10/13/2008:
“September 25 was an eventful day for the N. D. volunteers,” recalled John Kinne, “we were mustered out for the last time….We bought our railroad tickets home, paid our debts…bid farewell to camp and left for the city, free men.”
The year was 1899. Sixteen months earlier, over 500 officers and men of the 1st North Dakota Volunteer Infantry left Fargo amid much public attention and affection, headed for the Pacific as part of the Philippine Island expeditionary force. It had been a long year for the men, first fighting Spanish troops, then Filipino Insurgents, interspersed with monotonous drills, heat, boredom, and disease.
By late September of 1899, the men were back in San Francisco. Boarding a special train, the men were finally on their way home. It was a joyous return. Having served in a war not popular among all Americans, the men of the 1st North Dakota Volunteers nonetheless received the same popular attention as when they had left over a year earlier. From the welcome home parade in San Francisco and royal treatment on the train journey through Oregon and Washington to the crowds of eager friends and family gathered at the companies’ home stations in North Dakota.
The icing on the cake was a Presidential thank you on this day in 1899. Speaking at both Wahpeton and Fargo, over 10,000 people came out to watch President William McKinley review the recently returned soldiers. Amid wild and hearty applause, the President began, “My Fellow-Citizens: For the past eighteen months this country has witnessed impressive testimony of the patriotism of the American people…I have come here tonight, to speak of the patriotism of the State of North Dakota.”McKinley continued, “I have come especially that I might look into the faces of the North Dakota Volunteers, who saw service on the battle line at Luzon. I came that I might speak to them a welcome and say ‘well done.’ You did your duty and you filled my heart with joy when…you sent the word that you would not quit the battle in Luzon until I could create a new army and send it there.”
President McKinley also extended his thanks to the people of North Dakota, to those who stayed behind to continue the work at home. “I have come here tonight, traveling a long distance,” McKinley declared, “that I might meet the people of this new and growing State- a State which I had the honor, as a member of the National House of Representatives, to vote to admit as a sister into the National family. I am proud of this State, proud of the vote I gave her for admission.”
By 9:30 on the evening of October 13 McKinley boarded the Presidential train, headed for Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Written by Christina Sunwall
Sources:
Cooper, Jerry. Citizens as Soldiers: A History of the North Dakota National Guard. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.
Halsted, Murat. The Illustrious Life of William McKinley: Our Martyred President: Kessinger Publishing, 2006.
McKinley, William. Speeches and Addresses of William McKinley: From March 1, 1897 to May 30, 1900. New York: Doubleday & McClure 1900.
"The President at Fargo." The New York Times, October 14, 1899.