Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

[Spinster]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

I must ask this question. Why not? I can understand organizers not wanting the public see say a tactical, but for a muster at a historic site near the 150th anniversary?! This would be a fantastic opportunity to show the people of Minnesota that they have a Civil War connection in the state. Hopefully it would even foster an interest in the war in some people, which goes to another thread currently on the forum about recruiting in the hobby. Historic sites supposed to educate the public, not be used as a private playing ground for people in funny clothes.

Take care,

Bill,

The Fort is already fully interpreted during its open months, by a number of units, including those historically lodged there. A number of fellers came off a full week of In The Van, changed clothes, and went right back to being the First Minnesota five days later

At this point in the year, the Fort is not open.

Registered, Paid, Early, Often,

And, now that my hot tea has kicked in, I remember the early discussions on this event (before my life took a hard turn to home and hearth and my life as a constant road warrior ended) . This started with the Park inquiring about holding a closed event.......

[Pvt_Sullivan]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

Registered, Paid, Early, Often,

Yes Ma'am, I've taken care of that too. Committing early to an event, registering and paying the fee help out the organizers a great deal.

There is always the chance of snow in those Northern climes in April too.

[the other nathan]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

Chance of snow? Yes, technically. But with global warming and all, I'm not too worried about it.

On top of it all, soldiers will be in the fort's barracks, not out on the ground. Civilians can stay in the hospital which was and will be converted into a "hotel." Rain or shine, snow, or spring the event will be very tolerable with the available shelter no matter the weather.

We have done events at the fort with 100+ temps and temps below freezing. I have been there for great sunny days and stormy nights. Not once has the weather been too uncomfortable to bear.

[JEBminnesota]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

If everyone can keep a secret. The buildings are heated.

[JEBminnesota]

Update!

Here some updates,

Two Officers have been selected.
Nathan Dapper of the 1st Minnesota. He will be placed in Company F
Dave Gerow of the ONV. He will be Placed in Company H
Two more officers spots to fill.
Remember it will be the decision of the men in the company who will be the company commander.

A flyer has been made and I have attach it to this post. You will also find it on the web site.

Registration has been coming in, more on the civilian side. The hotel is filling up fast if you want a spot in the hotel as a civilian ou might want to register soon.

Thank you

[Spinster]

Re: Update!

The finest families of Minneapolis and St. Paul flocked to Fort Snelling to host the mustering troops--it was THE place to be in the first days of the war. But then, Minnesota was an attractive place to be, even for a Fireeater, in the days leading up to the war.


A Belle of The Fifties
Memoirs of Mrs. Clay, of Alabama
From the collection: Documenting the American South


CHAPTER XI
WAR IS PROCLAIMED
UPON leaving the Federal capital we proceeded to the home of Senator Clay's cousin, Doctor Thomas Withers, at Petersburg, Va. My husband's health, already feeble, had suffered greatly from the months of strife which culminated in the scenes through which we had just passed, and we had scarcely arrived in Petersburg when a serious collapse occurred. Mr. Clay now became so weakened that fears were reiterated by all who saw him that he could not survive. I was urged to take him at once to Minnesota, the attending physicians all agreeing that this was the one experiment in which lay a chance for prolonging his life. In those days the air of that far western State was supposed to have a phenomenally curative effect upon the victims of asthma, from which for years Mr. Clay had suffered an almost "daily death." In the present acute attack, his body sick and his heart sore from our late ordeals, fearful of the danger of delay, I at once put into execution plans for the northward trip in which lay even a slender hope for his recovery. No one who had witnessed my husband's dignified withdrawal from the Senate, who had heard his firm utterance of what was at once a challenge to arms and a warning that Alabama would defend her decision to stand alone, would have recognised the invalid now struggling for his life against the dread disease. He was extremely emaciated.

"When I last saw you," wrote John T. Morgan (Now United States Senator from Alabama.) from
camp, some months later, "your health scarcely justified the hope that you would become one of the first Senators in a new Confederacy. I was grieved that when we came to meet the great struggle in Alabama you were not permitted to aid us further than by your counsels and recorded opinions. I rejoice that you are again our representative in a Senate where the South is not to be defended against foes within her own bosom, but to reap the advantage of the wisdom and experience of her own statesmen."

My brother-in-law, Hugh Lawson Clay, afterward Colonel on the staff of our friend, General E. Kirby Smith, hurried, therefore, from Alabama to accompany us upon the slow journey made necessary by Mr. Clay's extreme weakness.

In due time we arrived at the International Hotel, St. Paul. Here, though our stay was short, we had an unpleasant experience, a single one, due to sectional feeling. Having safely bestowed Mr. Clay in his room, our brother made his way to the drug-store, which, as we entered, we had observed was below the hotel, to purchase a necessary restorative for my husband. While waiting there for the wrapping of the medicine, two young men entering met, and one exclaimed to the other:

"Here's a good chance! Clay, the fire-eating Senator from Alabama, is in this house. Let's mob him!"

My brother, both indignant and surprised, was also fearful lest they should carry out their threat and thereby work incalculable evil to our invalid. He turned promptly and addressed them:

"Mr. Clay, of whom you speak," he said, "is my brother, and, it may be, a hopeless invalid. He is here seeking health. You can molest him only through me!"

