King, Josias R. (1832–1916)

With the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861, Minnesota became the first state to offer troops to fight the Confederacy. Josias Redgate King is credited with being the first man to volunteer for the Union in the Civil War.

King was born into wealth and died in poverty nearly eighty-four years later. In between, he lived a vigorous life full of adventure and service to his country.

King was born on February 21, 1832, in Washington, D.C. His father was a prominent lawyer with powerful government friends and clients. At fourteen, King went to Florida with a U.S. survey team, returning home in 1849. He entered Georgetown University, intending to go on to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a military career. After hearing news of gold strikes in California, he convinced his father to fund his expedition to the gold fields.

King supported himself prospecting but never found his “big strike.” He eventually joined a U.S. government survey party and helped hunt for the infamous California bandit “Joaquin” (likely Joaquin Murrieta).

Back home at the end of 1856, King was as restless as ever. His father secured him a position with the Surveyor General of Minnesota Territory. Arriving in St. Paul on April 19, 1857, he joined the local militia unit, the Pioneer Guards, and became friends with fellow “PG” member James J. Hill.

On Saturday, April 14, 1861, Fort Sumter fell to Confederate forces while Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey was in Washington. Ramsey was the first governor to offer troops to the U.S. government to suppress the rebellion. His telegraphed message back to Minnesota brought the Pioneer Guard to their St. Paul armory on the evening of Monday, April 15. King was the first to step forward and sign his name.

Thereafter, King was hailed as the first man to volunteer for the Union cause. Though some later claimed that the distinction actually belonged to Aaron Greenwald, a volunteer who purportedly signed his name in Anoka that morning, extant documents do not support that contention.

The state’s militia units, and new recruits, made up the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, which served its three-year enlistment in the Army of the Potomac. King served in all of the First’s engagements through July 1862, when he took on the rank of regimental adjutant.

The regiment’s colonel, Alfred Sully, was promoted to brigadier general in September 1862 and later requested King as his aide-de-camp. In May 1863, Sully was posted to the Northwest to lead punitive campaigns against the Dakota after the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862. King served in Sully’s 1863 campaign into Dakota Territory and returned to the First Minnesota in mid-September 1863.

The regiment suffered severe losses in July’s Battle of Gettysburg, and because of King’s proven leadership abilities, he was made First Lieutenant of Company A and a month later promoted to captain of Company G. He was mustered out with the rest of the regiment in early May 1864.

On Sully’s recommendation, King was commissioned lieutenant colonel in the short-lived Second Regiment, U.S. Infantry Volunteers, serving in Kansas. He went on to serve in the Second U.S. Infantry—a regular federal unit—in Kentucky. Posted to Atlanta in 1868, King resigned his commission in 1870 because of his wife’s ill health. The couple returned to the cooler climate of St. Paul, where he worked as a surveyor and then for an insurance company.

In 1885, King was appointed Inspector General of the Minnesota National Guard with the rank of brigadier general. He made significant reforms in the Guard and was thereafter referred to as the “Father of the Minnesota Guard.”

Given his “first man to enlist” credentials, King was asked to pose for the face of the bronze soldier atop the Civil War monument in St. Paul’s Summit Park, which was dedicated on November 20, 1903.

King worked into his eighties to supplement his small military pension. He received periodic financial help from his friends, including James J. Hill.

A 1915 streetcar accident left King bedridden for nearly a year, and he died of a heart attack on February 10, 1916. His funeral was held in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Archbishop John Ireland delivered the eulogy and James J. Hill served as honorary pallbearer.