David LaPlante was a soldier in General Alfred Sully's 1864 expedition into northwest Dakota Territory. In 1862, the Dakota Indians in Minnesota were frustrated with their situation for a number of reasons, and struck out at the whites, killing hundreds. Sully's 1864 expedition was in response to this. On July 28, 1864, Sully encountered a large Indian camp at Killdeer Mountain, and defeated the Indians in a battle that day. Sully's force then headed east, and the night of July 29, they camped about seven miles east of Killdeer Mountain. David LaPlante was among those soldiers on pickett duty that night, and the Indians killed him and Anton Holzgen. Their comrades buried the two men there on the prairie, some seven miles east of Killdeer Mountain. The inscription on LaPlante's gravestone reads "David LaPlante, Co. D, 2 Minn. Cav." LaPlante's story is related on pages 109 and 112 of "Dakota Uprising Victims: Gravestones & Stories," published in 2007 by Curtis Dahlin.
David LaPlante was a soldier in General Alfred Sully's 1864 expedition into northwest Dakota Territory. In 1862, the Dakota Indians in Minnesota were frustrated with their situation for a number of reasons, and struck out at the whites, killing hundreds. Sully's 1864 expedition was in response to this. On July 28, 1864, Sully encountered a large Indian camp at Killdeer Mountain, and defeated the Indians in a battle that day. Sully's force then headed east, and the night of July 29, they camped about seven miles east of Killdeer Mountain. David LaPlante was among those soldiers on pickett duty that night, and the Indians killed him and Anton Holzgen. Their comrades buried the two men there on the prairie, some seven miles east of Killdeer Mountain. The inscription on LaPlante's gravestone reads "David LaPlante, Co. D, 2 Minn. Cav." LaPlante's story is related on pages 109 and 112 of "Dakota Uprising Victims: Gravestones & Stories," published in 2007 by Curtis Dahlin.
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