The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-04

as a. souvenir of the most glorious bit of
valor I ever witnessed. The names snow
ScandinaVians, Germans and Irishrnen, but
the majority were young fellows from
eighteen to twenty-five years, and born on
American soil.
REGIMENT WITH A HISTORY.
1.-The most of those killed, and the same
can be said of the wounded, had been pre-
viously wounded in some of the desperate
battles of the Army of the Potomac, for
this was not a mere chance affair for the
First Minnesota. 1t was regiment with
a history before it broke all records on the
field of destiny. Governor Ramsey, of Min
nesota, was in Washington when the dis
patch came on April 10, 1861, that Major
Anderson was to evacuate Fort Sumter the
next day. and he Immediately rendered one
thousand men to uphold the flag. Lincoln
accepted the effer before he wrote out the
call for $4,000 volunteers. This was wired
to st. Paul. and during Sunday, April IA,
the city was thronged with patriots anxious
to shoulder muskets in Minnesota's first
regiment. One of them who signed his
papers that night claims the honor of being
the first to volunteer for the civil war.
THE city had no uniforms to give the
men, but furnished them each a blanket,
a pair of socks and red flannel shirt.
Those red flannel shirts flashed out on the
field around the Henry House at Bull Run
where the MinneSOtanS supported the bat
teries of Ricketts, and Griffin when they
were trying to hold the field in the face of
Jackson's Stonewall Brigade. 1t is a fact
that this regiment did not retreat to Wash
ington at the close OF the battle but the men
laid their biVouaces and went to sleep, eX-
pecting a renewal of the fight next day
In the charge on the stone wall at Fred
ericksburg the First Minnesota stood fast
when the regiments on its right and left
gave way. General Howard said to it's
commander:
run
Somewhat tartIy the colonel replied:
General Howard, the First Minnesota new
er runs
This regiment was the only one from
Minnesota in the battle here, and fate
seems to have selected her first born the
child of the awful travail of the Fort
Sumter days, baptized at Bull Run, and
glorihed on all the Intervening battefelds
of the Potomac, to be immortaliZed at
Gettysburg. Many of those who came out
unscarred that day were wounded in the
later battles. And after the term of the
regiment had expired in 1864 a veteran bat
TALON of two companies was organized
from the survivors, and it served until
Appomattox. The regiment proper fought
in thirteen battles, and the little veteran
battalion in Six which included more than
two hundred days passed under fire in the
trenches at Petersburg. All together the
command lost 5S4 men killed and wounded.
Now have enlarged my theme of this
being the bravest deed ] ever saw, and
challenge the world to produce its equal
Brigade has already been considered and
[ am not unmindful of the famous death
ride of the Uhlans at Mars-la-Tour; nor of
the Sixteenth Prussan, which lost over 40
per cent: in that same battle: nor the
Guarde-Schuetzen battalion at Metz, which
I T9ia, over 40 per per cent. nor of terrible
storming fortifications manned by hordes of
Turks armed with long-range rifles, lost rs
per cent.
I have also considered Mad ANTHONY
Wayne'S brilliant feat at Stony Point in the
ReVoiutloni Plcketts charge against the
70 the right of US; the storming Of Maryes
Heights, and the wild battle charge of the
FIRST Maine Heavy Artillery at Petersburg.
where the men fell like the leaves of a
forest before a haistorm.'
ONLY ONE EXCEPTION.
with single exception of the Russians
at Plevna, the percentage of losses in single
battles in foreign wars not only fell below
that Of the First Minnesota, but also below
that Of fourteen other federal regiments on
this very battlefield. There were fifteen in
all which lost here over so per cent. of their
numbers IN killed and wounded. and also
FIVE Confederate. These were besides the
First Minnesota, the Northumberland
forty-frst, the Northumberland forty
eighth and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania; the
e-hundred-and-elevent Eightieth and
observation-disclosures New York;
the IWenty-Iourth Michigan. the Fifteenth
Massachusetts. the Second Wisconsin. the
Third Maine, the Seventeenth Regulars, the
Eleventh New Jersey. the Second New
Han1Dshire and the Nineteenth Indiana
federal: the Third and Twenty-siXth North
Carolina the Second North Carolina Batal-
lion, and the Ninth and Fifteenth Georgia.
Confederate
Speaking Of Confederate regiments. If
had any exception to make in this challenge
it would be that Of the Twenty-siXth North
Carolina at this very battlefield on the LIST
and Sd OF July. or the First Texas in the
cornfield at Antietam. Sept. IT, 1862. The
Texas
that day. but il was in a long fight, a
charge forward, desperate stand and a
disastrous retreat under fire. i was also