Here are Civil War Date Autograph Endorsements Signed by Two Civil War Congressman:
IGNATIUS DONNELLY
(1831-1901)
CIVIL WAR ANTI-SLAVERY ABOLITIONIST CONGRESSMAN,
LT. GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA,
NOMINATED BY THE PEOPLE'S PARTY IN 1892 FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
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AMATUER (Crank?) SCIENTIST WHO PROPOSED THEORIES ABOUT THE LOCATION OF THE LOST CITY OF ATLANTIS!
Donnelly was a visionary politician, attorney, orator, farmer, historian, scientist, idealist, congressman, poet, novelist and newspaperman.
His many popular works included: “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World” (1882), an erudite but fanciful work on Atlantis; “Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel” (1883); two books arguing that Bacon wrote the Shakespearean plays, one titled, “The Great Cryptogram…”; and a gloomy Utopian novel, “Caesar's Column” (1891).
~AND~
MORTON SMITH WILKINSON
(1819 - 1894)
CIVIL WAR US REPUBLICAN PARTY SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA 1859-1865, and MN US CONGRESSMAN 1869-71,
MN STATE SENATOR 1874-1877
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ELECTED TO THE FIRST LEGISLATURE OF MINNESOTA TERRITORY IN 1849, and MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS TO PREPARE A CODE OF LAWS FOR THE TERRITORY OF MINNESOTA IN 1858.
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HERE ARE TWO
AEsS OF BOTH WILKENSON & DONNELLY WRITTEN ON THE VERSO OF AN ALS BY CIVIL
WAR MN VETERAN. DATED FEB. 12, 1864.
JAMES KIRKMAN
(1824-1866)
TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR [EDWIN M. STANTON] BOLDLY ASKING FOR A CLERKSHIP IN THE GARRISON BUREAU. DONNELLY ENDORSES KIRKMAN, “BELIEVING HIM TO BE BOTH LOYAL AND CAPABLE” WILKENSON SAYS, “…I HAVE KNOWN HIM FOR MANY YEARS…”
THE DOCUMENT MEASURES 8" x 10" & IS IN VERY FINE CONDITION.
A RARE RELIC OF CIVIL WAR POLITICAL and MILITARY HISTORY.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE HONORABLE
IGNATIUS DONNELLY
Donnelly, Ignatius Loyola (1831-1901), politician and author, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Philip Donnelly, an Irish-born physician, and Catherine Gavin, a pawnbroker. He attended Central High School, a premier academy, where he was drilled in English literature. He read law with Benjamin Brewster, who served as U.S. attorney general during President Chester Arthur's administration. Active in politics, Donnelly was a passionate James Buchanan Democrat in 1856, denouncing Republicans as nativists.
Donnelly, who had few political and fewer economic advantages, felt his opportunities were limited in Philadelphia. He decided to settle in Minnesota, where, with his wife Katherine McCaffrey, whom he had married in 1855, he tried to establish a city, Nininger (named for his silent partner, John Nininger), on the Mississippi River. The panic of 1857 ended the venture and left him debt-ridden and land poor.
Donnelly turned to politics but, influenced by his business connections and dislike of slavery, became a Republican. He was placed on the 1858 Republican state ticket to secure ethnic and religious balance and was elected lieutenant governor. Denied a military commission at the outset of the Civil War (Minnesota's governor and later senator Alexander Ramsey doubted his ability to lead troops), Donnelly served in Congress from 1863 to 1869. He sought land grants for western railroads, strongly advocated Radical Republican positions, and invariably raised a storm of controversy whenever he ran for office, usually turning each campaign into a personal contest rather than one of issues. His congressional career was tainted by charges that he was using his office to solicit funds from railroads. A contretemps with Illinois congressman Elihu Washburne, whose brother William D. Washburn was Donnelly's rival in Minnesota, resulted in his censorship by the House. Recognized as a threat to Senator Ramsey's Republican political organization, Donnelly was denied reelection. He worked briefly as a Washington lobbyist on behalf of John C. Fremont's ill-fated Atlantic and Pacific Railroad scheme and for Jay Cooke.
