The Beginning of the Civil War--The Scandinavians taking part in
it--Appeal in _Hemlandet_ to the Scandinavians of Minnesota--Company
D. Organized--The Expressions of the Press--The Departure--The March
over the Cumberland Mountains--The Fate of the Third Regiment.
Going from the court house on the afternoon of April 12th, 1861, a
friend overtook me with the news that the rebels of the South had fired
on Fort Sumpter. The news spread rapidly, and caused surprise and
intense indignation. In a few days the governor issued a proclamation
that one thousand men should be ready to leave our young state for the
seat of war; more than a sufficient number of companies were already
organized to fill this regiment, and the only question was, who were to
have the first chance? This first excitement was so sudden that the
Scandinavians, who are more deliberate in such matters, scarcely knew
what was going on before the first enlistment was made.
A few months passed, and the battle of Bull Run was fought. It was no
longer a mere momentary excitement; it was no longer expected that the
Rebellion could be subdued in a single battle or within a few months,
but it was generally understood that the war would be long and bitter.
Then the Scandinavians of Minnesota began to stir. We had heard that a
few Swedes in Illinois, especially Major--afterward General--Stohlbrand
and a few others, had entered the army. A few Scandinavians had also
enlisted in the First and Second regiments; but there was no general
rising among them in our state until I published an appeal in the
Swedish newspaper _Hemlandet_ in Chicago. The following is an extract
from that paper:
"TO THE SCANDINAVIANS OF MINNESOTA!
"It is high time for us, as a people, to arise with sword in hand, and
fight for our adopted country and for liberty.
"This country is in danger. A gigantic power has arisen against it and
at the same time against liberty and democracy, in order to crush
them.
"Our state has already furnished two thousand men, and will soon be
called upon for as many more to engage in the war. Among the
population of the state the Scandinavians number about one-twelfth, a
part of its most hardy and enduring people, and ought to furnish at
least three or four hundred men for this army. This land which we, as
strangers, have made our home, has received us with friendship and
hospitality. We enjoy equal privileges with the native born. The path
to honor and fortune is alike open to us and them. The law protects
and befriends us all alike. We have also sworn allegiance to the same.
"Countrymen, 'Arise to arms; our adopted country calls!' Let us prove
ourselves worthy of that land, and of those heroes from whom we
descend.
"I hereby offer myself as one of that number, and I am confident that
many of you are ready and willing to do likewise. Let each settlement
send forth its little squad. Many in this neighborhood are now ready
to go. A third regiment will soon be called by the governor of this
state. Let us, then, have ready a number of men of the right kind, and
offer our services as a part of the same. Let us place ourselves on
the side of liberty and truth, not only with words but with strong
arms,--with our lives. Then shall our friends in the home of our
childhood rejoice over us. Our children and children's children shall
hereafter pronounce our names with reverence. We shall ourselves be
happy in the consciousness of having performed our duty, and should
death on the field of battle be our lot, then shall our parents,
wives, children and friends find some consolation in their sorrow in
the conviction that they, also, by their noble sacrifices, have
contributed to the defense and victory of right, justice, and liberty.
And a grateful people shall not withhold from them its sympathy and
friendship."
A few days later I left a dear wife, home, and two children, and started
for Fort Snelling, but not alone; about seventy Swedes and thirty
Norwegians from Red Wing, Vasa, Chisago Lake, Holden, Wanamingo,
Stillwater, Albert Lea and other places, went there with me, or joined
us in the course of a few days.
[Illustration: MUSTERING VOLUNTEERS.]
Meanwhile the third regiment had been called, and one hundred of my
companions were mustered in as Company D of that regiment, with myself
as their captain, a Norwegian friend, L. K. Aaker, formerly a member of
our legislature, as first lieutenant, and my old friend H. Eustrom as
second lieutenant. Although Company D was the only military organization
in our state consisting exclusively of Scandinavians, there were quite a
number of those nationalities in every regiment and company organized
afterwards.