But now a second surprise met him, for the two youths began a very duet of apology, declaring they "had only been joking." They meant no offense, they said, and,
in fact, themselves were democrats. Feeling, they continued, was at high tide, and it was the fashion of the times to denounce the South. Upon this frank acknowledgment the trio shook hands and parted, nor did Senator Clay and I hear of the altercation until the next day, when it was repeated to us by a kind friend, Mr. George Culver, at whose home, in St. Paul, we lingered for several weeks. Here the wonderful climate appreciably restored the invalid, and Mr. Clay was soon able to move about, and added to his weight almost visibly.

In the meantime, the news of the gathering together of armies, both North and South, came more and more frequently. Everywhere around us preparations were making for conflict. The news from the seceding States was inspiring. My husband's impatience to return to Alabama increased daily, stimulated, as it was, by the ardour of our many correspondents from Montgomery and Huntsville, civil and military.

"I was improving continuously and rapidly," he wrote to our friend E. D. Tracy, "when Lincoln's proclamation and that of the Governor of Minnesota reached me, and I think I should have been entirely restored to health in a month or two had I remained there with an easy conscience and a quiet mind. But after those bulletins, the demonstrations against the "Rebels" were so offensive as to become intolerable. So we left on the 22d [April], much to the regret of the few real friends we found or made. Many, with exceeding frankness, expressed their deep sorrow at our departure, since I was improving so rapidly; but, while appreciating their solicitude for me, I told them I preferred dying in my own country to living among her enemies."

Shortly after the breaking up of the ice in Lake Minnetonka, we bade farewell to the good Samaritans at St. Paul and took passage on the Grey Eagle. She was a celebrated boat of that day, and annually took the prize
for being the first to cut through the frozen waters. I have never forgotten the wonders and beauties of that trip, beginning in the still partially ice-locked lake, and progressing gradually until the emerald glories of late April met us in the South! It was on this journey that we caught the first real echoes of the booming guns of Fort Sumter. The passengers on board the Grey Eagle discussed the outlook with gravity. To a friendly lady, whose sympathies were aroused on behalf of my husband, still pale and obviously an invalid, I remember expressing my sorrows and fears. I think I wept, for it was a time to start the tears; but her reply checked my complainings.

"Ah, Mrs. Clay!" she said, "think how my heart is riven! I was born in New Orleans and live in New York. One of my sons is in the Seventh New York Regiment, and another in the New Orleans Zouaves!"

At Cairo, already a great centre of military activity for the Federals, we caught a first gleam of the muskets of United States soldiery. A company was drawn up in line on the river bank, for what purpose we did not know, but we heard a rumour that it had to do with the presence on the boat of the Southern Senator Clay, and I remember I was requested by an officer of the Grey Eagle to place in my trunk my husband's fine Maynard rifle, which had been much admired by our fellow passengers, and which once had been shot off during the trip, to show its wonderful carrying tower. Needless to say, the possibly offending firearm was promptly put away. After a short colloquy between the captain of the vessel and the military officer, who appeared to catechise him, the Grey Eagle again swung out on the broad, muddy river, and turned her nose toward Memphis. Now, as we proceeded down the important water-course, at many a point were multiplying evidences that the fratricidal war had begun.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[JEBminnesota]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

Thanks Terre,

I have included some more references that you will find very useful.

2010 is coming to a close and as of today we have 32 people registered. Thank you all for registering early and often.

Old Rail Fence Corners - Google Books

http://tinyurl.com/2amubzq

Recollections of original settlers and pioneers of Minnesota - excellent book


Executive Documents of the State of MN for the year 1860 - Google Books

http://tinyurl.com/2dzkrhm

A sort of "State of the State" address for the last year that gives an overview of recent events. You will have to sort through the different documents. The governor's message is from the new governor, Gov. Ramsey, who has just replaced Gov. Sibley, who will be at the event.

Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul
http://tinyurl.com/28a4whe - preview on Google books
Available on Amazon for under $10

http://www.amazon.com/Claiming-City-Politics-Catholicism-Twentieth-Century/dp/0801488850/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1293550112&sr=1-1

A novel written in the 1870's about pre-crash (1857) Minnesota:
The Mystery of Metropolisville

http://tinyurl.com/36y7d3m

History of Dakota County:

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~bluhm002/Dakota/public_html/history.html

http://www.dakotahistory.org/county/origin.asp

History of Goodhue County:

http://www.archive.org/details/historyofgoodhue00wood

http://www.co.goodhue.mn.us/visitors/ghc_history.aspx

List of some original settlers of Goodhue County:

http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/goodhue/history/goodmmtp.txt

No More Gallant A Deed (Memoir of James Wright of Co. F, Goodhue County)
http://www.amazon.com/More-Gallant-D...ref=pd_sim_b_5 -

That's all for now.
http://www.amazon.com/More-Gallant-D...ref=pd_sim_b_5 - C

[JEBminnesota]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

People who cannot arrive on Thursday night you can still attend. We just ask that you contact me to let us know what time you will be arriving

Thank you to everyone who has registered so far

[the other nathan]

Re: Raising The First Volunteers: April 14-17, 2011

Less than a month until early registration closes and the registration price increases $10.

Get registered NOW at https://sites.google.com/site/theriseofthefirstvolunteers/registration

Looking forward to seeing YOU in April!

Nathan

[JEBminnesota]

As of March 7th 2011

As of the time this message is posted it will only be 38 days before Fort
Snelling will come alive like it did 150 years ago when the First US volunteer
infantry started to form.

Look forward in seeing everyone there.

[JEBminnesota]

Registration closes in one week

It's time. Registration will close in one week.

It will close April 1st

Total number of participants is at 70

Thank you everyone