In 1872 Donnelly returned to Minnesota and to politics as a spokesman for the disadvantaged, beginning a new career that would see him espouse issues and principles rather than party loyalty. He became in time a Liberal Republican, a Greenbacker, a Granger, a Democrat, and a Populist. He boasted, "No party owns me." He was the beneficiary of the era's political structure that allowed party coalitions. He established and edited a newspaper, the Anti-Monopolist, and ran successfully for the state senate on an Anti-Monopolist ticket, which was a Granger-Democratic fusion, and served from 1874 to 1878. Donnelly was almost unbeatable in his home district, both because of his record and the fact that it embraced heavily Irish-Catholic and working-class West St. Paul. But running statewide for Congress on a fusion Greenback-Democratic ticket, Donnelly lost a bitterly fought election to William D. Washburn. It was an election marked by Republican voter fraud; lumber companies marched their workers to polls to vote for Washburn. Disgusted with the election's outcome, Donnelly turned from politics to literature.
A speculative and imaginative turn of mind, a remarkable capacity to juxtapose disparate facts, a vigorous prose style, and a lawyer's gift for advocacy led him to write a variety of books, including fiction, during the final decades of his life. In Atlantis; the Antediluvian World (1882) Donnelly sought to validate Plato's narrative by studying myths. The following year he wrote Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, arguing in part from geological evidence that the earth had encountered a comet. Although ridiculed in the scientific community, the theory continues to win converts. In The Great Cryptogram (1887) Donnelly claimed to have found a mathematical cipher in Shakespeare's plays proving that they were authored by Francis Bacon. Donnelly wrote scores of articles for newspapers and magazines, including the North American Review, defending his assertions. His publications, his oratorical skill, and his natural wit also led him to the lecture circuit, where he earned a living and enhanced his reputation.
Politics, however, remained his first love, and he was easily lured back to run (unsuccessfully) for Congress as a Democrat in 1884 and for the state legislature (successfully) on an Independent ticket in 1887. His primary constituencies were farmers and laborers. An organizer of the Minnesota Farmers' Alliance, he turned it into a political force and, over the protests of its more partisan members, into the agrarian wing of the Populist party. His disillusionment with political corruption and his profound concern about the direction of American society prompted him to write a series of highly successful social novels. Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890) rejected Edward Bellamy's utopian view of the nation's future, Looking Backward, and depicted a bleak country of economically and politically oppressed, half-brutalized, and mongrelized people controlled by a dictatorial Jewish elite. (The novel raised questions about the anti-Semitic nature of Populism.) Doctor Huguet (1891) reaffirmed Donnelly's opposition to racism by pointing out that the most virtuous and talented white man, if placed in black skin, would be denied success. A third novel, The Golden Bottle (1892), was a free-silver political tract.
Donnelly played a leading role in the Populist party. He drafted its famous 1892 platform preamble that embodied Populist social criticism: "From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed to great classes--paupers and millionaires." He also ran for governor in 1892 but suffered a crushing defeat. Although he advocated bimetallism (using both gold and silver as legal tender), Donnelly was more interested in a monetary system where the government managed the economy by controlling the amount of money in circulation. He supported William Jennings Bryan and the Populist-Democratic fusion ticket in 1896. Rejecting Bryan's stand on the Spanish-American War and his retreat from bimetallism, Donnelly became a middle-of-the-road Populist, favoring an independent course for the party and advocating that position in his newspaper, The Representative. In 1900 Donnelly was the vice presidential candidate of the virtually defunct Populist party.
