1835[1] – 1902[2]) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War who promoted settlement of the western United States.
[2] Becoming engrossed with the western frontier, he moved to White Bear Lake, Minnesota, sometime in the 1850s, married Lydia Burson,[1] and started farming.
[2] An undisciplined soldier, on May 19, 1862, he was called to Washington, DC, where he was "commissioned captain and assistant quartermaster of volunteers in the quartermaster corps" and "appointed superintendent of emigration ... on a route between Fort Abercrombie, Dakota, and Fort Walla Walla, Washington", a political appointment engineered by influential Minnesotans interested in promoting the settlement of the west.
[2] Secretary of War Edwin Stanton instructed him to "organize and outfit a corps for the protection of emigrants 'against all dangers' that might beset their way west.
[2] His budget was relatively small; $5000 was deposited to his account and, at the end of his journey, he was expected to auction off his wagons, animals and other equipment to recoup as much as possible.
[2] Minnesota Senators Morton S. Wilkinson and Henry Mower Rice and Representatives Cyrus Aldrich and William Windom applauded his success, and Fisk was authorized to lead a second expedition, with a somewhat larger budget.
[2] The Secretary of War instructed him to follow a path specified by Congress, despite an attempt by Senator Wilkinson to change it to a shorter route.
[2] Because of his late appointment and start, Fisk returned to Minnesota to find that many of the emigrants had tired of waiting for him and had departed in a separate group.
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.
After several unsuccessful attacks, the Sioux opened negotiations under a flag of truce via notes written by Fanny Kelly, a woman they had taken captive in July.
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.
[12] (A few months later, Fanny Kelly was either released by Sitting Bull[11] or, by her account, escaped;[13] she later wrote a popular book of her experiences, Narrative of My Captivity Among the Sioux Indians, in 1871.
"[2] Fisk submitted his report to the Adjutant General on January 13, 1865, and returned to Washington in February with his wife and their child.
On May 22, with the war coming to an end and a new administration in office following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Fisk tendered his resignation from the army.
[2] Fisk was unable to organize a party in 1865, but the following year, he set out for Helena, Montana, with his last and largest expedition.
Andrew and Robert published the Helena Herald newspaper, starting in 1866, with James as a co-editor from January to July 1867, and Van also employed by the paper.
[1] 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.