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[Illustration: Photo of Alfred J. Hill and handwritten inscription:
"Yours truly, Alfred J. Hill"]
HISTORY
OF
COMPANY E
OF THE
SIXTH MINNESOTA REGIMENT
OF VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
BY
ALFRED J. HILL.
WITH AN APPENDIX BY
CAPT. CHARLES J. STEES.
PUBLISHED BY
PROF. T. H. LEWIS.
St. Paul, Minn.:
PIONEER PRESS CO.
1899.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1899, by
PROF. T. H. LEWIS,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
All Rights Reserved.
PREFACE.
It will be remembered by those connected with the military service that
towards the end of the late Civil War, there went through the camps and
barracks of the volunteer soldiers agents of publishing houses busily
engaged in procuring material for "company histories," and still more
anxiously soliciting subscriptions for the same. These histories were
mere broadsides or charts, giving the name and rank of each man, with a
few other personal facts, compiled from the muster rolls, and in
addition an abstract of campaign movements, battles, and so forth; all
the information being brought up to date of subscription. Of course as
permanent and final records such publications would be failures, there
being no "next" in which to "conclude" their stories.
While the Sixth Minnesota Infantry Regiment lay at New Orleans, one of
the visitations described occurred to it (this being a very successful
one), and thereupon a member of Company E proposed to a comrade the
getting up of something of the kind among themselves, to be of home
manufacture. Time permitting, the work was then commenced, continued in
the field, and kept up with current events till the order for return
home of the command to which the company belonged. Serious illness of
the compiler, and the scattering of the members of the company,
prevented the finishing of the work at the intended time, and caused
its indefinite postponement.
As a contribution, though humble, to material for some future history
of the part taken by Minnesota in the war for the Union this little
book has been completed and published, and the writer would be greatly
pleased if its appearance should stimulate the necessary research for
the putting on record in somewhat similar form of the histories of
other companies of our state regiments.
ALFRED J. HILL.
St. Paul, Minn., 1869.
PART I.
ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION--1862.
In the spring of 1862 a sixth regiment of infantry had been called for
from Minnesota by the Governor of the State, but, from various causes,
the enlistments proceeded very languidly till the disasters of the
Virginian armies in the summer and the consequent proclamations of the
President of the United States for volunteers gave an immense impulse
to recruiting.
Under such circumstances it was that the "Sigel Guards," afterwards
Company E of the Sixth Regiment, were projected and raised. In the
month of June, Mathias Holl, of St. Paul, was authorized to recruit for
the proposed company; and on the 23rd of July, twenty men having been
enlisted, he received a regular recruiting commission. Rudolph
Schoenemann and Christian Exel, of the same city, also engaged in the
work in connection with Lieutenant Holl, themselves enlisting in the
company on the 6th and 14th of August, respectively. Many of the
members, however, were not obtained particularly by these gentlemen,
some having been recruited for other companies or regiments and
transferred involuntarily to the Sigel Guards, others who had purposed
enlisting in other companies--that never were filled--having joined it
of their own accord, while a large proportion acted as their own
recruiting officers, and made it their first choice. The names of those
recruited for, or who intended to join, other organizations, are as
follows, viz.: (1) Beckendorf, Besecke, Detert, Gropel, Mahle, Mann,
Metz, J. J. Mueller, Schaefer, Simon, and Temme, were to have belonged
to the company projected by Messrs. Klinkenfus, Knauft, and Krueger, of
Lower Town, St. Paul. They joined in a body. (2) Bast, Blesius,
Blessner, Dreis, Fandel, Greibler, Hoscheid, and Neierburg were
enlisted August 15th by Messrs. Julius Gross and Lieutenant Kreitz, of
St. Paul, for the Tenth Regiment, but were transferred to the Sixth.
(3) George Paulson, a recruit for L. C. Dayton's company (St. Paul) for
the Eighth Regiment, was transferred to the Sixth. (4) John, Kilian,
Kraemer, Meyer, Praxl, and Radke came to Fort Snelling from Winona, as
recruits for the Seventh Regiment, but enlisted instead in the Sigel
Guards. All the recruits were enlisted and sworn in as privates except
the drummer, the period of enlistment being "for three years unless
sooner discharged."
The general rendezvous was at Fort Snelling, and, the "minimum" number
(83) having been obtained, the company was provisionally organized
there, on the 16th of August, by the enlisted men expressing, by vote,
their preference for candidates to fill the commissioned offices, and
by the captain, then chosen, appointing the non-commissioned officers.
Schoenemann and Holl were thus respectively elected captain and second
lieutenant of the Sigel Guards, and were commissioned as such, on the
19th, by the Governor of the State, and Lieutenant Exel, already
commissioned (August 11th), accepted as first lieutenant.