Like many nineteenth-century reformers, Donnelly was often praised as a sage or denounced as a crank. He retained the image of a rebel against formal religion (he left Catholicism), urbanization, political parties, and the scientific and cultural establishment. But he never lost faith in the open marketplace of ideas or in the democratic system and reform through the political process. He never became a socialist. Many of the reforms that he advocated, such as woman suffrage, direct election of senators, and government regulation of the economy, later became commonplace. Donnelly's family life, unlike that of some radical reformers, was traditional. He reared three children and enjoyed a close relationship with his wife, who died in 1894. In 1898 he married his young secretary, Marion Hanson, whom he called his typewriter. Donnelly died in St. Paul. He was always a politician, living by the last election and for the next one.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE HONORABLE
MORTON S. WILKINSON
Morton Smith Wilkinson (January 22, 1819 – February 4, 1894) was an American politician.
Born in Skaneateles, New York, he moved to Illinois in 1837 and was employed in railroad work for two years. Upon returning to Skaneateles in 1840, he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1842, and commenced practice in Eaton Rapids, Michigan in 1843. He moved to Stillwater, Minnesota in 1847.
Wilkinson was elected to the first legislature of Minnesota Territory in 1849 and served as Register of Deeds of Ramsey County 1851 – 1853. After moving to Mankato, Minnesota in 1858, he served as a member of the board of commissioners to prepare a code of laws for the Territory of Minnesota in 1858.
After winning the 1859 Senate election in Minnesota he served in the United States Senate from March 4, 1859 to March 3, 1865, as a Republican from Minnesota, in the 36th, 37th and 38th congresses, but was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection. In the Senate, he was chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1869 to March 3, 1871, but unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1870.
Wilkinson moved to Wells, Minnesota, and was member of the Minnesota State Senate 1874 – 1877 as well as a prosecuting attorney of Faribault County 1880 – 1884. He died in Wells on February 4, 1894, and was interred in Glenwood Cemetery, Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minnesota.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES: JAMES KIRKMAN
Residence Wabasha MN; 37 years old. Enlisted on 4/29/1861 at Wabasha, Wabasha County, MN as a Private. On 4/29/1861 he mustered into "I" Co. MN 1st Infantry He was discharged (date not stated) Promotions: Hospital Steward Intra Regimental Company Transfers: from company I to Field & Staff Other Information: died in 1866 in Onion Creek, TX Sources: - Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-65 - Research by Roger Norland - Minnesota Adjutant General's Report of 1866 |
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NOTES: EXTRACT FROM JULY 15, 1862 LETTER REGARDING JAMES KIRKMAN James Kirkman, our Hospital Steward has received his discharge since we came here and has received the appointment as Sutler to the 69th New York Regiment. I understand sutlers are the ones who make this war pay, many of them making $25 to $50 per day; even daily papers sell at 15 cents each. Yours, etc.. Oliver M Knight, Sergeant, 1st Minnesota Inf, Co I THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Saturday, July 26, Page 1 *********************************** PERSONAL - James Kirkman, Esquire, one of the pioneer settlers of this city, who has been connected wit the army since the commencement of the war, is now in town paying a short visit to his friends, and living over old times. He enlisted first under the call for three months, and after the expiration of his time went for three years. He was subsequently appointed Hospital Steward of his regiment, in which capacity he served for some time, and is now Sutler of Light Company I, First U S Infantry, in the Potomac Army (Army of the Potomac). THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Thursday, May 21, 1863, Page 3 ********************************** W A R C O R R E S P O N D E N C E We have on file a communication from James Kirkman, formerly of this city, who is now Hospital Steward of the 1st Minnesota Regiment. It represents the health of the regiment as being good. He predicts an immediate advance, as he has been packing instruments, bandages and other hospital stores necessary for field service for two days before writing. He promises us a regular series of letters, giving a list of all hospital patients, as well