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A resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history.
The Third Minnesota triumphantly enters Little Rock in Stanley Arthurs's painting, in the Governor's Reception Room at the Minnesota State Capitol.
Organized at Fort Snelling in the fall of 1861, the Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment was unique. The third-largest Minnesota infantry unit, it had the most men die of disease (239) and the third-highest number of deserters (most of them prisoners of war who returned to service by 1863). It also had the most men promoted as officers into United States Colored Troop units (eighty-two), making it one of the top ten sources of USCT officers. Noted for their discipline and hardiness, the men of the Third twice repulsed cavalry charges while in line of battle rather than in a bayonet-armed square formation.
The Third Minnesota are best known for their surrender to Col. Nathan Forrest at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Sunday, July 13, 1862. The Third, awakened by shots Forrest’s men had fired at pickets, moved from their camp west of Stone’s River to a field before the Murfree house on the east bluff. Here, they encountered and repulsed two attacks by the Second Georgia Cavalry. Their camp defenders withstood two attacks before being overrun by Forrest, who burned the officers’ tents. Forrest reported that, “After some parlay[,]” the captive brigade commander, “Colonel Duffield[,] surrendered the infantry and artillery”—Lester’s Third and the attached artillery battery. Duffield then instructed Lester to surrender his force by conducting an officers' council to vote surrender, thus transferring blame from Duffield to Lester and his Minnesotans.
Held at Benton Barracks as prisoners of war, the Third were sent to Minnesota to fight in the US–Dakota War in late August 1862. One detachment buried massacred settlers and then fought at Wood Lake (September 23), where they triggered a planned ambush by Ta Oyate Duta (His Red Nation, also known as Little Crow). Another detachment defended Fort Abercrombie from a Dakota attack on September 26. After burying settlers massacred at Lake Shetek, the Third “foraged” upon New Ulm and returned to Fort Snelling. When the Army failed to pay them, they rioted in St. Paul.3
Reorganized, the regiment went south in January 1863 and served in Brig. Gen. Alexander Asboth’s expedition to retake Fort Heiman on the Tennessee River. Under Maj. Hans Mattson’s command, the regiment conducted counter- and anti-guerrilla operations on the Tennessee River. During one “scout” that departed from Fort Heiman, Cpl. Jesse Barrick of Company G earned the Medal of Honor—the last medal conferred for Civil War service, awarded by a review board in 1917. At Fort Heiman, the Third began organizing US Colored Troop units.
In June, the Third went to Vicksburg to protect the Union’s siege forces. After the city fell, they were sent to Helena, Arkansas, to join Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele’s Arkansas Expedition to take Little Rock. The Third were the first infantry unit to enter Little Rock, and they became Provost Guards. Most of the regiment re-enlisted for three years or the duration of the war (becoming a “veteran” regiment), and four companies went home on veteran furlough.4 The remaining six companies fought an engagement at Fitzhugh’s Woods on April 1, 1864, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Dandridge MacRae’s cavalry attacked them near a plantation. Hastily assembled in lines of battle, the Third punished the attackers with aimed volley fire. Col. Willis Ponder (Twelfth Missouri, Confederate States) later said they were “the hardest lot of men…that he ever ran against.”
Part of the Pine Bluff garrison, the Third lacked medicines and had so many men die they could not bury their own. Recovering at DuVall’s Bluff, they resumed anti-guerrilla operations in October 1864. As Confederate units began surrendering in Spring 1865, they shifted to occupation duty in north central Arkansas until early September, when they began their journey home. They were discharged at Fort Snelling on September 16, one of the last regiments to return.
A/.A565
C. C. Andrews and family papers, 1843–1930
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence, diaries, and other papers of this Civil War general, United States minister to Norway and Sweden (1869–1877), consul general to Brazil (1882–1885), chief fire warden of Minnesota (1895–1905), state forestry commissioner (1905–1911), and member of the state forestry board (1905–1922).
P418
Barrick Family Civil War materials, 1861–1863, 1998
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: See especially the letter from Isaac A. Barrick to his father and mother, July 20, 1862.
James M. Bowler and family papers, 1827–1976
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence, clippings, family history and genealogy (1976), reminiscences and eulogies, and family memorabilia of Bowler, a native of Maine who settled in St. Anthony (Minneapolis) in 1858, taught school in Nininger (1861), served in the Third Minnesota Regiment during the Civil War and with the 113th United States Army Colored Infantry Regiment during Reconstruction, and was a member of the Minnesota legislature (1878).
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00792.xml
P2572
J. W. Boxwell Civil War letters and related papers, 1846–1996, (bulk 1861–1862)
Manuscripts Notebooks Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: John William Boxwell served in Company B of the Third Minnesota. While in a Murfreesboro hospital recovering from typhoid fever, Boxwell witnessed and wrote of the skirmishing that took place on July 13, 1862. His letters also provide a vivid account of Civil War hospital life, diet, and conditions.
