SERVICES AT HELENA, ST. LOUIS, AND NEW ORLEANS--1864-65.
On the 14th of June, 1864, the whole regiment left Fort Snelling,
marched to St. Paul, and embarked on the steamboats Enterprise and
Hudson, each having two barges in tow for additional accommodation of
the men. Arrived at Dunleith, Illinois, on the 17th and took the cars
to Cairo, which point was reached on the 19th. Here wagoner Henricks,
sick, was left in the hospital. Embarked on the steamer Empress at
midnight, and arrived at Helena, Arkansas, and landed there, on the
23rd.
By changes in commissions occurring during the spring, the company had
now become the third in rank and in regimental position the fifth from
the right, with Company A in front and Company I in the rear or left.
Its strength at the time of the arrival was, present 76, aggregate 84;
the absentees being Lieutenant Bell and A. J. Hill on detached service,
the two Henricks and Schauer sick, and Scheer, Iwan, and Troska left
behind at St. Paul.
The regiment at once went into camp, on the bank of the river, one-half
mile above the town. Shelter tents were issued now for the first time.
The camp was called Camp Buford, and was the last one that was
officially named. Troska and Iwan rejoined on the 24th, and also the
next day A. J. Hill from detached service at Washington. Detert and
Scheibel were detailed as regimental pioneers on the 28th and A. J.
Hill as company clerk in the beginning of July.
From the beginning there was a close guard kept around the limited area
occupied by the regiment, and it was maintained several weeks. The duty
required by the District Commandant was chiefly prison and picket
guard. In the first week of July orders were issued to build quarters,
and fatigue parties were at once set to work cutting, hauling, and
sawing logs for that purpose. Wagoner Henricks rejoined on the 18th.
Companies E and F being detailed to proceed to certain points with a
view of obtaining information of the movements of the enemy, the major
part embarked, with forty men of the Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry, on the
evening of the 13th, on the steamboat Dove, and proceeded up the
Mississippi River, reaching Buck Island (No. 52) on the next day, and
searched it as ordered. Returned to the levee at Helena the same night,
and lay there. Next day, the 15th, went up the St. Francis River, some
thirty-five miles, to Alligator Bayou, then returned to Helena and into
camp again. The Mississippi River part of this trip was under command
of Captain Schoenemann, and the other under that of the major of
cavalry. No guerrillas or other enemies were seen. The infantry forces
did not land, but the cavalry did and scouted between the two rivers.
Kilian was detached as nurse in the regimental hospital on the 21st.
Lieutenant Bell returned on the 22nd, and with him Scheer.
On the 26th of July the regiment went out about two miles beyond the
picket lines on the Little Rock road to cover the retreat of some
colored troops and cavalry who had been very severely handled that
morning at a creek some few miles west of town. On the 1st of August it
went out again on the same road as before, but not quite so far, and
remained on picket in the woods on the right of the road during the
night, returning to camp the next morning. It was understood that a
projected attack by the enemy on the defences of the town was the cause
of this movement. Nothing of the kind, however, took place.
The heat was now intense, and the sickness increased with alarming
rapidity. The building of quarters was given up or postponed, and the
houses, more or less finished, occupied as well as they could be.
Company E managed to complete--walls and roof--one of the four
prescribed barracks, but, being destitute of chinking, in a rainstorm
it afforded but poor shelter. Being composed of log and frame houses,
board and canvas shanties, the camp of the Sixth Regiment presented, by
autumn, a melancholy variety indeed.
Bast was detached for provost duty in Helena on the 16th; on the 18th
Schafer was detached for provost duty, and Praxl as nurse in the post
hospital on the 19th. J. J. Mueller was detached as cook in the
regimental hospital (now in town) on the 20th.
The following men of the company died while at Helena, viz.: Jean
Rossion on July 25th; Joseph Rachel, July 27th; Louis Wetterau, August
5th; Frederick Schoenheiter on the 10th, Michael Boos on the 18th;
August Willialms on the 23rd, and Henry Reuter on the 25th. The latter
was the last of the company that died at Helena; all seven dying of
disease. They were buried with the rest of the regimental dead on the
summit of a rising ground about one-half mile northwest of the camp.