as a general summary of news pertaining to the regiment and army. We shall publish his letter in our next issue. THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Saturday, February 1, 1862, Page 3 F R O M T H E F I R S T R E G I M E N T Headquarters 1st Minnesota Regiment, Camp Stone, Maryland, February 8, 1862 Friend Stevens: There has been no stir in camp since I last wrote. The rain has continued ever since, and we are getting tired of being cooped up in houses that are very small. The roads are in such a condition that it is barely possible to draw subsistence for the troops, and if the Ohio and Chesapeake Canal had not been kept clear of ice by two steam tugs, from this place to Georgetown, I do not think that the Government could have kept the troops in supplies. A forward movement of any kind will be impossible until the roads dry up. Lieutenant Hammond arrived here last night with fifty-two recruits for the 1st. He had to leave two on the road on account of sickness, one at Harrisburg and one at Washington. I will give you their names in my next letter. The sick report is much the same as the last one, only two have been admitted since last report – Peter Hall, Company B, residence, Stillwater; and Charles H Gove, of the same Company. Complaint, pleurisy, residence, Lakeland, Washington County. He is getting better. Returned to duty, Ole Nelson, Company A; Peter Hall, Company B; and Lafayette W Snow, Company B. Total remaining in Hospital, six and all doing well. Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Miller who has been absent on sick leave at Harrisburg for some time, has returned to duty, but is not very well yet. He talks some of returning to Minnesota for his health. Dr Morton has returned today from a short visit to New Jersey, where he was called on account of sickness in his family. I am afraid if Governor Ramsey does not hurry up his commissions as full Surgeon of this regiment, he will leave us, as he is offered charge of one of the Hospitals in Washington City. If he leaves us it will be hard to fill his place, and a great loss to the regiment. Dr LeBlond of Houston County, arrived here about eight days ago as acting Assistant Surgeon. He seems to be much of a gentleman and a good physician, so we are well off for Doctors. If we have an engagement, there will be use for them all. It is with regret that we see the name of our worthy Chaplain, the Rev Mr Neill, used in the N Y TRIBUNE by some correspondent to that paper, who says that the funds that are sent by the people of Minnesota for the use of the sick of the 1st Regiment, have been used for other purposes, etc. I can assure the people of Minnesota, that such is not the case. That our Chaplain has money in his hands for the use of the sick is true, and whenever we want it we get it once on the Surgeon’s order. I also certify that he is always ready to help the sick and wounded with any means at his disposal. The thanks of the Regiment are due to our Chaplain for his bravery at Bull Run, and it is due to him that several of our wounded were taken from the field. There are some men in the Regiment who dislike him because they cannot get commissions; therefore they must vent their spite on General Gorman and Chaplain Neill. Chaplain Neill is not going to throw the money away that he has in his hands to ratify the few in the Regiment who have got sore heads. The Hospital is well supplied with all necessaries as all the sick will testify, and they are the best judges. James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, 1st Minnesota Regiment THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Wednesday, February 19, 1862, Page 2 F R O M T H E F I R S T R E G I M E N T Headquarters, 1st Minnesota Regiment, Harper’s Ferry, March 1st, 1862 Friend Stevens: Gorman’s Brigade, which is composed of the Minnesota 1st, New York 2nd and 34th (New York), and the Massachusetts 15th, left Camp Stone on the 24th of February, which is about thirty miles from here. The roads were very bad, and it took us until the 27th to get to this place. Banks’ Division crossed on the 26th. We have over thirty thousand men, besides a large amount of artillery and cavalry. Yesterday we took six pieces of artillery with thirty rebels, besides five or six spies. The rebels are fortified at Winchester, about thirty miles from here. They say the roads are good to that place and we expect to have quite a fight, as they are strongly posted and have about thirty thousand men. The Minnesota 1st and the Massachusetts 15th, are assigned to the advance to support Rickett’s (Battery) and other batteries, which will be a hard place, but the men feel rejoiced that so much confidence is placed in them, and it