DAR Commemorative Plaques

The Daughters of the American Revolution installed these plaques in recognition of military service. Lt. Col. Henry Leavenworth arrived with the 5th Infantry in August 1819. The regiment included families, as well as both enslaved and free servants. The river was low that fall, so few supply boats reached the fort. Many residents died from scurvy over the winter. Dakota people provided yapizapi hú (spikenard root) to the garrison, preventing more deaths that spring. At the 1915 dedication of the Leavenworth plaque, children of the Minnesota Territorial Pioneers Association laid wreaths at the Round Tower in memory of the soldiers who died that first winter. Fifteen years later, a second plaque was dedicated to those soldiers.

Minnesota · United States