HONORS OF WAR
The reader who desires to follow the marches and battles of the
Minnesota regiments and battalions is advised to resort to the two
large octavos published by the state in 1891. It would, however, be
unjust to him and to Minnesota not to give some account, even in a
compend of her history, of certain splendid passages in the careers of
some of them favored above others in opportunity.
Marching with Gibbon’s Division of the Second (Hancock’s) Army Corps,
the First Minnesota arrived on the field of Gettysburg early in the
morning of July 2, 1863, and was placed in reserve near general
headquarters. Company L (sharpshooters) was sent to support a battery
and did not rejoin till after the battle. In the afternoon a staff
officer came and led the command off to the south, along the well-known
crest on which Sickles’s men had formed and from which they had made
their ill-advised advance. On a salient of the ridge near the middle of
Sickles’s original formation the regiment was placed in support of a
regular battery. Company F was sent out to skirmish toward the left
front, and Company C was absent on provost guard duty. Eight companies
were in line, with two hundred and sixty-two officers and men. From
their position they watched at leisure the vain struggles of Sickles’s
brigades, exposed to enfilading fires. Near sundown the shattered
battalions straggled to the rear, passing through the ranks of the
Minnesota regiment. They were followed by Anderson’s division of A. P.
Hill’s Confederate corps, moving with rapid pace to what seemed certain
victory. Sickles was severely wounded and Hancock had command.
He had ordered reserve troops to man the undefended crest, but they did
not arrive. The Confederate line was striding on, and in ten minutes
would swarm over the ridge. It was not more than four hundred yards
away when Hancock espied the little bunch of men in blue near the
battery. Riding up to Colonel William Colville at his post near the
centre, he asked, “What regiment is this?” “The First Minnesota,” was
the reply. “Charge those lines,” ordered the corps commander, pointing
to the rebel front. Without delay Colville put his line in motion, down
the slope of an old pasture field at the bottom of which was a dried up
ditch or “run.” It moved at the double-quick till near the foot of the
slope, when Colville ordered, “Charge bayonets!” On a full run, the
Minnesota men struck the Confederates as they were reforming on the
hither side of the run. The shock halted them and the fire poured in
gave them good reason for no further acquaintance with the men in blue.
They sought cover behind an accommodating swell of land and retired
from the field. Brigadier-General Wilcox of the Confederate army in his
report says: “A line of infantry descended the slope in our front at
double-quick. Without support my men were withdrawn to prevent their
entire destruction or capture.”
Of the men who joined in that fatal but necessary charge but
forty-seven answered to roll-call at retreat; two hundred and fifteen
lay dead, dying, or wounded. A high authority declares this to be the
heaviest loss known in the records of modern war. But that charge saved
Cemetery Ridge, and in all probability the Gettysburg field.
“The Second Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry occupied this
position, Sunday, September 26, 1863, from 2:30 P. M. to 7:30 P. M.”
Such is the inscription on the monument of bronze and granite erected
at the state’s expense on the “Snodgrass ridge” in the National Park at
Chickamauga, Tennessee. It marks the spot occupied by that regiment as
part of the force with which Thomas, “The Rock of Chickamauga,” held at
bay Longstreet’s elated divisions, while Rosecrans’s army, broken and
shattered, was in disorderly retreat on Chattanooga. The Second lost 35
killed and 113 wounded out of a total for duty of 384; not a single man
was missing.
Under a new commander the Union armies concentrated at Chattanooga were
soon to recover the ground and prestige lost by his brave but
unfortunate predecessor. Grant, sending Hooker to occupy Lookout
Mountain on his right and Sherman to the left to double up Bragg’s
extended line, placed the army of the Cumberland in his centre under
Thomas. A rumor spread up and down the lines of that army that it was
merely paraded to amuse the enemy while Hooker and Sherman should show
it how to fight. At three o’clock in the afternoon of November 24 the
centre moved forward to the base of Missionary Ridge. After a short
pause here the whole line, as it is told, without orders, broke out and
swarmed up the hillside and over the enemy’s intrenchments in the face
of a galling fire of artillery and musketry.