is certain, that if the rebels get the batteries, it will be over a pile of dead men. We feel confident of success. General McClellan is present, and the troops put every confidence in him. We have orders to advance to Charlestown, about six miles from here, and will start in about an hour. We left six of our sick at Poolsville, and we are going to leave five here. There is none of the Wabashaw boys on sick report. The health of the Regiment is good, and the men are in fine spirits. The weather is cold, but dry and clear. I will write to you as soon as anything of note occurs. Truly yours, James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, 1st Minnesota Regiment THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Saturday, March 8, 1862, Page 2 F R O M T H E M I N N E S O T A F I R S T Headquarters 1st Minnesota Regiment, Berryville, Virginia, March 11th, 1862 Friend Stevens: The brigades of Generals’ Gorman and Burns, which compose General Sedgwick’s Division, took possession of Bolivar Heights on the 1st of March, where we established a general hospital, where all the sick of the division is to be left. On the 7th of March we took Charlestown, VA, a town of about three thousand inhabitants, where we remained until the 10th instant, when we took up the line of march for Berryville, a distance of 12 miles, where we arrived at 3PM, and roiled about three hundred rebels, taking 6 prisoners. This morning Van Allen’s Cavalry took 4 prisoners with their horses and killed one. The road is now clear of rebels for seven miles towards Winchester. We are now 12 miles from Winchester, and twenty miles from Harper’s Ferry. They are strengthening Winchester, and have about 35 to 40 thousand men. They say the position is a strong one, but we will be able for them. The troops are in good spirits and only want to see the enemy, which I think will not be long, as we advance toward Winchester tomorrow. General Gorman took the BERRYVILLE CONSERVTOR, the only paper and press in this town. The editor left with one side of the paper struck off and the typos of the 1st Minnesota Regiment are now striking off the other side, a copy of which I hereby send you; I also send you an old piece of manuscript which I picked up in a house at Bolivar Heights. On Sunday last, I visited four different burying grounds. I saw where one of the victims of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry was buried. The inscription on his monument, was as follows: Dedicated to the memory of George W Turner, who fell at Harper’s Ferry, Oct 17th, 1859, nobly defending the rights of his State, age 45. It was very cold last night. We dare not keep fires and can thin shoddy blankets, without tents, did not protect us much against the cold and wind. The 1st Minnesota is in high repute, and is the leading regiment; being in the advance with Rickett’s Battery. The duty is very hard, but the men do not grumble. We have 4 sick at Bolivar General Hospital; one only is dangerous, Private Henry Parsons, of Company I, of typhoid pneumonia, but I think he will recover. Yours, James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, 1st Minnesota Regiment P.S. March 12th, 1862 The Stars and Stripes float over Winchester. The rebels are moved to Strawburgh, 18 miles from Winchester, where they say they are going to stand. General Napoleon Dana will be here tonight with his brigade, three thousand strong. When we are going to advance on Strawsburgh, I do not know. J K THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabasha, Minnesota Saturday, March 22nd, 1862, Page 1 ********************************** F R O M T H E M I N N E S O T A F I R S T James Kirkman, Hospital Steward Headquarters Minnesota First, Near Yorktown, Virginia, April 11th, 1862 Friend Stevens: The Minnesota First has been moving about so fast of late that I have not had time to write. The last time I wrote you we were at Berryville, under marching orders for Winchester, where we went on the 13th of March, but had not time to take dinner before we were ordered to Harper’s Ferry, where we arrived on the 15th, and on the 22nd we took the cars for Washington, where we arrived on the 23rd. On the 29th we marched for Alexandria, and encamped on the 3rd of July last. On the 29th took shipping arrived at Fortress Monroe on the 1st instant. At this place we left four sick in the General Hospital and started for the once thrifty and enterprising city of Hampton, which is now a vast ruin, but two buildings – the residence of ex-President Tyler, and the Seminary – being left. Hampton must have contained about three thousand inhabitants, and the loss to the citizens must have been immense. The place is famed for its great oyster and fish