a woman who died and has a birth date around the same time. Skip to the orange box, you lucky duck!
Option #2
You check marriage record indices in hopes that you will find an Ida Hanson marrying some bloke that looks right. Of course, you can only do this if you have a county of marriage, so if you don’t, start over! If you do, jump to the purple box.
Option #3
You take a look at some of the other indices available online, like the biography index we use through the Institute of Regional Studies on a whim. Go to the yellow box.
Option #4
You bang your head against a wall a few times, and wish one of your coworkers had taken this request instead. Take something for the headache, and go to the green box.

Step 3: The Solution
So, did you make it to the end? Or did you read all the boxes through, to find the answer quickly? Sometimes, it would be nice to have that option—to jump through to the end of a search—but the journey of research is also part of the joy of the resolution. (I think that’s part of the appeal of these books.) You have earned your answers!

Research can be difficult, and can take many different paths, but using as much information as you have and knowing the different, available avenues can make it easier and fun. Are you ready to start on your own adventure?

[accordion collapsed]

[/accordion]