By John Allyn
BONPS Board of Directors
Part 1
Introduction
Above: In 1920 the State of Minnesota erected a monument in the Nashville National Cemetery on Gallatin Pike. The monument honors soldiers from Minnesota who are buried there. It reads: “Erected A. D. 1920 by the STATE OF MINNESOTA in memory of her soldiers here buried who lost their lives in the service of the United States in the war for the preservation of the Union 1861 – 1865.”
Some years ago I was on a Nashville battlefield tour, the traditional Gray Line bus and all that. The tour leader was doing an excellent job. As we approached Shy’s Hill from the east (on Battery Lane, for those familiar with Nashville streets) the tour leader pointed out the hill and noted that we were viewing it from more or less the same perspective as the famous Howard Pyle painting of the battle.
At which point the following discussion took place between our tour leader and one of our tour participants, a Nashville dowager with a DAR Regent look about her:
Dowager: “A painting? Where is this painting?”
Tour leader: “It’s in Minnesota.”
Dowager: “What is it doing there? We must get it back!”
Tour leader: “It’s a mural in their State Capitol. It was paid for by the people of Minnesota. I don’t think that it’s going anywhere anytime soon.”
Dowager (huffily, and not admitting defeat): “Well, I can’t see why they should have our painting.”
Howard Pyle, a noted 19th century illustrator, painted this mural in 1906. The original is located in the governor's Reception Room in the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota. It depicts the attack on the afternoon of December 16, 1864 by the 5th and 9th Minnesota Infantry Regiments on the Confederate line just to the east of Shy’s Hill, which is seen in the background. The area depicted is just east of Granny White Pike and just south of modern Battery Lane, on modern McArthur Ridge Court.
There is a very simple reason why Minnesota has the painting. Troops from Minnesota played a key role in the battle. Moreover, the State of Minnesota sustained more casualties at the Battle of Nashville than it did in any other Civil War engagement. Four Minnesota infantry regiments were in the forefront of the fighting on both days of the battle, and two others had peripheral roles in the battle. Indeed, on both days Minnesota regiments made the initial breaches in the Confederate lines.
Minnesota wasn’t a big state in 1861. The 1860 census shows it as the second smallest state in the Union, followed only by remote Oregon. It was very much a frontier state, populated mostly by emigrants from the other states of the Northwest and from Northern Europe. Unlike Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, very few Southerners settled there. Western Minnesota was still very much the domain of the Sioux. Because of this, Minnesota was the only non-slave state to sustain significant civilian casualties and property losses during the Civil War. Between 400 and 800 settlers, many of them women and children, were killed in the Dakota War of 1862, and most of the settlements in the Minnesota River Valley were destroyed.
Minnesota had 24,000 men who served during the Civil War. Of these, 6,000 were either “citizen soldiers” – non-federalized troops comparable to militiamen in other states — who fought in the Dakota Uprising in Minnesota, or federalized cavalrymen who exclusively fought Indians in the Dakota and Montana Territories. Minnesota provided approximately 18,000 soldiers to the Union Army for operations in the South. To put this into context, Tennessee, the eleventh star on the flag of the Confederacy, provided 31,000 soldiers for the Union according to the indispensible Tennesseans in the Civil War. Of course, this was in addition to 186,000 Tennesseans who served in the Confederate Army. There were eleven federalized infantry regiments from Minnesota, serving from the western frontier to the Atlantic coast. Six of those saw action in the Nashville campaign. Over the next few months we’ll give you their histories.
Above: My encounter with the lady on the bus prompted me to track down this cartoon by Bill Mauldin (the famed portrayer of Willie and Joe during the Second World War) which depicts the perils of ancestor worship, particularly where that ancestor was a soldier.
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Part 2
The 11th Minnesota Infantry
“They also serve who only stand and wait.” John Milton, Paradise Lost.
The 11th Minnesota Infantry was formed in the summer of 1864 in response to President Lincoln’s last call for volunteers. The regimental history proudly notes that every man was a volunteer, and that it included no draftees. It arrived in Nashville and initially was directed to detail men to guard supply trains running from Nashville to Chattanooga.
