News of Attack Reaches St. Peter. "News of of the attack on Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor on April 12, and its capitulation to General Beauregard, followed by the proclamation of President Lincoln, April 15, 1861, calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to aid the government in suppressing insurrection and rebellion, reached St. Peter on Saturday, April 19.

Formation of St. Peter Guards. "On the day following, in response to the call of Governor Ramsey, Messers. E. St. Julien Cox and J. C. Donahower, iniated efforts toward the enlistment of a company of volunteers for the First regiment, seventeen persons signing the roll during the day; which by Wednesday noon had increased to over eighty names. A meeting of the signers of the roll was then held in the hall at the Steltzer House, at which an organization was effected by the election of Asgrim K. Skaro (see note) as captain; E. St. Julian Cox, first lieutenant, and J. C. Donahower, second lieutenant; also adopting the name of St. Peter Guards. Mr. David Donaldson was without delay sent to St. Paul with an offer to the governor of the services of the Guards; he made the ride on horseback to St. Paul in twenty-four hours, one hour too late, the governor having just accepted the tenth company required to fill the quota under the first call." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

Note: "...the first Norwegian settlers to arrive in Nicollet county were Mathias and Peder Eversen and Captain A. K. Skaro..." 100th Anniversary Norseland Lutheran Church, p. 3

First Ten Companies Mustered In. "On the twenty-seventh the adjutant general announced in General Orders No. 3 the acceptance of the ten companies first organized under his previous order. They represented nine different militia regiments. On the same day the adjutant general ordered a rendezvous at Fort Snelling, having secured from the proprietor, Franklin Steele, without cost to the state, the use of the old post buildings, vacated three years before. On the twenty-ninth and thirtieth the officers and men to the number of 950 were mustered into the service of the United States.." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II, pp. 78-79

May

A Thousand Young Men. "Here was nearly a thousand young men, as fit for peace or war as any who ever stood in shoe leather, men who had been mustered into the volunteer army without a shilling of bounty money, content, even zealous, to leave their work and their homes for the unknown fortunes of war...

Detachments Sent to Frontier Forts. "The camp routine had been running but a few days when an order came from Washington for a detail of three detachments of two companies each to proceed to Forts Ridgely, Ripley, and Abercrombie. The volunteers were by no means pleased with service of that kind. They had not enlisted as home guards to keep whisky-sellers off Indian reservations...

Enlistments Extended to Three Years. "While the whole [First] regiment was still together at Fort Snelling a request came from the war department that the officers and men who had enlisted for three months consent to be mustered in for three years. The commissioned officers without exception at once consented. The willingness of the enlisted men was far from unanimous. Many who had been willing to leave home and business for ninety days were not prepared for a possible absence of years. In spite of fervid appeals in the newspapers to their patriotism and pride in the regiment, 350 of them declined to be mustered for the extended period. There was no lack of young men ready to take their places...and on June 21 Colonel Gorman was able to report that their were 1,023 officers and men in his regiment." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II, pp. 79, 81-82

June

First Minnesota Ordered to the East. "Pandemonium reigned in the camp on the night of June 14 when it was noised through the company streets that the [First] regiment had been ordered to the East. The detachments sent to the frontier forts lost no time in returning."

Requisition for Second Regiment. "The order of the war department of June 14 sending the First Minnesota Regiment to the front was accompanied by a requisition for a second regiment. On that date the adjutant general of the state published his General Orders no. 8 calling for volunteers." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II, pp. 83, 89

St. Peter Guards Ordered to Fort Ridgely. "On June 15, 1861, Governor Ramsey sent Captain Skaro an order to report with his company at Ft. Ridgely, Minn. The order reached St. Peter at one o'clock p.m., June 17, and three hours later Captain Skaro and about forty members of the Guards stepped aboard the steamer City Belle, and proceeded to Fort Ridgely, in company with the Western Zouaves of St. Paul. Two days later a second detachment of the Guards left St. Peter in wagons, reaching the fort at noon, on the 20th of June. History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

First Regiment Parades at Fort Snelling. "At dawn on June 22, 1861, the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers paraded at Fort Snelling and was addressed by the chaplain, the Reverand Edward Duffield Neill...He said in part: Your errand is not to overturn, but to uphold the most tolerant and forbearing government on earth. You go to war with misguided brethren, not with wrathful, but mournful hearts...to fight for a great principle is a noble work. We are all erring and fallible men; but the civilized world feel that you are engaged in a just cause, which God will defend. With outspread hands he solemnly pronounced the Hebrew benediction, The Lord bless you and keep you... This address concluded, the command immediately marched on board two waiting steamboats..."

A Captain and Others With Military Training. "The [St. Peter] Guards were fortunate in having not only a captain, but others also in the ranks, whose military training and discipline proved highly advantageous to them, and enabled them, in the short time allotted the company, to acquire a knowledge of the manual of arms and practice in drill exercises. Ordnance Sergeant John Jones, U. S. A., assisted in promoting the efficiency of the troops by giving them necessary instructions in evolutions, etc.

