The two different host models require this namelist variable to be set in different ways.
For CESM:
fates_history_dimlevel = 2,2
https://github.com/ESCOMP/CTSM/blob/master/cime_config/testdefs/testmods_dirs/clm/FatesColdAllVars/user_nl_clm#L6
For E3SM:
fates_history_dimlevel(1) = 2
fates_history_dimlevel(2) = 2
https://github.com/E3SM-Project/E3SM/blob/e8924b78f9711731c3249c17980550697422b215/components/elm/cime_config/testdefs/testmods_dirs/elm/fates_cold_allvars/user_nl_elm#L5-L6
This confused me, let's try to unify the methods so that others don't get tripped up (and update the documentation as well).