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.