A history of the Northwest that would omit any mention of the war of the Rebellion would be an unfinished work. It was the original intention of the author of this work to add a military history in which should be placed upon record not only some statistics as to the number of troops contributed to the United States service from the parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin lying along the Mississippi river, but some account of incidents connected with the war, which the citizens of the valley would take pride in perusing. The plan was abandoned reluctantly on account of the want of space for such a record. We are able to furnish a synopsis of the military history of Minnesota taken from a recent address made by ex-Gov. Ramsey before the Loyal Legion at St. Paul. It is doubly interesting, coming as it does from the governor of the State during the earlier portion of the war:

Ex-Gov. Alexander Ramsey was called upon to respond to the toast, "Minnesota and the War; For God, Our Country and the Right." He said:

"Amid the many evidences of harmony and prosperity in all sections of the great republic it is difficult to realize that the citizens of Minnesota, within the memory of many still alive, were called upon to preserve the integrity of the United States of America by the force of arms.

"There has ever been a community of interest between our own State, in whose midst are found the sources of the Mississippi, and the several states on its borders toward the Gulf of Mexico; the wheat fields of Minnesota, the cotton and sugar plantations of Mississippi and Louisiana must be inseparable, yet it can not be disguised that a short-sighted statesmanship made a vigorous attempt to separate those whom an all-wise Providence had joined together.

"In the month of April, 1861, upon official business as governor of Minnesota, I was called to the city of Washington. The knots of earnest men and anxious faces in the corridors and reading rooms of the hotels indicated a widespread belief that there was an impending peril, a serious conspiracy upon the part of some in the cotton producing and slave holding states to secede from the Union, although the general government had never infringed upon their rights under the constitution.

"On Saturday night, April 13th, the population of Washington was deeply moved by the intelligence that Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston had been attacked by insurgents, and that the garrison had surrendered.

"Early Sunday morning, accompanied by two citizens of Minnesota, I visited the war department, and found the secretary with his hat on and papers in his hand about to leave his office. I said 'My business is simply as governor of Minnesota to tender a thousand men to defend the government.' 'Sit down immediately,' he replied, 'and write the tender you have made, as I am now on my way to the president's mansion.'

"This was quickly done, and thus Minnesota became the first to cheer the president by offers of assistance in the crisis which had arrived.

"My action and the acceptance of this offer were dispatched to St. Paul, and in a few days companies in the different towns in Minnesota were being organized, and on the twenty-seventh of the month Adjt. Gen. John B. Sanborn issued an order that more companies had been organized than were necessary to complete the First regiment of Minnesota, and on the third of May, having returned to St. Paul during April, I sent a telegram to the president offering a second regiment.

"On the twenty-first of June the First regiment, under Col. Gorman, left Fort Snelling, and in one month, on Sunday, the twenty-first of July, distinguished itself as the advance of Heintzleman's division in the battle of Bull Run, Virginia. The Second regiment, in command of Col. H. P. Van Cleve, a graduate of West Point, left Fort Snelling in October, and on the nineteenth of January was in close conflict with the enemy near Mill Springs, Kentucky, Gen. Zollicoffer and other insurgent officers having fallen under their fire. A third regiment, under Col. H. C. Lester, left the State in November, 1861, and a fourth regiment, under Col. John B. Sanborn, was soon organized, and not long after a fifth, under Col. Borgersrode, was formed. In the spring of 1862, within a few weeks of each other, the last two left for the seat of war, and were assigned to the Army of the Mississippi, and before the close of May were, with their comrades of the Second, in the action at Corinth.

"But while Minnesota was thus rapidly sending forth her able bodied men, she was called upon to endure a trial greater than any of her sister states. On the nineteenth of August there rushed into the governor's office at the capitol a dusty and exhausted messenger who had been fifteen hours in the saddle with dispatches from Galbraith, the Sioux agent, containing the startling intelligence that the Sioux had risen and were murdering the settlers and plundering and burning their houses. An hour or two later another messenger arrived from Forest City with information that the Sioux had also killed many whites at Acton. It was evident that there was a general uprising, and that no time was to be lost.

"I immediately proceeded to Fort Snelling and consulted as to the best measures to protect our people. Here were only raw recruits, without arms or clothing, but at length four companies of the Sixth regiment were organized, and that night sent up the Minnesota river to Shakopee, and ex-Gov. H. H. Sibley, who had had a long acquaintance with the Sioux, was placed in command.

"From that point they were directed to proceed by land. Telegrams were sent to President Lincoln and the governors of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, and Michigan relative to the horrible outbreak and asking for aid.

"When the troops reached St. Peter they were delayed in moulding balls to fit their arms and in preparing canister shot. By September portions of the Third regiment, which had returned to the State, and the Sixth and Seventh regiments, which had been organized, were in the field, and on the twenty-third of the month had a battle with the Indians at Wood lake, Lieut. Col. Marshall, of the Seventh regiment, your late commander of this legion, leading five companies of his own and two of the Sixth in a successful charge, clearing a ravine of hostile savages.

"Never before in the history of the republic had so many settlers fallen from Indian barbarity. In ten days in August about eight hundred white men, women and children were killed, and at least 15,000 persons fled from the scalping knife to St. Paul and other places of security.

"During the summer of 1862 the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Minnesota regiments of Volunteers were organized. In January, 1863, having been elected to represent the State in the United States senate, Lieut. Gov. Swift on and after the tenth of July acted as governor for the unexpired term, who was succeeded by Gov. Stephen H. Miller, both of whom, in every way possible, sustained the general government.

"Minnesota during the war had surely not more than 40,000 citizens able to bear arms. She furnished eleven regiments of infantry, one of heavy artillery, three batteries of light artillery, four cavalry organizations and two companies of sharpshooters, and official returns show that she contributed 25,000 soldiers in all."

Mention of George H. Hazzard, of St. Paul, unintentionally omitted from the body of the work, is appended below.

George H. Hazzard is one of St. Paul's wide awake, energetic young men. He is a native of the state of New York. He came to the West when a youth and located in St. Paul in 1859. He has been engaged in general agencies and real estate, and has served as county commissioner of Ramsey county and filled other city positions in St. Paul. He was a member of the Methodist General Conference in New York City in 1888. He married a daughter of Rev. Benjamin F. Hoyt, of St. Paul.

LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ST. CROIX VALLEY—WISCONSIN SIDE.

Thirty-eighth Session, 1885—Senators: Hans B. Warner, Joel F. Nason. House: Thomas Porter, James Johnson, Charles S. Thayer, Frank M. Nye.

Thirty-ninth Session, 1887—First Biennial Session—Senate: Joel F. Nason, William A. Rust. House: J. B. Thayer, John A. Murphy, H. L. Humphrey, James N. McCourt, Charles S. Taylor.