trade. The country around here is poor, the land being level, wet and sandy. The timber is red pine and chestnut, with a little mixture of oak. On the 4th of April General McClellan, with about one hundred thousand men, started for Yorktown. On the same evening we encamped on the battleground of Big Bethel. On the 5th we took up the line of march and bivouacked about a mile from the enemy’s batteries, after driving in their pickets. We have had some skirmishes and both sides have lost some men, but our regiment has lost none as yet. We are now engaged in building roads in order to get our cannon up, the mud being so deep that we cannot haul empty wagons, without corduroy bridges. The Minnesota First is engaged in road making and has to work very hard. In two or three days I think we will be ready to commence operations. Professor Lowe made a balloon ascension a day or two since, and reports the rebels about fifty thousand strong and still reinforcing. We have already taken two of their forts. The whole country is one net work of forts and breast works. I think this will be the largest battle of the war. It is about twenty miles from here to Fortress Monroe. The houses along the road between the two points have been burnt except two or three. The rebels have burnt houses and fences and took everything. You cannot hear the crowing of a chicken nor the barking of a dog in the whole country around. No sound breaks the stillness of the day except the singing of the birds, and an occasional shot from our sharpshooters. This is a hard country, but our troops are in good health, and I am in hopes we will get out of these swamps before long, or our sick reports will be large. We have to sleep without tents, as all are turned in at Hampton. It rained on the 6th, 7th and 8th without intermission, which made it very disagreeable with no covering but the canopy of heaven. The men are in good spirits, and perform their duty with alacrity and cheerfulness. The boys from Wabashaw, Lake City and Read’s Landing are in good health. Our hospital is well supplied with stores; indeed we cannot take all our stores with us, so you see we do not need any help from the Aid Societies of Minnesota. All they send hereafter will be lost, as we cannot get transportation for it. We have a new Colonel. Colonel Napoleon Dana, as you are aware, was promoted, and his place has been supplied by the appointment of Captain Sully, of the Regular Army. Colonel Sully is loved by his men, and in turn is proud of them. He says their discipline is equal to the Regulars. Our regiment stood dress parade twice in Capitol Square, Washington, and elicited the admiration of all who witnessed their soldierly bearing. Yours, James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, Minnesota First THE WABASHA COUNTY HERALD Wabashaw, Minnesota Saturday, April 26, 1862, Page 1 F R O M T H E M I N N E S O T A F I R S T Headquarters 1st Minnesota Regiment, Camp near Yorktown, Virginia, April 20th, 1862 Friend Stevens: The 1st Minnesota Regiment is bivouacked within three hundred yards of the rebels’ works and has been so for the last five days. General Sedgwick’s Division, of which we are apart, is on the advance, supporting the batteries that are occasionally firing on the rebels’ works and has done them considerable damage in the way of leveling their front batteries and barracks and killing a number of the enemy. Two companies of our Regiment go on picket duty and post themselves behind trees within one hundred and fifty yards of the rebel batteries, and pick off their gunners as soon as they attempt to load or fire their cannon, so that our artillery have it all their own way. Yesterday the rebels sent in a flag of truce asking us to take off our sharpshooters and stop firing so that they could bury their dead. The truce was agreed to on the ground that they would allow us to bury our dead and get our wounded which close to their batteries which they consented to. There was a most unfortunate mistake happened to us on the 16th instant, the 3rd and 5th Maine regiments were ordered to storm the batteries on our left, which they done with a bravery not to be excelled by any in the history of war. They took at the point of the bayonet, two tiers of breastworks, bayoneting the rebels in their ditches and driving twice their number before them without hardly losing a man; but this was not to last long, as the rebels on their flanks poured a murderous fire, and no reinforcements at hand they obliged to return leaving nearly two hundred dead and wounded on the field, most them inside of the works of the enemy. There were fifteen wounded left on the field three days without help. We have had skirmishes every night