P1905
George W. Brookins and family letters, 1861–1865
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Original manuscripts and edited typescripts of Civil War letters (April 14, 1861–December 21, 1865) written by two brothers from Monticello (Minnesota) to a third brother in Vermont. There are also a few letters from a nephew serving in Virginia. The majority of the letters were written by George W. Brookins to his brother, Thurmond, while serving with the 3rd Minnesota Regiment (October 14, 1861–November 1864).
P1905
Benjamin Densmore and family papers 1797–1955
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Includes materials related to Densmore’s service in the Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/01127.xml
M538, +44, P622
James Liberty Fisk and family papers, 1835–1902
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Incudes materials related to Fisk’s service in the Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
W. H. C. [Philander] Folsom and family papers, 1836–1988
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Business and personal correspondence, diaries, financial papers, scrapbooks, clippings, photographs, and other papers of Taylors Falls, Minnesota lumberman William H. C. Folsom; the family of his wife, Mary Jane (Wyman) Folsom; their sons, Wyman X. and Frank W. Folsom; and of the related Paine, Wyman, and Smith families.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00868.xml
MSS 880
Everett W. Foster papers, ca. 1860–1933
Manuscripts Collection, Ohio Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Correspondence, genealogy notes, charts, and miscellaneous material, tracing the descendants of Samuel Walker (ca. 1615–1684), known as the "Maltster of Woburn, Mass." together with Civil War records of the 3rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company G.
https://ohiohistory.on.worldcat.org/search/detail/1292604846
Res. 60
Diary of Nathaniel C. Parker, 1863
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Pocket diary relating Parker's experiences in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas as a member of the Third Minnesota Volunteers during the Civil War. There is information about gunboats and armaments, troop movements, skirmishes with Confederate forces, the capture and movement of prisoners, the fall of Vicksburg, Richmond, and Little Rock, and Parker's return to Minnesota in December 1863.
Alexander Ramsey and family personal papers and governor’s records, 1829–1965
Manuscripts Collection, St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society
Description: Correspondence, diaries, real estate records, scrapbooks, school records and other materials documenting the career and family of Ramsey, a member of the US House (1844–1847) and Senate (1863–1875); Minnesota territorial (1849–1853) and state (1860–1863) governor; mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota (1855–1857); secretary of war (1879–1881); and chairman of the Utah Registration and Election Board (1882–1886).
M273, P2696
Carl Roos and family papers, 1848–1974
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: See especially Carl Roos' war diary, 1861–1863, translated by Charles J. LaVine.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/m0273.pdf
P2290
Third Infantry Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Association records, 1870–1935
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: Annual reunion rosters (1912, 1918–1933) and printed materials, correspondence with members (1870–1935), and miscellaneous materials documenting a Minnesota Civil War veterans association.
http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/P2290.xml
P202
Walter N. Trenerry papers, 1860–1963
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: There is information on Lester's land holdings in Winona County (Minnesota); his career as colonel, Third Minnesota Infantry Regiment, especially the events attending the regiment's surrender at Murfreesboro (Tennessee); his admission to the bar in Winona County; and other details concerning Lester's career. There is also a letter, dated August 12, 1862, from Andrew Johnson, at that time Governor of Tennessee.
P3003
John Kingsley Wood diary, 1855–1865
Manuscripts Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul
Description: A diary kept by Wood as a member of Company F of the Sixth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry on Henry H. Sibley's punitive expeditions following the US–Dakota War of 1862, in Minnesota frontier forts, and at the Dakota encampment near Fort Snelling until June 1864, and thereafter in the South during the remainder of the Civil War. The volume also includes Wood's accounts and memoranda as a farmer near Red Wing, giving planting dates and labor costs, 1855–1862.
Andrews, Christopher C. “Sketch of the Third Regiment.” In Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Association, Third Annual Reunion of the Third Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 7. Minneapolis: Harrison and Smith Printing, 1886.
Baker, Edward L. “Surrender at Murfreesboro” In Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Association, Seventh Annual Reunion of the Third Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 11–20. Minneapolis: Harrison and Smith Printing, 1890.
Board of Commissioners, comp. Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars. 2 vols. St. Paul: Pioneer, 1893.
Champlin, Ezra T. “Battle of Wood Lake.” In Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Association, Twenty-First Annual Reunion of the Third Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 14. Minneapolis: Harrison and Smith Printing, 1905.
Knight, G. W. “Third Minnesota at Fitzhugh’s Woods.” In Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Association, Fourteenth Annual Reunion of the Third Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 18–21. Minneapolis: Elander Stadder, 1898.
Redlon, Frank. “The Company Cook's Pass.” In Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Association, Fourteenth Annual Reunion of the Third Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 21–22. Minneapolis: Harrison and Smith Printing, 1890.
Spence, John C. A Diary of the Civil War. Murfreesboro, TN: Rutherford County Historical Society, 1993.
Swanson, Alan, ed. “The Civil War Letters of Olof Liljegren.” Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly 31, no. 1 (1980): 86–121.
United States War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 128 vols. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1880–1921.
Christ, Mark. “‘A Hard Little Fight’: The Battle of Fitzhugh’s Woods, April 1, 1864.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 64, no. 4 (2005): 380–393.
