Newberry Library - Richard Irving Dodge papers, 1863-1905

Title Richard Irving Dodge papers, 1863-1905

Creator Dodge, Richard Irving, 1827-1895

Date 1863-1905

Subjects Indians of North America, Powder River Expedition, 1865, United States

Summary Papers consist of Dodge's twenty pocket journals, correspondence, works, photographs, and military documents. The journals are as follows: six, dated May-October 1875, kept on a genealogical surveying expedition in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory; four, dated October 1876-January 1877, while on the Powder River Expedition under General George Crook against Sioux and Northern Cheyenne Indians; eight, recording various activities of service chiefly in Indian Territory written between September 1878 and December 1880; and two which describe his experiences in 1883 while on an inspection tour of western territories with General William T. Sherman. Journals have typed transcriptions of all but the earliest six. Other material consists of correspondence, both to and from Dodge. Among correspondents are Julia P. Dodge, Frederick Paulding, and a few other family members; Smithsonian Institution officials Spencer Baird, William T. Hornaday, and Garrick Mallery; two official letters from General John Pope and two letters from Senator Henry L. Dawes; letters and documents relating to Dodge's publisher Worthington and Co. of Hartford, CT; and twelve miscellaneous letters written to Dodge between 1887 and 1888. Also, there are several articles and notes by Dodge including "Indian boys and girls", "Rail road towns", and "Itinerary of trip in search of a site for New Post, 1879", and a small collection of broadsides and military documents which appear in Catalogue of the Everett D. Graff collection of Western Americana under entries 1104, 1115, 1378, 4319, 4320, 4323, and 4324. A collection of photographs includes portraits of Richard I. Dodge, his wife Julia R. Paulding Dodge and her mother, and a small carte-de-visite of son Frederick, as well as numerous cartes-de-visite of military men, apparently collected in the 1860s, including an image of very young John Clem, noted "Drummer boy of Chickamauga", circa 1863. The journals of Richard I. Dodge have been edited and published by Dodge's biographer Wayne R. Kime: in 1996 (Black Hills journals), 1997 (Powder River Expedition), 2000 (The Indian Territory journals). and 2002 (Sherman tour journals).

Biographical/Historical Note American army officer and author. Richard Irving Dodge was born in North Carolina in 1827, graduated from West Point in 1848, and spent forty-three years as a U.S. Army officer, retiring as colonel after a successful professional career, mainly on the American frontier. His military service was distinguished, but his literary output even more memorable. Dodge was a keen observer and a skillful, lively reporter. He was familiar with and knowledgeable about many tribes of the western plains and mountains, especially the Cheyenne. His two major works, The plains of the great West and their inhabitants (1877) and Our wild Indians (1882), are extensively authoritative regarding American Indian activities and culture, while they also contain his observations and criticisms of federal Indian policy. Besides finding time to write for publication, Dodge kept journals while on various missions, such as his notes while on trip into the Black Hills of the Dakotas to check out rumors of gold, and his account of General Crook's Powder River Expedition against the Sioux and Cheyenne in 1876. Having been selected as aide-de-camp by General William T. Sherman, during his final western posting as commanding officer at Fort Sully in the Dakota Territory, he accompanied Sherman on a western inspection tour in 1883. In 1887 Dodge and the Eleventh Infantry were transferred east to a comfortable post at Madison Barracks, New York, in the Division of the Atlantic. He retired from active service in 1891. Dodge appears to have been efficient and gregarious, as well as being a thoughtful officer with the men under his command and with his military cohorts. His marriage to Julia Rhinelander Paulding was not a very happy one, for she was unwilling to reside at frontier army posts, but both were devoted to and extremely proud of their only child, Frederick, who had adopted the surname of Paulding for his successful acting career. Richard Irving Dodge died of an apparent stroke in 1895, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A full biography, entitled Colonel Richard Irving Dodge : the life and times of a career Army officer by Wayne R. Kime, was published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 2006.

Extent 1.2 linear feet (4 boxes)

Format Cartes de visite, Correspondence, Diairies, Manuscripts (Documents), Manuscripts, American, Photographs, Sources

Archival Collection Title Everett D. Graff Collection

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Link to Catalog View record

BibID 991558808805867

Size 1737px × 2651px 13.21 MB

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

File Created 07/30/2012

Filename 991558808805867_GR_1110-1_0001.TIF

Unique Identifier NL128CLL

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