In addition to the five infantry regiments recruited under the calls of 1862, five minor organizations were formed, one of which, the Second Company of Minnesota sharpshooters, has been mentioned. The First Sharpshooters were mustered in at Fort Snelling, October 5, 1861, and sent to Washington to become Company A of the Second Regiment of United States Sharpshooters. That command participated in the battles of second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, doing effective work with its Sharps rifles. The Minnesota company had ten wounded at Antietam.
Brackett’s Cavalry Battalion of three companies, to which a fourth was added January 1, 1864, was recruited in the fall months of 1861, and remained in service till May, 1866. The command, by services appropriate to its arm, contributed not a little to the victories of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Corinth. It accompanied Sully’s Indian expedition to the upper Missouri in 1864, and took part in the battle of Killdeer Mountain. Stationed on the right of the line, the battalion checked a fierce flank attack, which it followed with a gallant counter-charge, inflicting heavy loss on the savages.
The First Battery of Light Artillery was mustered in at Fort Snelling, November 21, 1861, and sent south in midwinter to join Sherman’s division at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee. In the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, this battery, forced back with Prentiss’s routed division, united in the heroic stand at the point known as “the hornet’s nest,” which held back the enemy’s advance till Grant’s disordered regiments could be formed for final and effective defense. Captain Emil Munch had his horse shot under him and was severely wounded. The Second Light Battery was not accepted till March 21, 1862. Its commander, Captain William A. Hotchkiss, had seen service as an artilleryman in the Mexican War. At Perrysville and Stone River this command played a gallant part, fortunately with small loss.
The passage of the enrollment act of April 16, 1862, indicated an expectation that to reëstablish the authority of the government over all territory, an increase of the army would be necessary, and that the raising of new troops might not be left to the pleasure or convenience of the states. On the day of McClellan’s escape to the James River (July 2) President Lincoln called for 300,000 volunteers. Minnesota’s quota was 5362. On August 4 this call was followed by an order for drafting 300,000 men from the loyal states. Volunteering, which for some months had gone but languidly forward, revived. Public meetings were held in all the towns; bounties were offered by citizens and municipal bodies; splendid examples of patriotic sacrifices were set by men who could ill afford them, and could ill be spared by the communities. The actual recruiting was mainly done by gentlemen who were promised commissions in consideration of their services. The distribution of the quotas to counties and towns really set the whole people at work, with the result that before the harvest was over five new regiments, the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth, were substantially filled. However, it was not till November 19 that the announcement could be made that every local quota had been filled and that all danger of the draft, from time to time deferred, was averted. The immediate employment of all these regiments was, as we are to see, far different from the expectations of the recruits. The appointments to the field and staff positions were no easy task for Governor Ramsey. It was well known that he would desire the legislature of 1863 to elect him to succeed the Hon. Henry M. Rice as United States senator, and that another aspirant was at least equally desirous. His personal admirers urged him to distribute the military “plums” in a way helpful to his political success. His political opponents were prophesying that he would certainly do so, and charged him with selfishness, heartlessness, and disregard of experience. To the head of one regiment he appointed William Crooks, an experienced civil engineer, who had been two years at West Point and was his political opponent. For three other regiments he took Lieutenant-Colonels Miller, Wilkin, and Thomas from the First, Second, and Fourth Minnesota regiments respectively.