Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. The Beginning of the Civil War—The Scandinavians taking part in it—Appeal in Hemlandet to the Scandinavians of Minnesota—Company D. Organized—The Expressions of the Press—The Departure—The March over the Cumberland Mountains—The Fate of the Third Regiment
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ss Story of an Emigrant. 102
In the beginning of November two steamers arrived at
Fort Snelling and took the Third regiment on board. We
were ordered to join Buell’s army in Kentucky. Company
E, of our regiment, was also mainly from Goodhue county,
and when the steamers arrived at Red Wing, they stopped
half an hour to let Companies D and E partake of a
bountiful supper, to which they had been invited by their city
friends, and to say a last farewell to their families and
acquaintances. My wife, with the little children, my sister,
father, brother, and other relatives, were gathered in a large
room in the hotel opposite the landing. The half hour was
soon past, and the bugle sounded "fall in." I pass over the
partingscene, leaving it to the imagination of the readei, for
I cannot find words to describe it myself. I will only relate
one little episode. When the bugle sounded for departure I
held my little two-year-old daughter in my arms; her arms
were clasped around my neck, and, when I endeavored to set
her down, she closed her little fingers so hard together that
her uncle had to open them by force before he could take
her away from me. When a little child was capable of such
feelings, it may be surmised what those felt who were able
to comprehend the significance of that moment.
In a few days we were camped on a muddy field in
Kentucky, quickly learning the duties of soldier-life, and
familiarizing ourselves with the daily routine of an army in the field.
My military career of four years’ duration passed without
any event of particular interest or importance; it was like
that of two million other soldiers—to do their duty
faithfully, whatever that duty might be—that was all.
After eight months’ service I was promoted to the rank of
major in the regiment. At that time we were serving in
middle Tennessee. Shortly afterward our regiment, with
some three thousand men of the troops, made a forced march
across the Cumberland mountains. In order to give the
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