The following letter was written by Albert Gallatin Patten (1831-1893), the son of Johnson Patten (1782-1848) and Lucy Towne (1790-1862) of Kennebunkport, Maine. He was married in Mary 1868 to Martha Elizabeth Hunt in Hennepin, Minnesota.
Prior to his enlistment in the US Army in July 1854, Albert was a 23 year-old carriage-maker in Kennebunk. Albert’s pension files inform us that he served in the military from 1854 to 1859 in Co. K, 2nd Infantry. When he wrote this letter in May 1858, he was a sergeant working on detail in the Quartermaster Department of Fort Ripley in Minnesota Territory. Following his discharge from the army, he may have been the same Albert G. Patten who enlisted as crewman aboard the whaling ship Parachute which departe
Fort Ripley was located on the west bank of the Mississippi about 20 miles above the mouth of Swan river, and 7 miles south of Crow Wing, at a point where the channel runs southwest. The distance by wagon road from St. Paul was 150 miles. The road lay along the east bank of the Mississippi, with no approach to the fort except by ferry. The Post Reserve was a mile square and was surrounded by a dense forest. The fort was situated on a plateau elevated a little above the river, and consisted of several story