except last night, the rebels always coming out second best. I think they got tired of such work and gave us a good chance to sleep, which we needed very much. So you see we have lost about two hundred men and the battle has not commenced yet. The enemy’s loss is more than double ours and we feel confident of success, but it may be some time yet before a battle. Our regiment has lost none yet though many of them have had narrow escapes and have done the rebels some terrible harm by sharpshooting. The regiment is in good health and most of the sick that we left behind at the hospitals, have joined us in good health. William Worthington, known in Wabashaw by the name of “Duke” is the sickest man we have. His complaint is pneumonia, we have sent him to Shipping Point, and he is recovering but will not be able to take part in the coming battle, which he will regret very much as he is a good soldier. We have here about a hundred thousand men, they are stretched out from the York to the James Rivers. Piles of cannon and ammunition are only hid from the enemy by the pine woods. If it was not for the occasional booming of artillery and the few skirmishes we have, the most casual hearer could not detect that there was a single man in the vicinity. All is silence, no sound but the croaking of frogs and the singing of birds. It has been raining for the last 24 hours and there are no signs of it stopping yet. In so close proximity to the enemy, we are often alarmed. The regiment falls in without noise, with their brave Colonel at their head, whom they think the world of and wind their way through the woods as solemn as a funeral procession. I in the hospital department brings up the rear carrying instruments, bandages and medicines, followed by the band, carrying stretchers to take the wounded off the field. The men eye the stretchers with horror, but still they are satisfied that it is necessary and if it will be their turn to need them, thus it will be an honorable wound in an honorable cause. Our new Colonel is a gentleman and a soldier, he has served his country in the regular army nearly twenty years. He has served at Fort Ridgley and Fort Ripley for the last eight years in the 2nd US Infantry, the same regiment that the lamented General Lyon belonged to. We have General Dana to thank for this selection and he has doubly endeared himself to this regiment for regimenting to us so good an officer. The men say they have made two Generals already and that if Colonel Sully is spared to them they will make him a General also. I am sorry to see by the report of the Chaplain of our Second Lieutenant that they have suffered so much by sickness in Kentucky and Tennessee. They certainly were not exposed to a worse climate than the Potomac Valley. I am afraid the Gallant Second has seen some hard times. The First has had measles, mumps and bilious complaints to contend against and have lost only three by sickness. They have been exposed to picket duty on the Potomac all the fall and winter through rain and without tents. We have been under heavy marches through rain and mud to Winchester and back. The 7th Michigan regiment camped alongside us since September and is with us yet, they have lost seventy-two by sickness. This regiment is as fine a body of men as is in the service, consequently something is wrong, men ought not be made do duty when they are unable. They ought to be left behind at good hospitals when heavy marches are to be made, with good nurses of the same regiment, not among strangers who are careless. A regiment of six hundred able bodied men in good health will do more than a regiment of eight hundred men encumbered by fifty sick. I may have said too much on this subject and it may give offense to some officers, but nevertheless this is my experience and I am glad that our regiment has had two good experienced officers of the Regular Army as Colonels, who have brought us to a standard with the regulars. All the wars have shown that volunteers have suffered more from sickness than regulars, we have to thank Colonels Dana and Sully for this efficiency and also Governor Ramsey to handling and getting experienced Surgeons. There more that I could write you that would be of interest but regulations forbid it at some future if I am able it shall be written. Enough for the present. James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, 1st Minn Regt THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabashaw, Minnesota Wednesday, May 7, 1862, Page 1 F R O M T H E F I R S T R E G I M E N T Headquarters First Minnesota Regiment, Camp Fair Oaks, June 15, 1862 Friend Stevens: I have not had time to write to you since leaving the White House shortly before the Battle of