I may be excused for saying a few words concerning my old military
company. It consisted of the very flower of our young men. It was
regarded from the start as a model company, and maintained its rank as
such during the whole term of four years' service. Always orderly,
sober, obedient and faithful to every duty, the men of Company D, though
foreigners by birth, won and always kept the affectionate regard and
fullest confidence of their native-born comrades. A large majority of
them are resting in the last grand bivouac, many under the genial
Southern sun, but no word of reproach or doubt of soldierly honor has
ever been heard against any of those living or dead.
About this time a whole regiment of Scandinavians, mostly Norwegians,
was organized in Wisconsin,--the Fifteenth Wisconsin Infantry
regiment,--which rose to great distinction during its long service. Its
brave colonel, Hans Hegg, fell mortally wounded while commanding a
brigade on the bloody field at Chickamauga. There were many partially or
wholly Swedish companies from Illinois, one of which belonged to the
Forty-third Illinois regiment, under the lamented Capt. Arosenius, and
came under my command a few years later in Arkansas. There were also
many prominent Swedish officers in other regiments, such as Gen. C. J.
Stohlbrand, Cols. Vegesack, Malmborg, Steelhammar, Broddy, Elfving, and
Brydolf, Capts. Stenbeck, Silversparre, Sparrstrom, Lempke, Chas.
Johnson, Erik Johnson, Vanstrum, Lindberg, etc., and Lieuts. Osborne,
Edgren, Liljengren, Johnson, Lindall, Olson, Gustafson, Lundberg, and
many others whose names I do not now recall.
In the Goodhue county records for October 15, 1861, is a paragraph which
states that, as the county auditor, H. Mattson, has voluntarily gone to
the war with a company of soldiers to defend our country, it is resolved
that leave of absence shall be extended to him, and that the office of
county auditor shall not be declared vacant so long as the deputy
performs his duties properly.
The St. Paul _Press_ of the same date, has the following: "We
congratulate Capt. Mattson and his countrymen for the splendid company
of Swedes and Norwegians which he commands. Never was a better company
mustered in for service."
In the beginning of November two steamers arrived at Fort Snelling and
took the Third regiment on board. We were ordered to join Buell's army
in Kentucky. Company E, of our regiment, was also mainly from Goodhue
county, and when the steamers arrived at Red Wing, they stopped half an
hour to let Companies D and E partake of a bountiful supper, to which
they had been invited by their city friends, and to say a last farewell
to their families and acquaintances. My wife, with the little children,
my sister, father, brother, and other relatives, were gathered in a
large room in the hotel opposite the landing. The half hour was soon
past, and the bugle sounded "fall in." I pass over the parting scene,
leaving it to the imagination of the reader, for I cannot find words to
describe it myself. I will only relate one little episode. When the
bugle sounded for departure I held my little two-year-old daughter in my
arms; her arms were clasped around my neck, and, when I endeavored to
set her down, she closed her little fingers so hard together that her
uncle had to open them by force before he could take her away from me.
When a little child was capable of such feelings, it may be surmised
what those felt who were able to comprehend the significance of that
moment.
In a few days we were camped on a muddy field in Kentucky, quickly
learning the duties of soldier-life, and familiarizing ourselves with
the daily routine of an army in the field.
My military career of four years' duration passed without any event of
particular interest or importance; it was like that of two million other
soldiers--to do their duty faithfully, whatever that duty might be--that
was all.
After eight months' service I was promoted to the rank of major in the
regiment. At that time we were serving in middle Tennessee. Shortly
afterward our regiment, with some three thousand men of the troops, made
a forced march across the Cumberland mountains. In order to give the
reader an idea of the hardships which the soldiers occasionally had to
endure on a march, I shall give a short sketch of this. The detachment
broke camp in Murfreesboro in the forenoon of a very hot day toward the
close of May, and marched twenty miles before night, which was
considered a good distance for the first day. Most of the men suffered
from blistered feet, and they were all very tired. We prepared our
supper, and had just gone to rest in a large open field and were
beginning to fall asleep, when, at ten o'clock in the evening, the
signal was given to fall in. In a few minutes the whole force was in
line, and silently resumed the march forward. We marched the whole
night, the whole of the next day, the following night, and till noon the
day after, moving altogether a distance of over eighty miles, over a
difficult and partly mountainous country, and stopping only one hour
three times a day to cook our coffee and eat, while those who sank down
by the roadside entirely exhausted were left until the rear-guard came
and picked them up. When we finally arrived at our destination the enemy
that we were pursuing had already decamped, and we had to return by the
same route over which we had come, though more leisurely. Among the many
victims of this march was a bright Norwegian lieutenant of my old
company, Hans Johnson, who died shortly after our return to
Murfreesboro.
