6/14/2008:
Colonel Henry Boyd McKeen mustered in the service seven months after the start of the Civil War. Attached to the 81st Pennsylvania Infantry, McKeen survived wounds at the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. But leading his men in the Federal assault on Confederate positions at Cold Harbor, McKeen received a fourth and mortal wound. He died June 3, 1864.
Eight years later, on this day, June 14, 1872, a fort was established on the west bank of the Missouri, southwest of Bismarck, for the purpose of protecting engineers and work parties of the Northern Pacific railroad. In honor of the fallen Union colonel, killed in action at the Battle of Cold Harbor, the new fort was designated "Fort McKeen."
Written by Christina Sunwall
Sources:
Antietam on the Web- http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=417
Goplen, Arnold O., "The Historical Significance of Fort Lincoln State Park." North Dakota History, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Oct 1946): 176-214