Fair Oaks, of May 31st and June 1st. After battle, persons connected with the Hospital Department have no time to write and but little time to sleep. This has been the case with me up to this time. A history of the battle I will not attempt to give, as the correspondents of papers in the East give them more correctly and quicker by one week, than you could receive them from me, even if I was to write immediately, as they have time to gather information. I was an eye witness to that portion of the battle where Sumner’s Corps was engaged, composed of Gorman’s Dana’s and Burns’ Brigades under General Sedgwick supported by the famous Rickett’s Battery. The battle raged with awful fury. The 1st Minnesota had the advance of Sumner’s Corps, but was not much exposed, as they had a rye field that was nearly ripe to hide them, and could see the enemy without being seen. Their firing was steady and did awful execution to the rebels. General Gorman and his whole Brigade behaved like heroes. Colonel Sully, of our regiment, was on his horse and behaved as cool as if he was on dress parade, to him is due the credit of so small a loss in the Minnesota First, under such desperate fire, as the official reports will show when they come out. It is useless to say which was bravest in Gorman’s Brigade. Regiments vied with each other to be the best. The horrors of the battlefield of which you have read, are not half told, nor can they ever be painted. A battle is nothing; the field afterwards is the horror of all horrors. As we had not much to do in our regiment, I went on the field to help Surgeon Morton to do what we could for any sufferer, and for three days and three nights, we worked dressing wounds, amputating, and giving water to the dying. All the Surgeons of the army were at work and did all they could for the rebels as well as our own. Our nurses worked with a will, carrying the wounded to us, and it is a wonder to me now they stood so long without anything to eat but hard crackers (no time to cook). In the battle of Fair Oaks, the 1st Minnesota lost two killed and five wounded the names of the killed are: Henry Hammer, Company F, of Red Wing; and Ornesdorf, Company C of St Paul. The wounded were not severely hurt and are all again on duty. Died by sickness since last report, Joseph Olden, Company B, at Hampton; Irvin W Northrup, 1st Sergeant Company G, at Yorktown, and Corwin Pickett, Company I, at Washington, the latter is a son of Daniel Pickett, of Cochrane’s Valley. The dates of their deaths I cannot give, as they were all left behind. The sickness has increased to twenty in Hospital, but it is not considered unhealthy for the season. Augustus Ellison, Bugler, of Company I, was killed by a stray shell from the enemy while he was on duty in the hospital, on the 13th instant. I was talking to him at the time he was struck down. He was killed by a 12 pound spiral shell which hit him on the back of the head, killing him instantly. He was much regretted by all who knew him. He was severely wounded at the Battle of Bull Run, and was slightly wounded at the Battle of Fair Oaks on the evening of the 31st of May, but still continued to do duty as a nurse until he was killed. He has two sisters living in St Paul, and was a nephew of Colonel Nobles, of the same city. Respectfully yours, James Kirkman, Hospital Steward, 1st Minn Regt THE WABASHAW COUNTY HERALD Wabashaw, Minnesota Wednesday, July 2, 1862, Page 2 Submitted by Roger Norland ******************************** James Kirkman His Obituary from the Perth Courier in Bathurst, Ontario Canada Perth Courier April 6, 1877 Kirkman-Died in September of the year Eighteen Hundred and Sixty Six, of cholera at Onion Creek, Texas, James Kirkman, 40. He was born on the 3rd Line Bathurst and Bathurst. He served five and one half years in the American Army during the Mexican war and then removed to the county of Wabasha Minnesota, of which he was one of county in 1855. In 1861 he enlisted in the 1st Minnesota Regiment and served as a hospital Stewart and later as a clerk in the war department in Washington DC. At the time of his death he was a soldier in the 6th Cavalry. His friends here received a letter from him shortly before his death and though sparing neither pains nor money, could receive no later tidings of him until the news came two months ago children, the eldest of whom was 12 years, were left orphans, their mother having died when he was in the War of the Rebellion, but they were brought up by their grandmother, Mrs. John Mackie. G. Leslie Gray, Glasgow, Minnesota, March 17, 1877 George Leslie Gray was his nephew. Received from Pat Pasmore a descendant of James Kirkman |
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