Properly marked boards were placed at their graves.
In September the sick men had become so numerous that large numbers
were sent north. Of Company E there went as follows: On the 1st of the
month, Bristle was sent to the hospital at Memphis; Corporal Hoscheid,
wagoner Henricks, Foglesang, Metz, Mueckenhausen, Rehse, Thiele, and H.
Wetterau, sick, were sent to the hospital at Jefferson Barracks, Mo.,
on the 3rd; Sergeants Leitner and Stiefel, Corporals Neierburg,
Juergens, and Radke, and Ferlein, Gabbert, Hauck, Holtzmer, John,
Kilian, Kraemer, Krueger, M. Mueller, Munson, Schene, Steck, and Temme,
sick, were also sent to Jefferson Barracks hospital, on the 19th. F.
Henricks rejoined on the 21st, and on the same day Sergeant Rohde was
relieved.
At about this time the once strong Sixth Regiment had become the shadow
of its former self, and added little to the effective strength of the
garrison of the post. It was pitiable to look at the companies as they
marched to dress parade; very often having but half a dozen men in
line.
Gantner was relieved on the 28th; and Bast rejoined on the 1st of
October. The same day the following recruits, who had enlisted as
privates for one year in the regiment, joined the company, and were two
days afterwards assigned to it by regimental order, viz.: William S.
Adams, native of Minnesota, enlisted August 25th; Henry Churchill,
native of Vermont, enlisted August 27th; George R. Bell, native of
Ohio, and Nelson A. Chandler, a native of New York, enlisted September
10th; Melchior Steinmann, a native of Switzerland, enlisted September
12th. All of the above but Adams (a Sioux of mixed blood) were young
boys, and incapable of full military duty.
On the 12th, details of men commenced to build barracks on selected
regimental grounds located in town, opposite to the church used as a
Soldiers' Home. No order had been received to go into regular winter
quarters, but the necessities of the case required this course. George
Bell was detailed as orderly at regimental headquarters on the 21st.
Sergeant Stiefel, and Foglesang and Schene rejoined on the 22nd.
The removal of the company to the log quarters on the east side of the
above-named ground took place on the 25th. Company E was now shifted to
the extreme left of the regiment, becoming the tenth from the right
wing and the second in rank. Company I was on the immediate right of
it.
An order from New Orleans requiring the regiment to report at St. Louis
was received and read on the 3rd of November and preparations made at
once to comply with the same. Detert, Scheibel, Kernen, and J. J.
Mueller were relieved the same day and Schafer rejoined; also Burch and
Praxl (the latter rejoined on the 2nd) were detached for provost duty
in Helena. The two latter, with Churchill, sick, were all of the
company left behind there.
On the 4th, the Twenty-Third Wisconsin having arrived to relieve it,
the Sixth Minnesota embarked on the steamboat Thomas E. Tutt, truly
glad to leave a place so associated with disease, suffering, and death.
The number of the company now on the boat was 54, out of an aggregate
of 80. While lying at Memphis, on the 6th, Bristle, wagoner Henricks,
and Ferlein rejoined.
Arrived at St. Louis on the evening of the 11th, after a tedious
voyage. Next morning the regiment disembarked and marched through the
city. Six companies were quartered at Winter Street Barracks, E being
among them. At this time the military post of St. Louis was under the
enlightened command of Colonel James H. Baker of the Tenth Minnesota,
whose regulations for the government of troops stationed there were
liberal and just, and an admirable model for the imitation of officers
having volunteer soldiers of the Republic under their control. The
sojourn in this city would have been generally very pleasant had it not
been for the incessant duty, which, consisting almost exclusively of
prison guard, was severe, just half of the men's time being taken up by
it. The weather, too, was very cold for outside posts of sentinels.
