Old Fort Snelling 1819-1858

by Marcus L. Hansen

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

296 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1917

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of incredible breadth, and handily organized by broad topic, this is perhaps the most rigorously sourced and indexed history of Fort Snelling and the surrounding area I've read yet, but it nonetheless is from an era (1918) just far enough removed to be a full standard deviation more objective than accounts from 40 to 60 years earlier, but not quite so far as to have much authorial sympathy for the ill-reputed characters that belong in any complete history of the place, or quite as much interest in the agency of Native players that a 21st century reader would hope for.

It's best used as a guide to finding the real primary sources, with the text itself serving only as a series of abstracts for the multitude of "real deal" reminiscences and correspondence listed in the back. Now, to see if the Minnesota Historical Society still lets an average caller page through the bound remnants of Maj. Taliaferro's personal diary...