The Second Minnesota, led by Lieutenant-Colonel (afterwards
Brigadier-General) J. W. Bishop, deployed as skirmishers, led its
brigade to the foot of the ridge, where it joined in the scramble for
the crest. It lost eight men killed and thirty-one wounded. Six out of
seven members of the color guard fell.
The Third Minnesota, after participating in the “Arkansas Expedition”
which resulted in the occupation of Little Rock, remained thereabout
till the close of its term. Among the numerous affairs in which it was
engaged was one which is rightly dignified as “the battle of Fitzhugh’s
woods.” The commander, Colonel (afterwards Brigadier-General) C. C.
Andrews here displayed a tactical ability worthy of a wider field. The
regiment suffered greatly from malarial disease.
It was not the fortune of the Fourth Minnesota to be decimated in any
one engagement. Its heaviest loss, thirteen killed and thirty-one
wounded, was in its participation in the heroic defense of the post at
Altoona, Georgia, when a force numbering less than two thousand stood
off repeated charges of a Confederate division of seven thousand.
Several men of the Fourth whose term of enlistment had expired shared
in the battle, and of them some were numbered with the dead.
The gallant behavior of the men of the Fifth Minnesota and Colonel
Hubbard’s instant perception of the proper line of action at Corinth on
October 4, 1862, have already been related. It was the fortune of this
command, together with the Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Minnesota Infantry
regiments, to share in the glory of the battle which destroyed the
Confederate power in the Mississippi valley.
Thomas, commanding at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15, 1863,
delivered a blow on Hood’s left wing which caused that commander to
retire to a position on a range of hills two miles to the south,
admirably chosen, and capable of effective intrenchment. The attempt
made soon after noon of the 16th to crush the right of Hood’s army on
Overton Hill had no result but the loss of many brave men. McArthur’s
division was then ordered to assault the Confederate left, strongly
posted behind a breastwork revetted by a stone wall. The first brigade
was put in motion as if to make the principal charge. The Minnesota
regiments were in the front line of the second and third brigades,
commanded respectively by Hubbard and Marshall. Observing the movement,
these commanders at once ordered their brigades forward, and away they
went over a muddy cornfield, up a slope covered with boulders and
obstructed by stone walls, ditches, and rail fences. Without halt or
interruption, under a heavy front and cross fire, the lines pressed on,
and stormed over the enemy’s intrenchment, capturing the defenders,
with guns and colors. A general charge of the whole line now put the
entire Confederate army to rout and ended the war in the West.
The Minnesota regiments suffered a loss of three hundred in the charge.
Jennison, lieutenant-colonel commanding the Tenth, received a severe
wound, as he led his battalion over the works. Hubbard had three horses
shot under him, and was wounded. The colors of the Fifth were three
times shot down. Captain Sheehan (hero of Fort Ridgely) picked them up
and saw them planted on the stone wall. Marshall and Hubbard were both
brevetted as brigadiers, and both afterwards became governors of
Minnesota.
The Sixth Minnesota, occupied in the Indian war, was not sent south
till July, 1864, when it took station at Helena, Arkansas. Here
malarial poison, far more fatal than the gun-fire of the enemy,
attacked officers and men. During the four and one half months of its
service here, six hundred men of this regiment were sent to the
Northern hospitals. On August 7 there were but seven officers and one
hundred and seventy-eight men for duty. By the time the sick had
recovered, the war was substantially over. But their division commander
at the capture of Fort Blakely, April 9, 1865, thanked in orders the
brave officers and men for their gallantry in the daring charge to
which the fall of the fort was due.
The First Minnesota was the only one which served its whole term east
of the Alleghanies. The Fourth and Eighth reached salt water in the
last months of the war. All the other Minnesota troops remained in the
West.
It was not easy for Minnesota to respond to the calls of the nation for
recruits in the last years of the war. Some 2700 volunteers were sent
to fill the ranks of the old regiments, but these were not enough. The
draft enforced in May and September, 1864, was, as elsewhere, a farce:
14,274 names were listed; the exemptions left 2768 liable for service;
2497 failed to report, and two deserted. The remaining number of 269,
increased by 282 substitutes, in all 551, were mustered into service.
