MN AHGP Archives-Douglas County Spanish-American War Record
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Douglas County in the Spanish American War
After President McKinley issued the call for volunteers on May 25th, 1898, the patriotic fervor was at its height throughout the county. At the city of Alexandria there was organized a company of volunteers, one hundred and forty strong, which was promised a place in the Fifteenth Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, but like a good many other like organizations, it was doomed to be disappointed, for there were sixty such companies and only twelve could be used at this time, and the Alexandria volunteers were asked to wait for the Sixteenth. In the first few days of July a number of the boys went to the cities and enlisted in other companies rather than wait for the promised Sixteenth Regiment.
Those enlisting in Company B, under Capt. John W. Fineout, were as follows: Asa P. Brooks, Frank R. Beisholdt, Erik Florman, Martin Jensen, William F. Miller, John O'Farrell, Henry T. Ronning, Benjamin F. Gaskill, Bendix N. Bekker, William Gauthier, Louis O. Lund, David Myers, Oscar I. Peterson and Carl C. VanDyke, all of Alexandria.
Those enlisting in Company G, under Capt. L. S. Nelson were as follows : William A. Downs, George A. Fish, Edward P. Lampman, Ovey V. Shippey, Henry C. Eichman, Carl J. King and Frank L. Lampman, all of Alexandria, and Nick Sward, of Nelson Station.
They were first stationed at the state fair grounds, at Camp Ramsey, named in honor of the first governor of Minnesota, and there on July 18, 1898, the regiment was mustered in as a body. On August 23 the entire regiment, except Company G was moved to Ft. Snelling, on account of the epidemic of typhoid fever which had taken a strong hold on the boys at Camp Ramsey. Company G was left to police the grounds and followed the main body the next day. Although several of the boys from Douglas county fell a prey to the dreaded disease, they were all fortunate in recovering. Not so with all in the regiment, however, for a great number died. On the I5th of September the boys left for Camp Meade, Pennsylvania. On November 15 the boys again moved, this time to Augusta, Georgia, where they remained until they were mustered out on March 27, 1899. In addition to those volunteers from Douglas county mentioned above, there were about half a dozen who enlisted in various other regiments.
(excerpted from "History of Douglas and Grant Counties, Minnesota")