SCOUTING YESTERDAY: After governor balks, South Dakota counties foot bill for soldier travel

This week in South Dakota history: Aug. 30-Sept. 5

First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry camp near Manila. Photo: South Dakota State Historical Society.

South Dakota soldiers attempting to return home from the Philippines were stuck in San Francisco, according to the Turner County Herald’s Aug. 31, 1899, edition.

Mustered into service May 5, 1898, according to The Black Hills Weekly Journal, 1,008 members of the First South Dakota Volunteer Infantry, along with troops from Colorado and Minnesota, shipped out for the Philippines aboard the S.S. Rio de Janeiro on July 23, 1898.