Civil War Organization of
Goodhue County, Minnesota
Both in the Civil and the Spanish-American wars Goodhue
County soldiers took an important place. Although the
former is becoming a thing of the distant past, the part
taken in it by the heroes from this county will never be
forgotten, the famous charge of the 1st Minnesota at
Gettysburg, under the brave Colonel William Colvill,
being one of the fadeless incidents of United States
history.
The first war meeting in Goodhue County was held April
25, 1861, at the court house in Red Wing, and was
organized by the election of the following officers:
President, Hon. W. H. Welch vice-presidents, W. S. Grow
and C. H. Baker; secretaries, M. Maginnis and L. F.
Hubbard. On motion, a committee of five, consisting of
Messrs. L. F. Hubbard, William Colvill, H. B. Wilson, W.
C. Williston and George Wilkinson, was appointed to
report resolutions expressive of the sense of the
meeting upon the existing crisis. The audience was
entertained until a late hour with stirring speeches by
the president, Messrs. McClure, Sorin, Williston, Crary,
Colvill, Hoyt, E. A. Welch and others. A call was made
for volunteers, which was responded to by upwards of
fifty, who placed their names to a paper, "pledging
their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in
upholding the stars and stripes against the rebellious
assaults now made upon them."
William Colvill, then known as William Colvill, Jr., was
the first man to enlist in Red Wing and one of the first
men to enlist in the state. The story is thus told by
Charles N. Akers, of St. Paul, formerly of Red Wing:
"William Colvill
wrote his name for the Union army at a meeting
held at the court house in Red Wing immediately
after the fall of Sumter. The state was then
new, and Red Wing a frontier town, but made up
of representative Americans. They had at that
time almost the only institution of higher
learning in the Northwest west of the
Mississippi, namely Hamline University. Among
the residents of Red Wing at that time were
Judge E. T. Wilder, a prince of lawyers; W. W.
Phelps, ah orator .for any occasion; Judge
Charles McClure, one of the sponsors at the
birth of the Republican party, whose clarion
voice and patriotic utterances were heard in the
constitutional convention as well as many
gatherings of a patriotic and religious nature
in the early days; Jabez Brooks, profound
scholar, who for many years held the chair of
Greek in the state university: Edward Eggleston,
professor at Hamline and well known the nation
over by his "The Hoosier Schoolboy." Then, too,
there was the Rev. Peter Akers, whose eloquence
so impressed Abraham Lincoln with one of his
antislavery sermons that he said: 'Mr. Akers is
one of the most impressive preachers I ever
heard. Somehow I feel that I will have something
to do with the abolition of slavery.' Colonel
Robert Ingersoll said that Lincoln's soul took
lire on that occasion. Then too there was the
Rev. Matthew Sorin, the idol of the rostrum. His
words were flaming swords and set fire to all
hearts. Of such men and scores of bright young
fellows from the village and Hamline University,
the meeting was made up. When the call came for
volunteers at the close of the appeal, two young
men rose and ran over the backs of their seats
in their haste to get through the crowd. They
were Edward Welch and William Colvill. Welch
slipped and fell on the last seat and in falling
reached for the pen. But Colvill seized it
saying, 'You are next, Ed.' Then followed many
others.
"The company thus
commenced was the first company outside of the
organized state militia to be offered to the
governor under his call for one regiment. As
soon as the governor's proclamation was issued,
enlistments were commenced, and within five days
the ranks of the Goodhue county volunteers were
full, with men to spare. On Monday, April 22,
1861. the county commissioners being in session,
a petition signed by numerous citizens, asking
for an appropriation by the county of the sum of
five hundred dollars for the support of Goodhue
volunteers during the time they are preparing
and filling up their ranks, and for the support
of their families during their absence, was
received, 'whereupon, on motion, the sum of
three hundred dollars was appropriated for the
purpose.' It was further ordered that a
committee of three be appointed to see to the
wants of said volunteers and families, and to
expend said money, or so much thereof as should
be deemed by them necessary, and that the county
auditor be authorized to issue orders on the
treasury on tin' certificate of said committee
for the amounts, which motion prevailed. |
The following' citizens were elected to act as
such committee:
W. H. Welch. W. Featherstone, Pascal Smith.
On Tuesday. April 23, 114 men had enlisted, fourteen
more than wanted. Friday, the 26th, the company was
fully organized and ready for service.
The following was the organization and list of members:
Officers
Captain, William
Colvill, Jr.