Fitzharris, Joseph C. “Field Officer Courts and Civil War Justice: The Third Minnesota as a Case Study, 1863–1865.” Journal of Military History 68, no. 1 (2004): 47–72.
——— . “From Adolescence to Maturity on the Civil War Home Front: Lizzie Caleff of Nininger.” Over the Years 55, nos. 1 and 2 (December 2014): 33–50.
——— . “The Hardest Lot of Men”: The Third Minnesota Infantry in the Civil War. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019.
——— . “‘Our Disgraceful Surrender’: The Third Minnesota Infantry’s Disintegration and Reconstruction in 1862–1863.” Military History of the West 30 (Spring 2000): 1–20.
Foroughi, Andrea R. “‘Go If You Think It Your Duty.’” Over the Years 30, no. 1 (1996):1–24.
Johnson, Roy. “The Siege at Fort Abercrombie.” North Dakota History 24, no. 1 (January 1957): 4-79.
Larson, Douglas E. “Private Alfred Gales: from Slavery to Freedom.” Minnesota History 57, no. 6 (Summer 2001): 274–283.
Osman, Stephen E. “Audacity, Skill, and Firepower: The Third Minnesota's Skirmishers at the Battle of Wood Lake.” Minnesota's Heritage 3 (January 2011): 24–40.
Simon, Don. “The Third Minnesota Regiment in Arkansas, 1863–1865.” Minnesota History 40, no. 6 (1967): 281–292.
Trenerry, Walter N. “Lester's Surrender at Murfreesboro.” Minnesota History 39, no. 5 (1965): 191–197.
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Colonel Duffield surrenders his brigade, including the Third Minnesota, to Colonel Nathan Bedford Forrest at Murfreesboro on July 13, 1862. He then orders Colonel Lester to hold an officers’ council and vote to surrender, making the men, the army, and posterity believe the decision had been Lester’s. This apparent betrayal by their beloved colonel breaks the Third, destroying their discipline, morale, esprît de corps, and unit cohesion.
After organizing at Fort Snelling, the Third Minnesota go south to Louisville on November 16, before the Mississippi River freezes over. Col. Henry C. Lester takes command on December 4; the Third begin guarding the Louisville & Nashville Railroad line.
The Third guard Military Governor Andrew Johnson in Nashville on March 23 , then join the 23rd Brigade of the Army of the Ohio in Murfreesboro on April 29. They participate in Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Dumont’s expedition to Eastern Tennessee.
Lester commands the force Dumont had sent on to Pikesville in the Sequatchie Valley. He commands the Twenty-Third brigade between May 8 and July 11, when he is relieved by Col. William W. Duffield.
Col. Nathan B. Forrest’s cavalry brigade attacks Union forces in Murfreesboro. Colonel Duffield surrenders the Twenty-Third brigade, including the Third Minnesota. Colonel Lester is ordered to conduct an officers’ council to vote for surrender.
Prisoners of war from the Third Minnesota are held at Benton Barracks in St. Louis. Most men are sent to Minnesota August 28, arriving Fort Snelling September 4; officers are held at Madison, Georgia, until a prisoner exchange in October.
A detachment of the Third Minnesota joins Henry Sibley at Fort Ridgely, triggering the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23. A second detachment goes to Fort Abercrombie and defeats the Dakota on September 26.
After reuniting, the Third bury the bodies of settlers massacred near Lake Shetek, then “forage” upon New Ulm while returning to Fort Snelling. Although other units are paid, the Third are not, and they protest by rioting in St. Paul.
After reuniting, the Third bury the bodies of settlers massacred near Lake Shetek, then “forage” upon New Ulm while returning to Fort Snelling. Although other units are paid, the Third are not, and they protest by rioting in St. Paul.
Reorganized, the regiment goes south. After retaking Fort Heiman, they conduct anti-guerrilla operations, during which Cpl. Jesse Barrick earns the Medal of Honor (awarded in 1917). Chaplain Crary helps organize United States Colored Troops units.
The Third go to Vicksburg to protect siege forces in June. After the city falls, they join Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele’s “Arkansas Expedition” to seize Little Rock. They fight in the battle of Bayou Fourche and as the first infantry unit to enter the city.
As Provost Guard in Little Rock, the Third protect the Arkansas constitutional convention. They re-enlist as a veteran unit, with four companies furloughed. Six companies fight in the battle of Fitzhugh’s Woods before going to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
So many men of the Third die due to lack of medicines that other units step in to provide burial details. The remaining soldiers in the Third move to DuVall’s Bluff to recover their health.
The Third conduct anti- and counter-guerrilla operations on the White River. After Confederate units begin surrendering, the Third shift to duty in north central Arkansas. Disappointed by remaining in service, some companies stage short mutinies.
The Third reassemble for muster-out in DuVall’s Bluff before returning home. After a grand dinner in Red Wing, they refuse St. Paul’s offer of a celebratory parade and banquet on September 12 and are discharged at Fort Snelling on September 16.
Veterans of the Third Minnesota hold their first reunion in October. They continue to reunite until 1931, when only five veterans attend.
Family members dissolve the Third Minnesota’s veterans association.
Made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on November 4, 2008. Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society.
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