There remained the resource of raising additional regiments not likely
to be exposed in deadly battle.
By promises of commissions to gentlemen who should recruit the
companies, two strong regiments were raised: the Eleventh Infantry,
1000 strong, and the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery, 1760 officers and
men. These commands were sent to Tennessee late in 1864, where they
relieved veteran troops for active service.
By the month of September, 1865, all the Minnesota troops had been
mustered out except one battery and three cavalry battalions engaged on
the Indian frontier. The whole number of men furnished by Minnesota was
22,016. Only the people who lived through that war period can fully
appreciate the sacrifices and privations undergone.
* * * * *
The two conflicts,—the Civil War and the Indian war,—occupying the
minds of the people of Minnesota for four years, naturally overshadowed
all other interests. The Democratic party long in control of her public
affairs, depleted by the desertion of thousands of young men to the
ranks of the more obtrusively patriotic Republican organization, was
left so reduced in numbers as to be powerless in state and national
politics. The reëlection of Governor Ramsey in the fall of 1861 was a
foregone conclusion. If the Republicans were relieved from competition
with a powerful opposition they found plenty of it between the factions
which arose in their own camp. At the first, however, they were none
too sure of carrying a sufficient number of election precincts and
therefore felt justified in resorting to a procedure never anticipated
by the framers of the state constitution. The legislature in the
special session of September, 1862, by a statute duly approved,
provided against the disfranchisement of those citizens who at the time
of election should be absent in the military service. The plan adopted
was that of sending commissioners to the camps to open polls and
receive the ballots of soldiers who were, or claimed to be, qualified
electors. These ballots they sealed up and transmitted by mail to the
judges of election at the respective residences of the absentee voters.
The scheme was carried out with the expected result of sufficient
Republican majorities. William Windom was easily reëlected
representative in the first congressional district, and Ignatius
Donnelly, the lieutenant-governor, got his first election in the
second. The state was not yet entitled to more than two
representatives. Much greater interest, however, centred in the
election of a legislature for 1863, which would have before it the
choice of a United States senator to succeed Henry M. Rice, whose term
was to expire. Governor Ramsey was the logical candidate, and he did
not affect indifference to the promotion. The other principal aspirant
was Cyrus Aldrich of Minneapolis, who had been representing the second
district in Congress in a very acceptable manner. Mr. Aldrich’s
legislative experience in Minnesota and another state warranted his
friends in promoting his candidacy. These formed a body which in a
later day would have been designated as “stalwart” Republicans; they
were dissatisfied with the alleged inertia of Lincoln’s administration,
and desired the liberation of the Southern slaves and the prosecution
of the war with greater energy. Mr. Ramsey, by his nature conservative,
stood by the administration.
The first trial of strength came off in the Republican legislative
caucus held immediately after organization, early in January, 1863. The
number of votes was forty-six, and twenty-four votes were necessary to
the choice. On the first balloting Mr. Ramsey received but nineteen
votes, and then twenty votes for nineteen successive ballotings.
Fortunately “the field” was rigidly divided. On the twenty-fourth
balloting, twenty-three votes were cast for Ramsey, and the caucus
adjourned with little expectation of further changes. A final trial,
however, gave twenty-six votes and assured the election of Governor
Ramsey by the houses in joint convention on January 14.
Although his senatorial term began March 4, 1863, Governor Ramsey
remained in office till July, when he retired to attend an extra
session of the Senate. Lieutenant-Governor Donnelly had resigned at the
close of the legislative session of 1863, and the state senate had
elected as their president _pro tempore_, the Hon. Henry A. Swift of
St. Peter. Under constitutional provision Mr. Swift became
lieutenant-governor in room of Mr. Donnelly, and on July 10 (1863)
governor, in the place of Mr. Ramsey. Governor Swift held the office
for the remaining six months of Ramsey’s term, making no effort to
succeed himself. Contemporaries speak of him as a man of singularly
amiable character, preferring a quiet life among his neighbors to the
excitements of the capital. He was succeeded in office by General
Stephen Miller, a native of Pennsylvania, who came to the state in 1868
and made his home in St. Cloud. He had been an ardent supporter of Mr.