First Lieutenant, A. E. Welch
Second Lieutenant, M. A. Hoyt
First Sergeant, Martin Maginnis
Second Sergeant C. P. Clark;
Third Sergeant, Hezekiah Bruce
Fourth Sergeant, H. T. Bevans
First Corporal, John Barrow
Second Corporal A. E. Scofield
Third Corporal, George Knight
Fourth Corporal, Charles Harris
Bugler, K. N. Bevans |
Privates
Jonas P. Davis
C. L. Davis
Elijah Thomas
Fred E. Miller
J. C. McClure
J. C. McClenthon
Theodore S. Wood
Robert W. Seeson
Williamson Crary
Paul Nelson
Lewis Cannon
William D. Hubbs
R. C. Barnes
W. AW. Wilson
W. B. Kitchell
Prank Snyder
L. McManus
Edward Ash
J. Ahneman
Asa Howe
W. S. Workman
Fred Crossman
George Harrison
S. B. Dilley
Lewis Quinnell
James A. Wright
Christopher Eastman
C. E. Hudson
William Duling |
T. Thompson
E. A. Jackson
J. C. F. Hobart
A. Baniber
J. R. Brown
W. W. Clark
William Gordon
Henry Bennett
D. C. Smith
C. Burgh
C. W. Scott
A. Glazier
A. P. Baker
R. E. Jacobs
S. E. Baldwin
E. F. Grow
F. J. Bachelor
J. M. Underwood
O. W. Sudden
C. W. Mills
Drik Metseder
P. R. Hamlin
J. P. Kirkham
Richard McGee
George Mozer
Jefferson Banner
C. W. Merritt
German Anderson
John Lindquist |
John Williams
Ferris Johnson
Hiram J. Rush
M. B. Milliken
John H. Smith
P. T. Galloway
James W. Day
T. G. Leeson
W. D. Bennett
George Atkinson
Charles Adams
George W. Wright
S. B. Nilson
William Esdon
Marion Abbott
George L. Lewis
C. S. Bonderont
E. F. Pitcher
David Schwieger
Edward Berdan
George Noormer
Fred Rembrondt
Hans Hoelstadt
W. C. Riddle
M. S. Standish
William Bryant
P. T. Davidson
E. O. Williams |
"Saturday afternoon, April 27, the Goodhue volunteers
left Red Wing by the steamer Ocean Wave, for St. Paul
and Fort Snelling, where the regiment (the 1st) to which
they were assigned, was mustered in. Their departure was
witnessed by a speed to the gallant fellows in the
glorious mission that called them away. Among the throng
were a large number of the relatives and near friends of
members of the company, who had large number of
citizens, who gathered on the levee to bid God come to
give them a parting word of counsel and cheer, and
perhaps take the last look upon those they loved. Many
an eye dimmed and many a lip quivered as they filed
aboard the boat, and not infrequently might have been
noticed a tear stealing down the cheeks of those who had
just bid farewell to friends. As the boat moved from the
levee, the crowd ashore cheered lustily, which was
heartily responded to by the volunteers, and amid the
waving of flags and handkerchiefs and the hurrahs of the
multitude, the Ocean "Wave passed out of sight."
Of the reception at St. Paul of this first company
raised in Minnesota and offered as a sacrifice in
defense of the integrity and perpetuity of the American
Union, the "Press" of May 2 said:
| 'They were received at
the landing by the Pioneer Guards, who escorted
them to their temporary quarters in the city. An
immense crowd of citizens were at the levee to
welcome their arrival, and as the companies
filed through the streets to their quarters, the
sidewalks were lined with ladies and gentlemen,
who kept up a continuous cheer as the brave
volunteers passed along. The ranks returned the
salutations with hearty goodwill. The Red Wing
brass band came up with the company from that
place, and added materially to the enthusiasm of
the occasion. The company is more than full, and
composed of the very bone and sinew of the
stalwart farmers of Goodhue County." |
No sooner was the above company full, in fact even
before its organization was nearly perfected, a movement
was started for the organization of a second company in
Red Wing, and up to Friday, May 3, fifty names were
reported. Patriotic enthusiasm was at fever heat.
Saturday evening, the 4th, this second company met and
perfected its organization by the election of the
following officers:
Officers
Captain, A. D.
Whitney
First Lieutenant, E. L. Baker
Second Lieutenant, H. Mattson
Third Lieutenant, J. F. Pingrey
First Sergeant, Andrew A. Teele
Second Sergeant, W. E. Hawkins
Third Sergeant, J. H. Mues
Fourth Sergeant, C. R. Brink
First Corporal, C. Berg
Second Corporal, M. J. Chamberlain
Third Corporal, J. S. Allyn
Fourth Corporal, C. C. Johnson
Ensign, W. AY. Phelps
Bugler, J. C. Hawes |
Privates
F. A. Meredith
T. B. McCord
William Philleo
Charles Betcher
W. P. Brown
L. F. Hubbard
Harvey Miller
A. Johnson
W. C. Williston
Benjamin Densmore
Daniel Densmore |
H. B. Wilson
W. W. Rich
T. R Sterling
J. M. Hodgman
S. B. Morrow
L. H. Girard
C. H. Baker
A. Thomas
Allen Swain
W. W. DeKay
C. C. Webster |
R N. McLaren
G. W. Baldwin
John Foot D. Mellen
Watts Sherman
H. C. Hoffman
J. Ashton
H. Hickman
D. Heald
F. P. Downing
Herman Betcher |
The country districts were not idle. All over the county
the people were full of patriotic fervor. Meetings were
held in almost every schoolhouse at which spirited
addresses were made by the representative men of the
county. But few speeches, however, were needed. The flag
of the country had been grossly insulted; the people
were indignant and resolved that the insult should be
resented, even if it took the last man and the last
dollar in the northern states to punish the traitors and
subdue the rebellion they had inaugurated. And among the
people of the patriotic North none were braver or more
devoted to the cause of the Union than the sons of
Norway and Sweden who had found homes in Goodhue County.
Not even native-born Americans made a better record.
They were true to their oaths of allegiance and
gallantly joined the ranks of the "boys in blue" and
marched away to help defend the country of their
adoption.
Goodhue County |Minnesota
AHGP
Source: History of Goodhue
County Minnesota, Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, H. C. Cooper
Jr, & Company, Chicago, 1909.
|
