Military
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Fort Randall was once the largest and most important post on the Upper Missouri River. Active from 1856 to 1892, it witnessed the westward migration of European-American settlers, the Civil War, and the Indian Wars. Little evidence of the fort remains today except a few crumbling stone foundations. Daily life at Fort Randall just before the Civil War is known in large part through the writings of Private Augustus Meyers of the 2nd U.S. Infantry, who enlisted in New York in 1854 at age 12, was stationed there from 1857 to 1859, served with the Union during the Civil War, rose to 2nd Lieutenant, and in 1914 published his memoir, Ten Years in the Ranks, U.S. Army, based mainly on memory after more than half a century.
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Pickstown, South Dakota · United States