Ramsey, who was not indifferent to his claims upon him. Upon the
organization of the First Minnesota Infantry Mr. Miller received the
appointment of lieutenant-colonel. He devoted himself with such
fidelity to military studies and exercises that he soon became
sufficiently expert, and at Bull Run, Fair Oaks, and other engagements
proved beyond question his personal courage. Such was his modesty,
however, that when the colonelcy of the First became vacant, a first,
second, and even third time he preferred to have it filled by
experienced regular officers. After the Seventh Regiment was formed
Governor Ramsey was pleased to make him its colonel. When General
Sibley in the late fall of 1862 left the front to assume command of his
district he devolved immediate command on Colonel Miller. During the
general’s absence in the campaign to the Missouri in 1863 Colonel
Miller remained at St. Paul in command of the district. Nominated and
elected as governor in the fall of that year and honored with the
brevet rank of brigadier-general, Colonel Miller resigned to take up
his civil duties. In the first year of his service he was chiefly
employed in filling up the state’s quota in the armies of the Union;
and he was so much grieved and disgusted with the behavior of those
drafted men who did not report for duty that he seriously recommended
that the constitution be so amended as to visit any such “base and
cowardly conduct” in the future with disfranchisement and confiscation.
While the governorship of Minnesota has from the beginning been
regarded as a most honorable position, the chief prize to be won in her
political battles has been the United States senatorship. Around this
the successive contests have been hot and fierce. One of these occurred
in the winter of 1865. Senator Morton A. Wilkinson had cut no
inconsiderable figure at the seat of government, and had so won the
confidence of President Lincoln that he wrote an open letter
recommending a reëlection. Mr. Wilkinson, however, had not retained to
a sufficient degree the allegiance of Republican leaders at home. It
was alleged that he had allowed his colleague, Senator Rice, to obtain
an undue share of good things. Whether true or not, this was an
unpardonable offense, and Mr. Wilkinson’s friends found themselves,
after many ballotings in caucus, in a hopeless minority. In the field
against him was Mr. Rice, and there is a tradition that the nomination
might have fallen to him had he been willing to exchange the colors of
War Democrat for those of Republican. He had been loyal and ardent in
support of the Union cause.
As the result of repeated ballotings, and a combination difficult of
analysis, the nomination fell to Daniel A. Norton of Winona, who had
gained some distinction as a member of the state senate. When President
Andrew Johnson went over to the opposition fold, Mr. Norton followed
him. His career was necessarily obscure, and he died in office in 1870.
In spite of the absence of a large proportion of her men of working age
and capacity in the armies; in spite of the Indian ravages of 1862 and
the fears of others which happily did not come; in spite of the tardy
extension of railroads, the war period was one of advance for
Minnesota. Her population of 172,023 in 1860 arose, according to the
state census of 1865, to 250,099, an increase of forty-five per cent.
The accessions were greatest in the river counties, and next in those
lying immediately beyond. High prices for farm produce in paper money
enabled the farmers to wipe out their debts and improve their homes.
The homestead act of 1862 contributed not a little to the extension of
settlements in the state. The original bill for that act, passed in
1860 after bitter opposition from Southern senators and
representatives, had been vetoed by President Buchanan on the ground
that the government had no power under the constitution to give away
property of the people held by it in trust. Cyrus Aldrich, one of
Minnesota’s members, introduced and actively supported the later bill,
which became law on February 28, 1862, and took effect January 8, 1863.
In the three years following, 9529 homestead entries were made in
Minnesota, thirty-six per cent. of the whole number. There can be no
question that the operation of the homestead act was beneficial so long
as confined to arable lands. The use made of its provisions in later
years to obtain possession of timber and mineral lands by processes
morally, if not technically, criminal, depriving the nation and states
of untold millions of value, gives room for regret that President
Buchanan’s judgment had not governed his successor.