St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-17
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
THE FIRST VOLUNTEER.
C. II. EausdOrf Makes a Reply i'm
ton.

Standardization.
To the Editor Of the Globe:
In reply to the dispute of Col. J. r. King,
l wish to state that myself and Mr.. AL Hol-
comb, formerly member of the Pioneer
guards, were the first two young men to en-
ter the then hall Of the Pioneer guards on
Third street, on the 18th day of April, 1851,
to respond to the call of President Lincoln for
$4,000 volunteers. We had just come in from
a four days hunt at Rice lakes, and as we
drove up to the Merchants hotel, Mr.. Shaw,
the then proprietor, stepped out and said to
us: Boys, there is war declared and the
president has called for $4,000 volunteers. :"
Both of us said we would go. We turned the
game we had over to Mr.. Shaw and started
right up Third street to the armory, at which
place we took our shOtguns and rifles land
our rifles were left there for about one week
as we preferred taking them to the musket).
Mr.. a. Ho]comb stuck the company's flag out
of the window, after which we both donned
two fatigue uniforms Of the company, went
out and hired Niger Taylor and Wagner, the
two leading musicians at the time, and
marched up Third stress as far as
THE SEVEN CORNERS
(where Mr.. Fred Dohm Joined us) and then
back to the hall Mr.. A. Holcomb backed
out altogether and Mr.. Fred Dohm stepped
out when it came to being sworn in for three
years or during the war (who, however, after
wards enlisted in the Second regiment and
served the full term of three years aud was
honorably discharged). This actually leaves
me the first man to respond TO the call, and
the first volunteer as stated. The second
time that we turned out and marched up
Third street-we turned out six strong, but
J. r. King was not among us-and after re-
turning to the hail we found several of the
old Pioneer Guard members there. among
whom were John Lair, J. r. King, Charles
lyf,.ua Coates Mr. Ch4mnlip
and. believe, Mr. Theodore Bonn, of whom
few enlisted / also wish to state that
did command the First Regiment Minnesota
Veteran volunteers during the last ten
months of the war, and was i'll command at
the time of the surrender of K. E. Lee at Au-
potomax Court House, Va, April 10, 1865,
and most emphatically contradict the asser-
ton made by Col. J. r. King, in which he
says that the regiment was dlsbanded and
that afterwards few banded together and
started
a VETERAN BATTALION.
The facts are as follows: During the month
of February, OF about two months before our
first three-year term was up, the secretary of
war issued an order, giving the regiment a
furlough for the purpose of re-enlsting. and al
lowing the regiment to go home to orr state
with the prOvisO that we could re-eniist. but
that they would keep us in the state and on
the frontier to guard against and fight the
1nQlaUS, anu uuuer IndU OrQer ana promise we
came home the latter part of February, 1854.
During the months of March and April we
did re-enlist and were called the First regi-
meut veteran volunteers Chose that did not
re-enliSt were mustered out of course when
their three years were up), but as we were
only enough to fill two full companies, the
term of battalion was substituted for regi-
ment and on or about the Goth day of May,
1864. were by Maj. a. D. Nelson. U. s. A
recruiting officer then here at st. Paul
through fictitious order of his, pretending
to have come from the secretary of war,
ordered back to Washington, where after our
arrival we reported to the secretary of war,
who asked us by whose order we had come
back. ] told him, by an order from him, to
which he answered that he had never issued
SUCH AN ORDER,
but that he had issued an order for the Sixth
regiment to report to the Army of the Po-
tomac as soon as possible and take our place
there, which he thought the Sixth regiment
would do, and that we could go right back to
Minnesota if we desired, that we had done
lighting enough and that we should be kept
home to guard the frontier. We did not want
to go back and after considerable parley we
received transportation, which carried us
back to our old position in the First brigade.
Second division, Second Army corps, Army
of the Potomac, where, by Gen. Hancock, like
questions were asked and answers returned
as at the war department. Gen. Hancock
had the Sixth on his books and wanted that
regiment to take our place. AS said before