James L. Fisk

James Liberty Fisk (ca. 1835 – 1902 ) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War who promoted settlement of the western United States. He led four expeditions from Minnesota to Montana in the 1860s, He worked as a "raftsman, farmer, carriage maker, and newspaperman" for the Daily Courier of Lafayette, Indiana.

Civil War service

In 1861, he enlisted in the Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry as a private. According to Nathaniel P. Langford, "E. H. Burritt was first assistant, the writer [Langford] second assistant and commissary, and Samuel R. Bond was secretary. Among the guards were "David E. Folsom, Patrick Doherty (Baptiste), Robert C. Knox, Patrick Bray, Cornelius Bray, Ard Godfrey, and many well-known pioneers of Montana." or 62 He ignored the route he had been ordered to take. At Fort Rice on the Missouri River, Fisk asked for and obtained an army escort—47 men of Company A, Dakota Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Smith—as relations with the Native Americans had turned hostile. The enlarged party, including 200 emigrants and 88 wagons, set out from the fort on August 23. Hearing the gunfire, Fisk and about 50 men hurried back from the main body. Scout Jefferson Dilts charged forward recklessly and shot as many as six Sioux before being killed by arrows. They offered her and safe passage in exchange for supplies. Fisk bid "three horses, flour, sugar, and coffee for her, but the Lakotas wanted forty head of cattle and four wagons", and the trade was off. she later wrote a popular book of her experiences, Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians, in 1871. )

On the night of September 5, Lieutenant Smith and 13 men rode to Fort Rice for reinforcements. An annoyed Brigadier General Alfred Sully dispatched 900 men on September 18. According to an advertising pamphlet, Fisk wanted to depart on or about May 22 and hopefully no later than May 29 from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to the "Great Gold Fields of Montana", with "Military Protection Guaranteed by the Government". Passage for one man with of baggage, and subsistence was set at $100. It left Fort Abercrombie on the morning of June 16, reached Fort Berthold on July 19, and made its way to Fort Union on August 2. It arrived in Helena in September. James was also involved with the Montana militia and various other ventures. Andrew served as Adjutant General of the Montana Territory under Governor B. Platt Carpenter; Robert edited the Herald for 36 years and was an active Republican supporter; and Van owned and published the Townsend Tranchant newspaper, and engaged in mining and farming.

In 1902, James Liberty Fisk died in the Minnesota Soldiers Home in Minneapolis.