2nd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry

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2nd Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry
Flag of Minnesota
Active	Between June 26 and August 23, 1861, to July 11, 1865
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Infantry

The 2nd Minnesota Regiment Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

1 Service
2 Casualties
3 Colonels
4 References
5 References
6 See also

[edit] Service

The 2nd Minnesota was mustered by companies at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, between June 26 and August 23, 1861, and initially served in detachments at a variety of posts in that state until assembled as a regiment at Fort Snelling on September 20, 1861. It was sent to Kentucky on October 14, 1861, spending the remainder of that year in garrison. Early in 1862 they moved to Lebanon Junction and then on to Logan's Crossroads. The Second Minnesota was one of the Federal regiments heavily engaged in the Battle of Mill Springs, January 19, 1862. They served in the Corinth - Iuka campaign, also losing troops at the skirmish at Toscombia Alabama. Other service in Kentucky included the Battle of Perryville (October 8, 1862). The regiment's greatest losses occurred at the Battle of Chickamauga, where they served in Van Deveer's Brigade, Baird's Division of MG George H. Thomas' Fourteen Corps. They were an integral part of the Defense of Snodgrass Hill. Losses in their three engagements at Chickamauga were 162 of 384 men engaged. The Second Minnesota continued to serve with the Army of the Cumberland, winning several Congressional Medals of Honor for their service at Missionary Ridge, and then participated in Sherman's "March to the Sea." Following the end of active hostilities, they participated in the grand review of the Army of the Republic in Washington.

The regiment mustered out of Federal service on July 11, 1865.

[edit] Casualties

The 2nd Minnesota Infantry suffered 2 officers and 91 enlisted men killed in action or who later died of their wounds, plus another 2 officers and 186 enlisted men who died of disease, for a total of 281 fatalities.^[1]

[edit] Colonels

Colonel Horatio P. Van Cleve - July 23, 1861, to March 21, 1862.
Colonel James George - May 15, 1862, to June 29, 1864.
Colonel Judson W. Bishop - March 5 to July 11, 1865.

[edit] References

Bircher, William, A Drummer-Boy's Diary, Comprising Four Years of Service with the Second Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteers, 1861 to 1865. North Star Press. Reprint of 1889 original, edited by Newell Chester.

Bishop, Judson W., The Story of a Regiment: Being a Narrative of the Service of the Second Regiment Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War of 1861 to 1856. North Star Press. Reprint of 1890 original, edited by Newell Chester.