Captain William McMicken Diary

Collection

Identifier: MSS-4241

Scope and Contents

Captain William McMicken appears to have received the diary as a gift in December of 1864. Captain McMicken created entries for January through May of 1865, with a few scattered entries in October and November. The content of the entries mostly pertains to the weather and movement of the Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, including description of the New Orleans-Mobile-Montgomery Expedition of 1865. After a steady move south, the regiment moved into New Orleans, Louisiana, on February 6, 1865, and joined the campaign against Mobile, Alabama. The regiment was also involved in the Siege of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, and later helped with the occupation of Mobile.

Dates

1865

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Due to the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to certain materials may require additional advance notice.

Conditions Governing Use

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Biographical / Historical

Captain William McMicken (1827-1899) was a farmer, Recorder of Dodge County, Union soldier in the Civil War, Assessor of Internal Revenue of the First Congressional District of Minnesota, an employee of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and United States Surveyor General and Territorial Treasurer for the Washington Territory. He was born in Youngstown, New York to Charles McMicken, a Scottish immigrant, and Helen Jordan. In 1836, the family moved to Medina County, Ohio, where William McMicken attended public schools. Mr. McMicken left Ohio in 1847 for Wisconsin, where he invested in the farm machinery manufacturer E. Beatty & Company. This business venture stoked Mr. McMicken’s desire to become a farmer, and in 1854, he purchased 640 acres of untamed prairie land in Minnesota where he grew wheat until 1869. In addition to farming, Mr. McMicken also operated as the Recorder of Dodge County—a position to which he was elected in 1858 and reelected in 1860. With the onset of the Civil War, Mr. McMicken helped recruit men for Company B of the Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry and was commissioned First Lieutenant. Before entering the fight in the Civil War, the Tenth Minnesota fought in the Dakota War of 1862 in which Sioux warriors began attacking Minnesotan settlements after the Federal Government failed to pay the promised annuity agreed upon in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux of 1851. In 1863, Mr. McMicken received a promotion to the rank of captain. Captain McMicken’s regiment participated in the Battle of Nashville in 1864 and the Mobile Campaign in 1865, mustering out in August of 1865. Captain McMicken went on to serve as the Assessor of Internal Revenue of the First Congressional District of Minnesota for six years after the war until bad health forced him to resign in 1871. He then moved to the Washington Territory, where he worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad. In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Captain McMicken the United States Surveyor General for the Washington Territory, a position he held for the next fourteen years as presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur reappointed him. General McMicken retired from this position in 1886, and subsequently was appointed to Territorial Treasurer by Watson C. Squire—a position from which he retired two years later. He died in 1899.