By the 19th of August the aggregate number of members was 94; their
names, rank, etc., being shown in the following roll:
----------------------------+-----------------------+-----------
| | When
NAME | NATIVE COUNTRY | Enlisted
| | 1862
----------------------------+-----------------------+-----------
OFFICERS. | |
----------------------------+-----------------------+-----------
_Captain_ -- | |
*Rudolph Schoenemann | Prussia | Aug. 14
_First Lieutenant_ -- | |
Christian Exel | Hesse Darmstadt | Aug. 6
_Second Lieutenant_ -- | |
Mathias Holl | Hesse Darmstadt | July 23
_First Sergeant_ -- | |
Justus B. Bell | Ohio | Aug. 4
_Second Sergeant_ -- | |
George Huhn | Bavaria | Aug. 7
_Third Sergeant_ -- | |
*Frederick Scheer | Prussia | July 23
_Fourth Sergeant_ -- | |
Ernst J. Knobelsdorff | Prussia | July 29
_Fifth Sergeant_ -- | |
*Elias Siebert | Hesse Cassel | Aug. 2
_First Corporal_ -- | |
*Paul P. Huth | Prussia | June 13
_Second Corporal_ -- | |
John Burch | Prussia | Aug. 13
_Third Corporal_ -- | |
*Mathias Mueller | Prussia | Aug. 5
_Fourth Corporal_ -- | |
*William Rohde | Hesse Cassel | Aug. 2
_Fifth Corporal_ -- | |
Peter Leitner | Bavaria | Aug. 6
_Sixth Corporal_ -- | |
Reinhard Stiefel | Prussia | Aug. 7
_Seventh Corporal_ -- | |
George Sauer | Bavaria | Aug. 7
_Eighth Corporal_ -- | |
Richard Mueller | Prussia | Aug. 8
_Musician_ -- | |
*Charles Seidel | Prussia | July 9
_Privates_ -- | |
Bast, William | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
Beckendorf, Peter H. | Prussia | Aug. 14
Becker, Mathias | Prussia | Aug. 13
Besecke, Ferdinand | Prussia | Aug. 14
Blesius, John | Prussia | Aug. 15
Blessner, Charles | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
Boos, Michael | Bavaria | June 12
Bristle, Christian | Baden | Aug. 4
Detert, Henry | Prussia | Aug. 14
Dreis, Nicholas | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
*Eberdt, Charles | Mecklenb | Aug. 13
Eheim, Joseph | Austria | Aug. 14
Fandel, Henry | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
*Ferlein, Joseph | Bavaria | June 2
Fischer, Louis | Switzerland | Aug. 16
Gaheen, Samuel | Canada | Aug. 14
*Gantner, Jacob | Switzerland | June 10
Goldner, Joseph | Prussia | July 23
Griebler, Joseph | Prussia | Aug. 15
*Gropel, Henry | Prussia | Aug. 14
Hahn, F. Carl | Wurtemberg | July 23
Harrfeldt, August | Holstein | July 28
Hauck, Jacob | Baden | Aug. 14
*Hellmann, Herman | Prussia | Aug. 9
Henricks, Frederick | Prussia | July 28
Henricks, Henry | Prussia | Aug. 5
Hill, Alfred J. | England | Aug. 14
Hill, William A. | Virginia | July 22
Hoscheid, Nicholas | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
Jakobi, Conrad | Hesse Darmstadt | July 18
John, Jacob | Bremen | Aug. 18
*Juergens, Louis | Waldeck | Aug. 16
*Kellermann, August | Prussia | Aug. 14
Kernen, Jacob | Switzerland | Aug. 14
Kilian, Philip | Hesse Darmstadt | Aug. 18
*Klinghammer, Louis | Prussia | July 9
*Kobelitz, Frederick | Bremen | July 28
*Koenig, Louis | Baden | Aug. 12
*Kraemer, Frederick | Wurtemberg | Aug. 18
*Krueger, Henry | Schleswig | Aug. 15
Mahle, William | Wurtemberg | Aug. 14
Mann, Jacob | Wurtemberg | Aug. 14
*Martin, Frederick | Prussia | Aug. 16
Metz, Charles | Hanover | Aug. 14
Maurer, John J. | Prussia | Aug. 13
Meyer, John H. | Ohio | Aug. 18
Mueckenhausen, Joseph | Prussia | Aug. 14
Mueckenhausen, Mathias | Prussia | Aug. 14
Mueller, John Jacob | Wurtemberg | Aug. 14
Munson, John | Sweden | June 26
Neierburg, Michael | Luxemburg | Aug. 15
Parks, Thomas M. | Pennsylvania | June 13
*[1]Paulson, George | Prussia | July 28
Paulson, Paul | Norway | June 10
Peterson, Ole | Norway | July 28
Porth, William | Prussia | Aug. 7
Praxl, Anthony A. | Austria | Aug. 18
Radke, Rudolph | Prussia | Aug. 18
Rehse, August | Prussia | Aug. 4
*Reimers, Joachim | Holstein | Aug. 13
*Reuter, Henry | Hanover | July 23
Rossion, Jean | Belgium | July 31
Schafer, Henry | Canada | Aug. 14
Schauer, August | Prussia | Aug. 4
Scheibel, Augustin | France | Aug. 15
Schene, William | Hanover | Aug. 12
Schermann, George | Austria | Aug. 11
Schoenheiter, Frederick | Prussia | Aug. 16
Simon, John | Prussia | Aug. 14
Smith, Joseph | France | Aug. 14
Smith, William A. | Indiana | Aug. 19
Sproesser, William D. | Wurtemberg | July 23
Stengelin, Gottfried | Wurtemberg | July 16
Temme, Charles | Prussia | Aug. 14
Wetteran, Louis | Wisconsin | Aug. 5
Willialms, August | Sweden | June 10
*Wolf, Anton | Prussia | June 2
----------------------------+-----------------------+-----------
* In military service before.
[1] This young man's real name was Paul Bierstach, the other
having been assumed to enable him to get sworn in without his
parents' consent.
With the exception of less than half a dozen, all of the above were
residents of Minnesota, fifty-four being from St. Paul, eight from
Winona, and the remainder from other parts of the state. Twenty-four of
the members had been soldiers previously, many of them having seen
active service--seventeen in European armies, one in the United States
regulars, and six in the United States volunteer forces. Wolf--then a
boy of sixteen--enlisted in Bulow's Army Corps, fought at Quatre Blas,
and was present at the battle of Waterloo.