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Images of the Past: South Dakota Civil War Veterans
by SDPB
.The latest installment of Images of the Past tells some of the stories of Civil War Veterans who settled in South Dakota.
In 1885, Dakota Territory was home to about 10,000 Union Army veterans. Over half lived in the southern counties of Dakota Territory. Many were combat veterans, many had been prisoners of the Confederacy, and many were disabled. Many took advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862 and established farms. Some opened small businesses based on their occupational skills, and others went into politics. Only about 100 Confederate Army veterans settled in Dakota Territory, perhaps because they were not allowed to even apply for the free land offered by the Homestead Act.
Join SDPB for a look at figures like Melvin Grigsby, (b. 1845) a Union Army vet who served as a South Dakota Attorney General, as well as John J. January, (b. 1845), who was take prisoner by the Confederates and faced such extreme deprivation he amputated his own feet with a penknife. After his release and recovery, January moved to Dell Rapids where he remained until his death at 60 years old.
SDPB’s Images of the Past is a multiplatform project that offers a fresh look at historic images and documents from the well-known and the nearly unknown places, events, and people of South Dakota.