J. J. Mueller was detailed as orderly at company headquarters on the
12th, Kernen detached as cook in the regimental hospital on the 15th,
and Steinmann detailed as company drummer on the 22nd. The absent
members now began rapidly to return. M. Mueckenhausen rejoined on the
17th. Sergeant Leitner on the 21st, Burch, Praxl, Corporal Radke, and
Kilian, Kraemer, and Temme on the 25th, Churchill on the 26th, M.
Mueller on the 27th, and Krueger on the 30th. Eberdt was relieved on
the 29th. Lieutenant Bell was dismissed from service by order of the
Department Commander on the 29th. Knopf left on furlough December 9th,
but sickness prevented him from returning at its expiration.
The companies in Winter Street Barracks moved into Schofield Barracks
No. 2 on the 13th of December; E being quartered in the northern
quadrangle. Corporal Gaheen was relieved on the 19th, and Sergeant
Leitner detached as keeper at Gratiot Street Military Prison on the
20th. Metz rejoined on the 27th, and Holtzmer on the 29th. Lieutenant
Bell, having been restored to command by order of the President of
January 3rd, 1865, rejoined on the 10th. Kernen rejoined on the 11th.
To fill vacancies occasioned by the death of Neierburg and reduction of
Gabbert, Bast and Beckendorf were appointed seventh and eighth
corporals on the 12th, and confirmed as such on the 17th.
Having been ordered to report at New Orleans, La., the regiment left
St. Louis on the 29th of January, and traveled by rail to Cairo, where
it was put on board the steamboat W. R. Arthur, which left the next
evening. The boat then had on board over 1,000 souls in all. Reached
New Orleans the 6th of February, and marched to quarters in Louisiana
Cotton Press No. 1, used as a camp of distribution. Lieutenant Holl was
detailed as assistant regimental quartermaster, and Corporal Gaheen
again on color guard, on the 7th.
The northern soldiers found much to amuse and instruct them when they
arrived at this southwestern satrapy, for such--from its isolated
position, its semi-tropical products, its swarthy and varied
population, strange tongues, manners, and customs, and from its form of
government--the Military Division of West Mississippi might well be
termed. They, however, soon discovered the difference between New
Orleans and St. Louis. The former was under the strictest rule of a
martinet of the regular army. The accidental absence of a pass, even in
daytime, or the slightest divergence from the prescribed dress, whether
occurring on or off duty, rendered enlisted men subject to ruthless
fine or imprisonment, and the other offending articles to confiscation
by the provost marshal.
No duty was called for till the 10th, when, for two days, fatigue
parties were set to work on the military railroad on St. Joseph street.
On the 13th details for miscellaneous guard duty were furnished.
Corporal Hoscheid and John rejoined on the 12th. Musician Chandler was
transferred to Company B on the 13th, there being more than the regular
number of musicians in Company E. Wagoner Henricks was detailed in
regimental quartermaster's depot on the 15th. On the 19th the regiment
moved into the barracks formerly Terrill's Cotton Press, opposite the
southeast corner of Annunciation Square, just vacated by the Seventh
Vermont. Sergeant Rohde was detailed as sergeant of police on the 20th.
Eberdt and Gropel were detached to guard stores on steamboats, under
command of an ordnance officer, on the 25th. Stengelin, sick, was sent
to the general hospital on the 26th.
Towards the end of the month the regiment received orders to repair to
Chalmette, and to report to the Sixteenth Army Corps, to which it had
been assigned, as soon as relieved by a certain colored regiment. On
the 3rd of March, having been relieved, the regiment moved into the
square immediately opposite, where, having a few days previously been
supplied with shelter tents, a camp was established. J. J. Mueller was
relieved on the 4th. The strength of the company was now as follows:
Present, 66; absent, 11,--aggregate 77.
By this time it was authoritatively known that the Sixth Regiment
belonged to the Second Brigade of the Second Division, Sixteenth Army
Corps, Major General A. J. Smith commanding.