Chapter X: Arming for the CIVIL War

Governor Alexander Ramsey was in Washington on April 14, 1861, the day the Confederate colors were flown over the ruins of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. The attack on that work was an avowed act of war. Early that Sunday morning he hastened to the War Department to make a tender of one thousand Minnesota men for the national cause. The offer was put in writing at the request of Secretary Cameron, who was on the point of waiting on the President. Minnesota’s tender of a regiment was doubtless the first recorded. It was so promptly accepted that on the next day Governor Ramsey could so telegraph to St. Paul. On the 16th Lieutenant-Governor Donnelly issued the executive proclamation calling for volunteers to form a regiment of infantry to serve for three months. The principal effect of Governor Sibley’s ambitious militia organization already mentioned had been to stimulate the organization of independent volunteer companies in the larger towns and cities. These companies were the convenient nuclei of those which filled up the regiment. The arms of those independent companies were somewhat irregularly appropriated. Thirteen days after the proclamation, on April 29, ten companies nearly full were mustered into the service of the United States at Fort Snelling. Governor Ramsey, who was present at the muster, announced his appointments of field officers. Willis A. Gorman, former territorial governor, a regimental officer in the Mexican War, he placed in command. The vigor with which this experienced colonel established and enforced military routine was a surprise to his raw soldiery. They learned later the value of his discipline, which at the first they were disposed to be restive under. Early in May the state furnished black felt hats and black trousers. These, with the red shirts previously supplied, constituted their uniform. Drilling went vigorously on, diversified with sword and flag presentations and some feasting in the neighboring cities.

Some days after the muster, the War Department decided to accept no more regiments for three months, and gave to the men of the First Minnesota the option of enlisting for three years or taking their discharges. A considerable number, many of whom had been more patriotic than judicious, chose the latter alternative, but their places were immediately supplied, and a full regiment was mustered in for three years.

In the early morning of June 22 the regiment was paraded for the last time at Fort Snelling. Chaplain Edward D. Neill offered prayer, made an address, and gave the Hebrew benediction, “The Lord bless you and keep you,” etc. This over, the command embarked for Prairie du Chien, whence it proceeded by rail to Washington. On July 3 it was put into camp near Alexandria and attached to Franklin’s brigade of Heintzelman’s division of McDowell’s army. At the battle of Bull Run the First Minnesota was sent forward alone in support of Rickett’s battery to attack the position held by Jackson’s brigade without a single skirmisher in advance. The battery had barely unlimbered when all its horses were killed and cannoneers dispersed. The First Minnesota held its ground until forty-two men were killed and one hundred and eight wounded, the heaviest loss suffered by any regiment on the Union side. Thirty were missing, mostly prisoners, among whom were Surgeon Stewart and his assistant, Le Boutillier, who remained on the field attending the wounded. The regiment did not leave the field till ordered off, and marched “in perfect order” to Centreville. From that point to Alexandria its ranks were broken by the rabble of men and vehicles which thronged the road. In a compendious work it is impossible to follow in detail the career of this splendid regiment and those later sent out from Minnesota. It shared honorably in the operations of the Army of the Potomac in the season of 1862. At Antietam, holding its ground after both flanks had been uncovered, the First lost one hundred and forty-seven in killed and wounded. The company of Minnesota sharpshooters (the Second), added to the regiment after the battle of Fair Oaks, had twenty out of its forty-two men present shot down in that action.

After the organization of the First Regiment out of existing state militia, other militia companies remained over, equally desirous for a part in the war for the Union. When Governor Ramsey called for a second regiment on the 14th of June, 1861, the response was immediate. Before the end of July the Second Minnesota Infantry had been mustered in at Fort Snelling, uniformed and supplied. It received as commander Colonel Horatio P. Van Cleve, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, who had resigned from the regular army after some years of service. On October 14 the regiment left Fort Snelling, without patriotic exercises, for Louisville, Kentucky, where it joined Buell’s army. At Mill Springs it behaved with coolness and gallantry, suffering a loss of twelve killed and thirty-three wounded. The whole remaining season of 1862 was occupied with laborious marches between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, with occasional minor engagements. It was present at Shiloh, Corinth, and Perrysville, where its losses were nominal.

