3/9/2005:
Today’s story comes from the reminiscences of J.W. Foley Sr., the father of J.W. Foley Jr. who became a highly regarded poet. The elder Foley fought in the Civil War and then moved his family from St. Louis to Fort Lincoln, near Bismarck, in 1878.
In 1913, the Bismarck Tribune published a story that Foley senior wrote about his experiences at the “old Fort Lincoln,” as well as other forts that were operating back then: Yates, Sully, Bennett, Pembina, Totten, Abercrombie, Ransom, Sisseton, Stevenson and Buford. He also recalled “Camp Hancock, where the weather bureaus is now. A small number of soldiers were stationed there until 1898,” he wrote. “Lieutenant Josiah Chance, who afterwards (won) thirty thousand dollars in the Louisiana lottery, was the last officer who commanded at Hancock.”
Foley had strong opinions about the types of men he served under. “Of the officers then at Lincoln,” he wrote, “some had arisen from the ranks of the regular army, some were commissioned from civil life, for service in the (Civil War), others were from West Point, the last mentioned were in the minority.
“There came to the United States during the (last) part of the war...men who had served in about all the armies of Europe, some were the younger sons of wealthy European families, and were men of superior education... It was nothing uncommon in these days to have men in the ranks who could speak and write two and three languages, and many of them were well grounded in Latin and Greek... With these men,” Foley wrote, “were civil engineers, architects, artists, navigators, and some of the best of musicians.”
Foley described some of the officers’ accomplishments. “Captain Keogh, killed at the Little Big Horn,” he wrote, “had been a member of the Pope’s guard before coming to America… Adjutant Garlington graduated in June, 1876, and owing to the casualties of the battle of the Little Big Horn became a first lieutenant in ten days. He is now a general in the army.
“I must not forget the ‘Major,’” he continued. “All old Bismarck people know who I mean... The Major was a character. Born in the north of Ireland he came to the U.S. when young, studied law, was a sailor on the lakes, and when the war commenced joined the Michigan regiment... The Major had a heart like a mountain (and) would divide his last dollar with any one in want. His son, now an honored judge of the U.S. court, once wrote me that his father’s life had been ‘a stormy one,’ it was. Peace to his ashes.”
Foley also described Captain Louis Sanger, who was promoted to Major for gallantry at Gettysburg. Foley said Sanger was “a good and brave soldier” despite being very small in stature and having wheezy voice.
Foley wrote, “A story was told of (Sanger) that once upon a time he was traveling from Lincoln to Bismarck in an ambulance when a freighter was met where the road in the woods, near the river, was very narrow, and scarcely room for two teams to pass. The freighter would not give up any of the road. In this dilemma a wheezy voice was heard from the ambulance saying: ‘Get out of the road sir, get out of the road.’ The freighter replied, ‘get out of the road yourself, sir.’ Sanger replied: ‘Perhaps you do not know who I am, sir; I am Major Sanger, of the army, sir.’ The freighter replied: ‘Well Major Sanger of the army sir, do you know what I will do with you if you don’t get out of the road, sir? I will get a mouse trap and catch you, Major Sanger of the army, sir.’”
Dakota Datebook written by Merry Helm