Clark County WI, Civil War History, 1st Minnesota Cavalry, Mounted Rangers

Our Civil War Veteran who fought with this Regiment

Co. F, 1st MN Mounted Rangers

This Minnesota Mounted Rangers Cavalry was organized in March, 1863 and stationed among frontier outposts until May, 1863. It was then ordered upon an Indian expedition, and participated in the engagement with the Indians on July 24, 26 and 28, 1863. Upon returning from the expedition, it was again stationed at frontier forts until mustered out by companies between October 1, 1863, and December 30, 1863.

On August 18, 1862, a second war broke out in Minnesota. The summer weather had been severe, and the crops were poor. The Dakota, who had become increasingly dependent on annuities from the federal government, waited at the Indian agencies along the Minnesota River for the shipments of food and gold, which were late. Hungry and frustrated, a few young Dakota men took up arms against the white traders and settlers. They were soon joined by other, and nearly everyone in the southwest part of the state had responded to the call of May 22, 1862, for more troops to fight in the South by organizing the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infantry Regiments. Those troops, mustering in at Fort Snelling in August, were surprised to be sent west rather than south. They were joined by the Third, which had been paroled following the surrender at Murfreesboro.

The Dakota Conflict

Above is a pencil sketch of Fort Ridgely by Albert Colgrave as it appeared in 1862.

Albert was an artist and scene painter in St. Paul, mustered in August 14, 1862, at the age of twenty-two.

The first encounter between the Dakota and the soldiers took place at Redwood Ferry near Fort Ridgely on August 18, 1862. A detachment of Company B of the Fifth lost twenty-nine men killed, wounded, or drowned, including Captain John S. Marsh. On August 20 and 22, Fort Ridgely was attacked. In between these attacks, the townspeople of New Ulm defended themselves on August 19 and 23.

Henry Hastings Sibley, ca. 1862

News of the conflict reached St. Paul quickly. Governor Ramsey appointed Henry Hastings Sibley commander of the forces hastily sent to defend the frontier. In addition to the newly mustered-in volunteers, the arm included fifty-eight civilian militia units.

The opposing sides fought a series of battles through September--at Birch Coulee on the second, At Fort Abercrombie on the third and sixth, and at Wood Late on the twenty-third. The last battle was decisive for the Minnesota regiments; the Dakota either surrendered or fled into Dakota Territory. The Third and Fifth Regiments became available for reassignment to duty in the South in late 1862 and early 1863.

Indian Camp in Minnesota Captured

by the 1st MN Mounted Rangers serving under Colonel H. H. Sibley.

Source: Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War.