Guards Sent to Lower Sioux Agency. "About the 25th of June the Guards were sent to the Lower Sioux Indian Agency, where they remained until after the payment, and then returned to the fort." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

July

Guards Return to Fort. "At 6 P.M. on the evening of Jul 4, 1861, in response to the call of Major Galbraith, agent at Yellow Medicine, for troops, the Guards with Captain McCune's company of the First Regiment, marched out of the fort, but after marching ten miles were overtaken by a courier with orders for Captain McCune to proceed to Fort Snelling, and for the Guards to return, and be mustered into the United States military service, by Captain A. D. Nelson, U. S. A., who had arrived on the City Belle after the troops had left the fort. The two companies got back to the fort on the morning of July 5, and later in the day Captain Nelson formally mustered the Guards, and, after having been sworn in, they dropped the name Guards and became Company E, of the Second regiment, Minnesota infantry volunteers.

Company E Mustered In. "The muster in roster of Co. E was as follows:

"Captain, Asgrim K. Skaro; First Lieutenant, E. St. Julian Cox; Second Lieutenant, J. C. Donahower; First Sergeant, A. F. Alden; Sergeants, Thomas G. Scott, Frank Y. Hoffstott, Benj. S. Sylvester, Holder Jacobus; Corporals, Joseph Diehl, Edward Pasco, Thomas Harney, Arzo A. Stone, Solon K. Cheadle, Geo. A. Black, James Newton; Musicians, Robert G. Rhodes, Frank Borer; Wagoner, A. C. Kenter, and seventy-one privates. Those from Nicollet county are found in the list below." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

"Company E Privates from Nicollet County

History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, pp. 645-46

Ole Pedersen Renne Entered American History in Nicollet County, Minnesota. The Peder Syversen and Anne Olsdatter family apparently had arrived in Nicollet County, Minnesota, sometime prior to April 1861. On July 5, 1861, two weeks before his 20th birthday, and most likely three years after he had arrived in America, Ole Pedersen Renne entered American history in the service of the United States Army, at Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, as a private from Nicollet County, in Company E, Second Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.

Van Cleve Commands the Second Minnesota. "The command of the Second was given to Colonel Horatio Phillips Van Cleve, a graduate of the United States Military Academy who had served for some years with regular troops. His field officers had been volunteer officers in the Mexican War. Early in July six companies were sent to the three forts on the Indian frontier..." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II. p. 91

Company E Marches to Yellow Medicine. "On the morning of July 6, 1861, Company E marched for the Yellow Medicine, overtaking Captain Western's company, and reaching the agency at noon of the 7th, relieving the government employees and their wives and children from the anxiety and fear of massacre and capture, caused by the threatening and rebellious attitude of the younger Indians. On July 23d the troops marched back to Ridgely, reaching that post at sunset, marching forty-six miles in sixteen hours..." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

August

Company E Sent to Spirit Lake, Iowa. "On August 13th a detachment of companies, D and E, under Captain Western and Lieutenant Cox, were sent by Lieut. Col. George, to Spirit Lake, Iowa, to protect settlers in that vicinity from the depredations of marauding bands of Indians." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 643

Company E Goes to Upper Agency. "In the mean time the Indians at and above Yellow Medicine, again manifested, by insolent and threatening behavior, a disposition of a very warlike character, which again called Company E to the upper agency, where they arrived on or about the tenth day of September. On the 15th Lieut. Donahower, with a detachment of Company E, was sent to Big Stone Lake, as an escort to the government farmer, whose purpose was the seizure of a number of horses that had been stolen from white people living at some point on the Missouri river. They returned to Yellow Medicine on the 22d with three horses. On September 23d Captain Skaro marched with his company for Ridgely under orders to join the regiment at Fort Snelling." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, pp. 643-44

Company E Marches to Fort Snelling. "On Sunday afternoon, September 29th the companies, D and E, marched from Fort Ridgely via Henderson,..."

October

Second Minnesota Regiment at Fort Snelling. "...reaching Fort Snelling at noon on October 3d, where the several companies that were on garrison duty at Ridgely, Abercrombie and Ripley, were to rendezvous. On October 9th the paymaster made a payment of two months service and on the 14th the regiment being ordered to Washington, embarked..." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p. 644

Second Minnesota Boards Two Steamboats. Following in the footsteps of the First Regiment which had left Fort Snelling four months before, "...the [Second Minnesota Regiment] command... marched on board two waiting steamboats. Half an hour later the vessels rounded up at the upper levee of St. Paul. Here the regiment disembarked and marched through streets crowded with citizens to go on board the waiting transports at the lower landing." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II. p. 84

1862