Uniform of the 1st South Dakota Volunteer Infantry
Contributed
by Olin Hosford
Quartermaster Sgt. John L. Wells
in the uniform shown below.
In the photo above, he wears an 8th Corps badge.
Click here for a
brief history of the 1st South Dakota
Volunteer Infantry.
Click here for a
roster of the 1st South Dakota Volunteer Infantry.
Click here to read
Col. Frost Orders thanking the men of the 1st South Dakota for their
service.
Click here to read the
Orders for the Plan of the Day aboard the Transport RIO DE JANEIRO.
Click here to read
a letter from 1st Lt. Jay Beck, written while in transit aboard the
Transport RIO DE JANEIRO.
Click here to
read a about the floral send-off received by some members of the unit
from the ladies ot Terry, South Dakota.
General:
Below is are some views of the uniform that belonged to Quartermaster
Sgt. John Lewis Wells of Co. L of the 1st
South Dakota Volunteer Infantry. Sgt. Wells was born in Colfax in
what was then the Dakota Territory. He came of age and joined his father
in working in the family saddle and harness compny. Wells enlisted as a
private at the age of twenty-four when the Spanish American War broke
out. He rose through the ranks to become the company quartermaster
sergeant. After the war, Wells returned to South Dakota in October of
1899 and almost immediately he met Maude Hemmingway. The two were
married a year later in Deadwood, South Dakota. The couple welcomed a
daughter, Marjorie. Wells continued to work in the saddle and harness
business, and also became a journalist and author. In August of 1938,
John and Maude moved to Portland, Oregon, believing the climate would be
better for Maude's failing health. In later years, when John Wells was
well into his eighties, he worked as a guard at the Portland Art Museum.
To the left is the 1887 five button sack
coat (with the arm insignia showing that Wells was a Quartermaster
Sergeant), trousers and hat.
The trousers have the broad 1" wide stripe also indicating that Wells
was a sergeant.
This view is a detail of the slouch hat.
The hat features the standard hat insignia of crossed rifles with the
letters "S" and "D" between the rifles and the letter "L" below. The "S"
and "D" indicate South Dakota and the "L" indicates Company L within the
regiment. Above the crossed rifles is a cloth corps
badge. The badge is the corps badge of the 8th Army Corps. The
color - white - indicates the Second
Division of the corps. The 1st South Dakota
was in the Second Division from October 1898 to March of 1899.
To the left is a detail of the back of
the trousers showing the size adjustment strap and buckler. To the right
is a detail of the sack coat cuff buttons. The buttons are the standard
U.S. Army button.
Bibiography:
Field, Ron, Spanish-American
War
1898. (Washington: Brasseys Inc., 1998).
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