Would you ever move to a different country on a dare? That’s exactly what Régis de Trobriand did! This decision would change the course of his entire life and even have an impact on American history. Listen on to hear how a French aristocrat and expert swordsman who studied law and wrote prose and poetry became not only an important figure in North Dakota history, but played a role in many significant events of the latter half of the 19th century.

Arriving in New York City in 1841 at the age of twenty-five, Régis had already published his first novel and before the end of the year published a second. The son of a baron who had been one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s generals, he was seen as a popular bon vivant around town and was predictably and swiftly married to the daughter of a wealthy banker and member of the New York City elite, Mary Mason Jones. The couple traveled around Europe, living in Venice, Italy, for a time, and eventually had two daughters. Settling into domestic life back in New York City, de Trobriand became a writer and editor for various French-language publications.

But in 1861, the world for all Americans turned upside down with the outbreak of the Civil War. De Trobriand became a naturalized citizen and an officer in the Union Army. Throughout the war, de Trobriand distinguished himself at many important campaigns, including Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appamattox. By the end of the war, he had risen in rank to Brevet Major General. De Trobriand was mustered out of volunteer service in 1866 and took his family back to France for a much needed break while he wrote his account of service in the military. Not even a full year would pass, however, before de Trobriand would learn of his assignment here to Fort Stevenson in what was then the Dakota Territory.

De Trobriand traveled seventeen hours by train through France, fifty-two days on a steamboat to cross the Atlantic, sixty hours across seven states by rail, and twenty days on another steamboat covering over 1,000 miles of the Missouri River before finally reaching Fort Stevenson. And we think a flight with layovers is bad! Although only stationed at the fort until 1869, his habits of meticulous journal-keeping, sketching, and painting during his time here would prove to be indispensable to our understanding of military life in the American West. The General would complete a series of paintings depicting landscapes and American Indians of the region, and reproductions of these works can be found today on display in the de Trobriand Art Gallery at the Fort Stevenson Guard House. His journals were also published posthumously as Army Life in Dakota.

Throughout the 1870s, de Trobriand was assigned to other stations in the West and helped maintain the peace during Reconstruction riots in New Orleans and the Great Labor Strike in Pittsburgh before finally retiring from the Army in 1879. He spent the remaining years of his life traveling between New Orleans, New York, and France before his death in 1897. General de Trobriand himself would have probably never imagined that his decision to emigrate to the United States all those years ago would take him nearly to the top of the U.S. Army and solidify his legacy in American history.