Major Robert Dollard, born on March 14, 1842, in Fall River, Massachusetts, was a prominent lawyer and public figure in South Dakota. He served with distinction in the Civil War, advancing to the rank of Major. After the war, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1870. In 1879, he became the first settler in Douglas County, Dakota Territory, and played a key role in fighting corruption there. Dollard served as South Dakota’s first Attorney General and held various legislative positions. He married Carrie E. Dunn in 1875. His contributions to public service and law left a lasting legacy in South Dakota.
Major Robert Dollard, an honored citizen of Scotland, Bon Homme County, is a representative member of the bar of the state, has been prominent in public and civic affairs in South Dakota, rendered distinguished service as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, and as one of the sterling pioneers of this state demands recognition in this history.
Major Dollard was born at Fall River, Massachusetts, March 14, 1842, and was educated in the public schools of the old Bay state. His father, Thomas Dollard, was born in Thomastown, Ireland, in 1810, and came to America in 1836, residing for a short time in New York and thereafter making his home in Massachusetts until his death in 1882. In 1838, in New York, he married Miss Mary Collyer, and they became the parents of one son and one daughter, the death of the mother occurring in 1843.
Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Major Dollard joined a company of the Massachusetts militia, and in the winter of 1860-61 was one of the number who volunteered for service in suppressing the rebellion. He was called to active duty on the 15th of April, 1861, bivouacking with his regiment the following night in historic old Faneuil Hall, in the city of Boston. This old building has been consistently called the “cradle of liberty.” Within its ancient walls lay in state the body of the first patriot killed in the war of the Revolution and there the eloquent voices of Daniel Webster, Wendell Phillips and other famous orators were often heard in the stormy days before the Civil War. Major Dollard’s regiment was called into service for three months, and the men who comprised this and the other three regiments of infantry, a battalion and a company of light artillery—about thirty-eight hundred in number—were called the “Minute-men of Massachusetts,” and it is claimed they were the first volunteers to enter the field in the Union cause. The Major’s regiment was the first to arrive on what eventually proved to be the “dark and bloody ground” of the war, the state of Virginia, and on the day which marked their arrival in the Old Dominion General Robert E. Lee resigned his commission in the United States army to cast in his lot with the fortunes of his native state and to repel the invasion of the northern troops. Shortly after the expiration of his three months’ term of service Major Dollard re-enlisted, becoming a member of Company I, Twenty-second Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, to which General Miles, late commanding general of the United States army, came soon afterward as a lieutenant, while the commander of the regiment was Henry Wilson, then United States senator and later vice president with President Grant. Major Dollard’s company, however, did not have the required quota of men, and therefore disbanded, its members joining other organizations in the Twenty-third Massachusetts Infantry, while our subject fell in with a company of “pilgrims” from Plymouth Rock. He served with this command in the campaigns in Maryland, North and South Carolina and Virginia, holding the office of sergeant and later being promoted first sergeant, then lieutenant and finally, in December 1863, being made captain in a regiment of colored cavalry, which was believed to be intended to become a part of the regular army at the close of the war. With this command he served in the Raymond and Petersburg campaign of 1864-5, and he was seriously wounded while commanding the advance of an attack on the works at Richmond, while in the general orders Major General Benjamin F. Butler thus complimented him on this occasion: “Captain Robert Dollard, Second United States Colored Cavalry, acting as field officer and in command of the skirmish line at Newmarket Heights, inspired his command by his great personal bravery, coolness and ability, until he fell severely wounded near the enemies’ main line, is hereby promoted to major.” Major Dollard, having partially recovered from his wound, returned to the field and commanded his regiment thereafter until the close of the war. Shortly afterward there was organized a corps, of which his command formed a part, for service on the Rio Grande in Texas, to watch the movements of Maximilian in Mexico. The cavalry brigade of which the Major’s regiment formed a part seemed to be under a high state of discipline, being comprised of regiments commanded respectively by Colonel Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts; Colonel Jeptha Garrard, of Cincinnati; and Major Dollard, but when about to take transports for Texas a rumor was circulated to the effect that the men were to be kept in service five years, though their term of enlistment would expire in about eighteen months, and that they were to be taken to the south to raise cotton and thereby assist in paying the national debt, and this caused an outbreak of mutiny in the ranks. The Major had ten of his twelve companies, about eight hundred men, with him and armed with carbines and well supplied with ammunition; and all, with the exception of the men on guard duty, declined to go on shipboard, breaking out in turbulent disorder and defiance, but later the presence of a large white regiment, well armed and with their position commanded by two or more cannon, effectually cooled the rebellious ardor of the colored regiment, and they went on board, but made threats to take the ship when out at sea—a move which seemed quite possible of accomplishment, in view of the fact that there were but thirteen white officers to control them. This plan was never carried out, for the white officers took drastic measures when well out at sea; thirty of the ringleaders were disarmed and confined in the coalhole below the engines; all ammunition in the possession of the men was thrown overboard and that in reserve placed beneath the officers’ cabin, with a hint that it would be used to blow up the ship if any attempt were made to take it, and thus quiet and order prevailed for the remainder of the journey, from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Brazos Santiago, Texas, where the troops designated for service on the Mexican border were landed. They were distributed along the Rio Grande until the early part of the following year, when they were discharged.
Major Dollard was in active service throughout his army career and in the numerous battles in which he participated he won credit and distinction. Perhaps no better testimony as to the merit of his military service could be given than that tendered by the historian of a certain town in Massachusetts, a talented minister of the gospel and former Union soldier, among whose parishioners was a millionaire governor of the state, for, in a letter to Major Dollard touching his place in the history, he spoke as follows: “I have given you more space than I have given Governor Ames, not because I desired to punish him or favor you, but because you deserved it.”
In 1866 Major Dollard located in Galesburg, Illinois, subsequently taking up the study of law and being admitted to the bar in 1870. In 1875 he married Miss Carrie E. Dunn, no children having been born of this union. Mrs. Dollard is a talented and public-spirited woman, devoted to art and music and to the advancement of projects for the betterment of the race. She is a daughter of Imri and Jane M. Dunn, formerly of Yates City, Illinois, and is one of a large family of children. Her father was born near Winchester, Virginia, in 1810, and was closely related to the Thurman family, of which the late Allan G. Thurman was a distinguished representative, and being a strong advocate of the principles of the Free-soil party, he early emigrated to Ohio. In Highland County, that state, in 1830, he married his wife, who was born there in 1813. About 1837 they immigrated to Fulton County, Illinois, being prominently identified with the development of that section, of which they were honored pioneers, and there and in the adjoining County of Knox they passed the remainder of their lives.
In April, 1879, Major Dollard located in Douglas County, Dakota territory, being its first settler. He organized and led the fight against the fraudulent organization of the county and was successful in this important issue, which brought about the repudiation of fraudulent warrants to the amount of sixty thousand dollars, that would have proved a great burden on the taxpayers of the county. He was a prominent and influential member of the constitutional conventions of 1883 and 1885 and a leading member of the last territorial council. He also has the distinction of having served as the first attorney general of the new state of South Dakota, and later he was elected a member of the state legislature and also of the state senate, being a staunch Republican in politics. The Major has been continuously engaged in the practice of law for thirty-three years and, in the full strength of a vigorous manhood, his usefulness in his chosen field of labor bids fair to long continue. He has large farming interests in the state but, like “Uncle Jerry” Rusk, is not a farmer but an agriculturist—he does his farming by proxy.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.