Above: This rather fanciful sketch of a troop train passing through the Cumberland Mountains on the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad appeared in Harper’s Weekly in 1863. While troops did on occasion travel on the roofs of the cars, there is no cut either so deep or so narrow on the line.
On October 12, 1864 the regiment was assigned to guard the Louisville & Nashville Railroad from Edgefield Junction just outside of Nashville north to the Kentucky line. The regimental headquarters and three companies were based in Gallatin, described as “a lively little city”. Single companies were placed at Edgefield Junction (modern Amqui), Saundersville (between Goodlettsville and Gallatin), Richland (became Portland in the 1890’s when the Post Office noted that there were two Richlands in Tennessee), Buck Lodge (north of Portland), and Mitchellsville (on the Kentucky line).
Above: South Tunnel was an extremely vulnerable point on the rail line between Louisville and Nashville. The remains of a Federal fort on can be found on the hill on top of the tunnel. As you can see, it is still in use today, a commentary both on nineteenth century engineering practices and the rock-breaking skills of Irish immigrant laborers. This photograph is of the south portal of North South Tunnel, looking north. © Kevin Comer 2009. Used with permission.
Two companies were stationed at South Tunnel, a key strategic point halfway between Gallatin and Portland. South Tunnel actually consists of two tunnels – called North South Tunnel and South South Tunnel — about four hundred feet apart. While this confusing, there is an explanation. There is also a North Tunnel on the Louisville & Nashville. It is through Muldraugh’s Hill near Maysville, Kentucky.
The South Tunnels were laid out by engineers using transits and stakes, and were built by Irish immigrants using star drills and black powder, as dynamite and steam drills had not been invented yet. It was completed in 1859, and is still in use today. In August, 1862 John Hunt Morgan destroyed South South Tunnel by pushing several burning freight cars into it. The railroad line was closed for more than three months with supplies being moved by wagon from the railhead at Richland/Portland to the railhead at Gallatin. At this time the Federals built forts on top of each of the tunnels and heavily garrisoned them for the duration of the war.
Google Earth picture of the South Tunnels. The portals have been marked on the map. Forts were built on top of each tunnel, but their remains cannot be seen due to the summer foliage. The site can be visited after an overland hike. However, the photographer who took the train picture above recommends going in a group and going armed as this is meth and moonshine country. Click to enlarge
The Confederate advance into Middle Tennessee in November and December, 1864 raised Federal concerns about the rail supply line from Louisville. The western terminus of the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad at Johnsonville had been destroyed by Forrest in early November, and when it came up in December Hood’s army cut the line at Belle Meade. Low water on the Cumberland River limited its use as a supply line during the winter months, and this was compounded by the fact that Forrest’s cavalry set up a battery at Bell’s Bend which effectively eliminated the river as a supply line. Because of these events, the L & N became the sole supply line for the Federal forces gathering in Nashville.
Given this concern over the safety of the railroad, the regiment stood to arms each day from 3 am until sunrise with much firing at shadows and shapes. A few days before the Nashville battle, word was received of a possible attempt by guerillas to attack the tunnels. The three companies stationed at Gallatin were hurriedly ordered into boxcars – well-dunged from having previously been used for hauling sheep — for the six mile ride to South Tunnel. The soldiers debarked into a night which looked like “a stack of black cats” and went into line. However, “nothing tuned up but the sun, which, by the way, appeared to be unusually slow that morning” and the troops were back in Gallatin by noon.
When the main battle began the sound of the cannons could be heard in Gallatin. Some members of the regiment went to Nashville to watch the show, but none took an active part. Following the battle the Eleventh had its first view of Confederate soldiers, as train after train of prisoners went north.
The regiment continued to serve on the railroad line until June, 1865, when they were relieved by a regiment of United States Colored Troops. The Eleventh returned to St, Paul and mustered out the next month.
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