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 fact, defeated the enemy, when for some unaccountable
reason, Col. II. C. Lester decided to surrender, and he exerted
such a great influence over our officers that seven company
commanders went over to his side in the council of war,
which he called, while the remaining officers and the soldiers
were strongly opposed to the capitulation. When the men
finally were ordered to stack arms they did so with tears in
their eyes, complaining bitterly because they were not
allowed to fight any longer. All the officers who had been in
favor of capitulation were afterward dismissed from service
in disgrace.
Arriving at Nashville I was immediately ordered to assume
command of my own scattered regiment, of the Ninth
Michigan Infantry regiment, and of a battery of artillery, which
had also capitulated 011 that fatal Sunday. Having supplied
the men with clothing and other necessaries, I took them
by steamboats to a camp for prisoners in St. Louis, and
returned to Nashville to report the matter in person. On my
return to Nashville I was appointed member of a general
court martial, and shortly afterwards its president, which
position I occupied from July till December, 1862. The
sufferings which my friend Captain Eustrom had endured during
his flight from the rebels shattered his health so that he was
soon forced to retire from service.
About this time the well-known Indian massacre in the
western settlements of Minnesota took place. About eight
hundred j>caccable citizens, mostly women and children, and
among those many Scandinavians—were cruelly butchered,
and their houses and property burnt and destroyed. The
soldiers of the Third regiment had given their parole not to
take up arms against the enemy until they were properly
exchanged, but, as this did not have anything to do with the
Indian war, they were ordered from St. Louis to Minnesota
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