The Third Minnesota Infantry was called for on September 18, before the Second had gone to the front. The companies were promptly recruited by aspirants to commissions, and the organization was complete by the middle of November. For its colonel Governor Ramsey selected Henry A. Lester of Winona, who had made a creditable record as a captain in the First Regiment. In a few months he brought the command to a high state of discipline, and by his personal qualities gained the complete confidence of officers and men. In April, 1862, the regiment was sent to Murfreesboro’, Tennessee, a point of some strategic importance, thirty miles southeast of Nashville, and was there in July when the Confederate cavalry leader Forrest was raiding thereabout to delay the movements of Buell. The covering force was a small brigade in two separate encampments. A Michigan infantry battalion of five companies and two cavalry troops were stationed to the east of the town, the Third Minnesota about a mile and a half northwest on the Nashville pike. No intrenchments seem to have been constructed. At an early hour of July 13 Forrest’s advance brushed away the cavalry outposts, captured the brigade commander in his quarters in the village, and fiercely attacked the Michigan men. It was not till noon, however, that he was able with his main force of more than one thousand men to compel their surrender. At the sound of the firing, Colonel Lester got his command under arms and placed them in a good position for defense not far from his camp, and there he held his men while the forenoon wore away with the sound of battle in his ears and the smoke rising from the burning warehouses in the town. The barest show of attack was made on his front, but Forrest in person led a considerable party around his flank to attack his camp, defended by Corporal Charles H. Green with twenty teamsters, convalescents, and cooks. It took three charges, Forrest leading the last, to rout and capture the little band. The gallant corporal died the same day, of his wounds. Soon after one o’clock P. M. the adjutant of the Michigan battalion came out from the town under flag of truce and safeguard to summon Colonel Lester to the presence of his colonel. In the interview which succeeded, the surrender of the Minnesota regiment was recommended. Returning to his command, Lester summoned his officers to a council. On an open vote the majority was for fighting. Two company commanders then left the council. The colonel, not content with the open vote, proposed a ballot. The result was five to surrender, three to fight. In the minority were Lieutenant-Colonel Griggs and Captain C. C. Andrews, both of whom became regimental commanders. It may be said in mitigation of the action of some of the company commanders voting for surrender, that as they held their offices by election they felt bound to act in a representative capacity and not according to their own judgment. The end of it was the unconditional surrender of the Third Minnesota without having been seriously attacked. The enlisted men were paroled and sent to Benton Barracks, St. Louis. The officers were paroled at Richmond after three months. On December 1 President Lincoln discharged dishonorably all those who had voted for the surrender.

The Fourth Minnesota regiment was called at the same time as the Third, but for service on the Indian frontier. The muster began October 2, and was complete before the close of the year. For colonel Governor Ramsey chose John B. Sanborn, his adjutant-general, as yet inexperienced in warfare, but his appointment was later abundantly justified. Two companies were sent to Fort Ridgely and two to Abercrombie to overawe the restive Sioux. A fifth company went to Fort Ripley to insure the good behavior of the Chippeways. The remaining five companies spent the winter of 1862 at Fort Snelling, where they were thoroughly instructed. On April 20, 1862, the Fourth Regiment, its absent companies having been recalled to Fort Snelling, embarked for the South. It reached Halleck’s army in May in front of Corinth, Mississippi, in time to partake in the siege which the enemy terminated by a timely evacuation. After some months of inaction, during which one third of its men got into the hospital, the regiment participated gallantly in the affair at Iuka on September 18, losing three killed and forty-four wounded. At the battle of Corinth, October 3 and 4, the Fourth was actively engaged, with the surprisingly small loss of two killed and ten wounded.

