2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was a Minnesota USV cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment
Battle Flag of the 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Cavalry Regiment
Active	December 5, 1863, to May 4, 1866
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Branch	Cavalry
Engagements	Sully's Expedition Against the Sioux Battle of Killdeer Mountain Battle of the Badlands

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was mustered at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. for three year's service on December 5, 1863, and were mustered out on November 17, 1865, and May 4, 1866. It served entirely in Minnesota, Dakota Territory, and Montana Territory guarding the frontier against the Sioux Indians. In 1864 the 2nd Minn. Cavalry was headquartered at Fort Snelling under Colonel R.N. McLaren.^[1]

Battles and campaigns

• Battle of Tah Kah A Kuty or Battle of Killdeer Mountain, July 28, 1864.
• Battle of the Badlands, August 8 to 9, 1864.
• Rescue of Fisk's Emigrant train at Fort Dilts, September 10 to 30,1864.

Colonels

• Colonel Robert Neill McLaren

Casualties and total strength

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry had 4 enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds received in battle and an additional 3 officers and 56 enlisted men died of disease. Total fatalities were 63.^[2]

War Poet

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Edward Thomas, a Welsh-language war poet native to Centerville, Ohio and whose Bardic name was Awenydd, was living and working as a schoolmaster at the Welsh-American farming settlement at South Bend Township, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. In 1862, he enlisted in Company E of the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. During his military service, Thomas wrote many Welsh language poems, including Pryddest ar Wir Fawredd, which later won the Bardic Crown at an Eisteddfod held in Minersville, Pennsylvania. Following the end of the war, Thomas became a Presbyterian minister.^[3]

References

1. Fort Snelling Items, The Saint Paul Press, May 22, 1864, p.1, Minnesota digital newspaper hub, 2024
2. Minnesota. Board of commissioners on publication of history of Minnesota in civil and Indian wars (1891). Minnesota in the civil and Indian wars 1861-1865. Robarts - University of Toronto. St. Paul, Minn. : Printed for the state by the Pioneer press company.
3. Edited by Revs. Thos. E. Hughes and David Edwards, and Messes. Hugh G. Roberts and Thomas Hughes (1895), History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston, and Lime Springs, Ia., page 273.

• Andrews, C. C., ed. (1891). Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-1865. St. Paul, Minn: Printed for the state by the Pioneer Press Co. OL 7088819M.
• Jones, Robert Huhn (1960). The Civil War in the Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press.

External links

• The Civil War Archive Website
• Narrative of the Minnesota Second Regiment of Cavalry
• Map of General Sully's 1864 Campaign
• Minnesota Historical Society page on Minnesota and the Civil War

See also

List of Minnesota Civil War Units