A few days afterward the regiment started on an expedition to the South.
During this march I got sick with the fever, and would probably have
died at Columbia, Tenn., if my friend Eustrom, who at that time was
captain of Company D, had not succeeded in getting me into a rebel
family, where I was treated with the greatest care, so that in a few
days I was able to go by rail to Minnesota on a twenty days' leave of
absence. This took place in the beginning of the month of July, 1862.
Having spent a fortnight in the bosom of my family I returned, with
improved health, to resume my command. I arrived at Chicago on a Sunday
morning, and, as I had to wait all day for my train, I went to the
Swedish church on Superior street. Leaving the church, I heard a
news-boy crying, "Extra number of the _Tribune_; great battle at
Murfreesboro; Third Minnesota regiment in hot fire!" I bought the paper
and hurried to the hotel, where another extra edition was handed me. The
Union troops had won a decisive victory at Murfreesboro, and totally
routed the forces of Forrest, consisting of eight thousand cavalry.
Later in the evening a third extra edition announced that "The Third
regiment has been captured by the enemy, and is on the march to the
prisons of the South." Only a soldier can imagine my feelings when I
received this news. I arrived in Tennessee two days later, only to meet
the soldiers returning from the mountains where they had been released
on written parole by the enemy. They were sore-footed, exhausted, hungry
and wild with anger, and looked more like a lot of ragged beggars than
the well-disciplined soldiers they had been a few days before. All the
captured officers had been taken to the South, where they were kept in
prison several months. Only two of them succeeded in making their
escape. One of those was Capt. Eustrom, who, in company with Lieut.
Taylor, made his escape from a hospital building, some negroes giving
them clothes, and, through almost incredible hardships and dangers, they
succeeded in reaching our lines, and I met them two days after my
arrival at Nashville.
The capitulation of our splendid regiment was one of the most deplorable
events of its kind during the whole war. It was regarded one of the best
regiments of volunteers of the Western army. It had defended itself
with great valor, and, in fact, defeated the enemy, when for some
unaccountable reason, Col. H. C. Lester decided to surrender, and he
exerted such a great influence over our officers that seven company
commanders went over to his side in the council of war, which he called,
while the remaining officers and the soldiers were strongly opposed to
the capitulation. When the men finally were ordered to stack arms they
did so with tears in their eyes, complaining bitterly because they were
not allowed to fight any longer. All the officers who had been in favor
of capitulation were afterward dismissed from service in disgrace.
Arriving at Nashville I was immediately ordered to assume command of my
own scattered regiment, of the Ninth Michigan Infantry regiment, and of
a battery of artillery, which had also capitulated on that fatal Sunday.
Having supplied the men with clothing and other necessaries, I took them
by steamboats to a camp for prisoners in St. Louis, and returned to
Nashville to report the matter in person. On my return to Nashville I
was appointed member of a general court martial, and shortly afterwards
its president, which position I occupied from July till December, 1862.
The sufferings which my friend Captain Eustrom had endured during his
flight from the rebels shattered his health so that he was soon forced
to retire from service.
About this time the well-known Indian massacre in the western
settlements of Minnesota took place. About eight hundred peaceable
citizens, mostly women and children, and among those many
Scandinavians--were cruelly butchered, and their houses and property
burnt and destroyed. The soldiers of the Third regiment had given their
parole not to take up arms against the enemy until they were properly
exchanged, but, as this did not have anything to do with the Indian war,
they were ordered from St. Louis to Minnesota and put under the command
of Major Welch, of the Fourth regiment, and soon distinguished
themselves by their fine maneuvers and valor in the struggle with the
Indians.