JAN 20, 2015 PROGRAM:
Fort Snelling and the Civil War
One hundred fifty years ago our state offered the first volunteers to defend the union. Every Minnesota soldier passed through historic Fort Snelling, reactivated after it had been sold to a developer. The venerable Fort eventually expanded to include several large Indian camps, massive stock yards, huge warehouses, and secure barracks for draftees before reverting to a supply depot in 1865.
Stephen Osman retired as senior historian with the Minnesota Historical Society. He managed Historic Fort Snelling for over three decades and actively researches, speaks and writes about Minnesota’s role in the Civil War and the Dakota War. Osman served with the US Army Reserve in Psychological Operations at Fort Snelling and is currently on the boards of the Minnesota Military Museum, the Friends of Fort Snelling and the scholarly journal Minnesota’s Heritage.