The muster of the Fifth Minnesota began December 19, 1861, and was completed on the 29th of March following. Three companies were sent to the frontier forts to relieve companies of the Fourth called in. To encourage recruiting Governor Ramsey proposed to appoint to the field and staff positions such gentlemen as the line officers should nominate to him. For colonel their choice fell upon a gentleman, German born, who had seen service in the Prussian army. The experience of a few months proved to him and his friends that a mistake had been made. Lieutenant-Colonel Lucius F. Hubbard, afterwards governor of Minnesota, succeeded and held command until assigned to a brigade. Leaving behind the three companies on duty in the frontier forts, the regiment went south in May, 1862, in time to participate in the operations which resulted in the occupation of Corinth, Mississippi. The summer was passed in quiet, diversified by the affairs at Farmington and Iuka. When Price and Van Dorn undertook, on October 8, to dislodge Rosecrans from his intrenched position at Corinth, it fell to the Fifth Minnesota to take a most honorable part in their repulse. Recalled late that night from outpost duty, the men bivouacked in a street of the town. In the forenoon of the 4th, after a furious bombardment, the Confederates assaulted and pushed a column of attack through the Union line near its right. Colonel Hubbard saw the impending danger, and without waiting for orders threw his regiment on the flank of the Confederate column, broke it into fragments, and drove it back in complete disorder. The batteries temporarily lost to the enemy he retook, and restored the shattered battle line. Such is the willing testimony of Rosecrans himself. Survivors of the Fifth delight to recall the gallant and fearless behavior of their young Catholic chaplain on that field. He is now the Most Reverend John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, known everywhere for splendid services in church and state.

In addition to the five infantry regiments recruited under the calls of 1862, five minor organizations were formed, one of which, the Second Company of Minnesota sharpshooters, has been mentioned. The First Sharpshooters were mustered in at Fort Snelling, October 5, 1861, and sent to Washington to become Company A of the Second Regiment of United States Sharpshooters. That command participated in the battles of second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, doing effective work with its Sharps rifles. The Minnesota company had ten wounded at Antietam.

Brackett’s Cavalry Battalion of three companies, to which a fourth was added January 1, 1864, was recruited in the fall months of 1861, and remained in service till May, 1866. The command, by services appropriate to its arm, contributed not a little to the victories of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth. It accompanied Sully’s Indian expedition to the upper Missouri in 1864, and took part in the battle of Killdeer Mountain. Stationed on the right of the line, the battalion checked a fierce flank attack, which it followed with a gallant counter-charge, inflicting heavy loss on the savages.

The First Battery of Light Artillery was mustered in at Fort Snelling, November 21, 1861, and sent south in midwinter to join Sherman’s division at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. In the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, this battery, forced back with Prentiss’s routed division, united in the heroic stand at the point known as “the hornet’s nest,” which held back the enemy’s advance till Grant’s disordered regiments could be formed for final and effective defense. Captain Emil Munch had his horse shot under him and was severely wounded. The Second Light Battery was not accepted till March 21, 1862. Its commander, Captain William A. Hotchkiss, had seen service as an artilleryman in the Mexican War. At Perrysville and Stone River this command played a gallant part, fortunately with small loss.

The passage of the enrollment act of April 16, 1862, indicated an expectation that to reëstablish the authority of the government over all territory, an increase of the army would be necessary, and that the raising of new troops might not be left to the pleasure or convenience of the states. On the day of McClellan’s escape to the James River (July 2) President Lincoln called for 300,000 volunteers. Minnesota’s quota was 5362. On August 4 this call was followed by an order for drafting 300,000 men from the loyal states. Volunteering, which for some months had gone but languidly forward, revived. Public meetings were held in all the towns; bounties were offered by citizens and municipal bodies; splendid examples of patriotic sacrifices were set by men who could ill afford them, and could ill be spared by the communities. The actual recruiting was mainly done by gentlemen who were promised commissions in consideration of their services. The distribution of the quotas to counties and towns really set the whole people at work, with the result that before the harvest was over five new regiments, the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth, were substantially filled. However, it was not till November 19 that the announcement could be made that every local quota had been filled and that all danger of the draft, from time to time deferred, was averted. The immediate employment of all these regiments was, as we are to see, far different from the expectations of the recruits. The appointments to the field and staff positions were no easy task for Governor Ramsey. It was well known that he would desire the legislature of 1863 to elect him to succeed the Hon. Henry M. Rice as United States senator, and that another aspirant was at least equally desirous. His personal admirers urged him to distribute the military “plums” in a way helpful to his political success. His political opponents were prophesying that he would certainly do so, and charged him with selfishness, heartlessness, and disregard of experience. To the head of one regiment he appointed William Crooks, an experienced civil engineer, who had been two years at West Point and was his political opponent. For three other regiments he took Lieutenant-Colonels Miller, Wilkin, and Thomas from the First, Second, and Fourth Minnesota regiments respectively.