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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IS 4.2 Story of an Emigrant.
79
Having spent a fortnight in the bosom of my family I
returned, with improved health, to resume my command. I
arrived at Chicago on a Sunday morning, and, as I had to
wait all day for my train, I went to the Swedish church on
Superior street. Leaving the church, I heard a news-boy
crying, "Extra number of the Tribune; great battle
atMur-freesboro; Third Minnesota regiment in hot lire!" I bought
the paper and hurried to the hotel, where another extra
edition was handed me. The Union troops had won a decisive
victory at Murfreesboro, and totally routed the forces of
Forest, consisting of eight thousand cavalry. Later in the
evening a third extra edition announced that "The Third
regiment has been captured by the enemy, and is on the
march to the prisons of the South." Only a soldier can
imagine my feelings when I received this news. I arrived in
Tennessee two days later, only to meet the soldiers
returning from the mountains where they had been released on
written parole by the enemy. They were sore-footed,
exhausted, hungry and wild with anger, and looked more like
a lot of ragged beggars than the well-disciplined soldiers
they had been a few days before. All the captured officers
had been taken to the South, where they were kept in prison
several months. Only two of them succeeded in making
their escape. One of those was Capt. Eustrom, who, in
company with Lieut. Taylor, made his escape from a
hospital building, some negroes giving them clothes, and,
through almost incredible hardships and dangers, they
succeeded in reaching our lines, and I met them two days after
my arrival at Nashville.
The capitulation of our splendid regiment was one of the
most deplorable events of its kind during the whole war. It
was regarded one of the best regiments of volunteers of the
Westtrn army. It had defended itself with great valor, and,
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