Historic Fort Snelling
Additional Background
Fort Snelling and the Civil War
Minnesotans were the first Union volunteers of the Civil War, when Gov. Alexander Ramsey enthusiastically offered troops at President Lincoln's first call. Fort Snelling had gotten a bit musty from years of waning use by the time the Civil War began. Its original purpose as a frontier outpost in the 1820s had diminished as the land around it became more settled - and valuable. In 1858 a land speculator bought the fort and its military life appeared over. But Gov. Ramsey decisively commandeered the fort back into government service at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
The fort wasn't a scene of blue-clad soldiers drilling in perfect lines. Most of the Minnesotans who enlisted were given a blanket, a red flannel shirt and a pair of socks as their uniform. According to Richard Moe in "The Last Full Measure," published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, visitors swarmed to see the dress parades and drills. One soldier recalled that his regiment was put through maneuvers "principally for the purpose of showing us off to the ladies." But Minnesotans would soon show their courage and abilities in the war's most decisive battles. The Gettysburg battlefield would be the last soil seen by many Minnesotans, who had gone so far from home to preserve the Union.
At the same time that the nation was being torn apart, settlers were building towns across Minnesota in the 1860s. In addition to preparing Union troops to go into battle with the Confederacy, the fort in 1861 was also a staging ground for troops that would be sent - to their dismay - to outposts near the Indian agencies of western Minnesota. Fearing dull duty, and obviously not foreseeing the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, soldiers balked at the possibility of staying in Minnesota. They would soon find more action than they ever imagined.
At war's end in the summer of 1865, Minnesota's regiments returned to Fort Snelling where many were discharged to return to their families, farms and businesses. Those who remained faced the challenge of the enduring conflict between the settlers who were pouring into the state by the thousands and the Dakota who were forced farther and farther west.
