New monument marks African American Civil War veteran who made Moorhead home

MOORHEAD — Stories of community folk hero and Civil War veteran Felix Battles have been passed down through the generations.

And on Saturday, Nov. 4, those stories culminated into a monument commemorating Battles, a former slave valued at 13 years old for $600.

The metal monument stands in front of the Center for Business at Minnesota State University Moorhead, and is representative of Battles because there are no known photographs of the man.

Situated within steps of his original home near 11th Street and 8th Avenue South, the ceremony to mark the monument’s introduction drew a crowd of more than 60 people on Saturday morning.

The monument appears to be carved from steel, and was made to last more than a century, said Gracia Sanchez-Dekarske, a member of the Felix Battles Monument Committee.

“It is the perfect place for a statue of a Moorhead businessman,” said Sanchez-Dekarske, who also quoted another board member by saying the memorial “will be many things to many people, a remarkable man with a remarkable life.”

Battles was a barber in the early days of Moorhead.

The monument is also a way to honor more than 209,000 African American soldiers who fought during the Civil War, but whose bravery was later forgotten, said Sanchez-Dekarske.

The Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County was the organization behind investigating Battles’ life. The research wasn’t easy.

“Throughout our national history, stories like Felix’s have been intentionally and systematically overlooked or erased,” the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County states on its website. “Our difficulties researching his life affirm this: no birth certificate, no photographs, no personal artifacts. His first public record? An anonymous listing in an 1850 slave schedule in Shelby County, Tennessee. His next? A name, Felix, in an 1856 Mississippi probate inventory. One of 68 enslaved men, women, and children.”

But the stories have survived through the generations since the Civil War, and the statue will ensure the stories will last and honor African American history, said Arrick Jackson, MSUM’s provost and senior vice president of academic and student affairs.

“When they told me the statue was in place, I came to see it. And when I looked at it… I saw that it is made of strong metal,” which attests to Battles’ strength, Jackson said.

Battles was a businessman, but also a “pioneer barber of the Red River Valley,” according to the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County. Arriving in Moorhead shortly after the city was founded in 1870, he remained there until he died in 1907.

Little is known about Battles except that he was born into slavery on a cotton plantation near Memphis, Tennessee. He spent his childhood enslaved in Missouri, but between 1856 and 1860 he escaped and fled north, according to the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.

In 1860, Battles is listed in a census in Dubuque, Iowa, and he worked on steamboats on the Mississippi River in St. Paul.

On August 8, 1864, Battles became one of more than 100 African Americans to join the Union Army from Minnesota and he served with the 18th United States Colored Infantry. Three months after he signed up, he was promoted to corporal, and his regiment took part in the Battle of Nashville, which effectively took the Confederate Army out of the western theater.

After the Civil War, Battles worked on the Northern Pacific Railroad, which brought him to the Red River Valley. At first, Battles worked as a traveling barber before setting up his own shop in Moorhead. A stroke forced him into retirement in 1905. He lived in south Moorhead with his wife, Kate, her family, and their two children, Julia and Richard.

“Felix, after fighting in the Civil War, decided on the business of barbering,” said Jackson, adding that Battles’ barber shop became a community center and played an important role in bringing more African Americans to the state and the city.

“Eventually 209,145 Black American men served in the United States military during the Civil War, accounting for more than 10% of the Union Army and more than 25% of the Union’s Navy,” the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County states on its website. “Most often, these servicemen were born enslaved, freed themselves by escaping to Union lines, and joined the army to fight for their fellow citizens in bondage. Through their bravery they overcame otherwise insurmountable obstacles; the war would not have been won without them.”

The monument to Battles was planned by the Felix Battles Monument Committee composed of Fargo-Moorhead area Black community leaders, the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County and MSUM.

“We believe Felix Battles is a man Moorhead can be proud of,” the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County said on its website.

“As our nation debates how the Civil War will be remembered in our schools, textbooks, and public spaces, we believe that Felix Battles embodied both a national Civil War hero and an integral part of our local history. We also think his story should be told loudly and clearly,” the society reported.

Funds for the monument were gathered by donations, and another $3,000 is still needed to help pay for cement work.

The monument will help promote greater interest in his story and others like it, the society stated, adding that the monument will also stand to remind future generations of forgotten heroes.

Before a former MSUM professor, Yvonne Condell, cut a blue ribbon ending the unveiling ceremony on Saturday, Stuart and Ethan Lohnes from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, and Montgomery Brown, from Spirit Lake, sang a Native prayer song.

“Honor a great spirit. May his spirit live on forever,” Condell said.

“End in spirit. Welcome home,” said Jackson of Battles, later clarifying that end in spirit referred to the spiritual world.

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