Orrin Mills’ Eventful Civil War Service: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “War”

Civil War POW to Dakota War to Civil War: Orrin Mills Journey with the Third Minnesota Infantry Regiment

Orrin Oliver Mills: 1840-1917 (Maternal Second-Great-Granduncle)

 

I knew that Orrin O. Mills was a Civil War Veteran, but until I recently started researching his regiment and unit, I had no idea what a wild, eventful wartime experience he survived. The Third Minnesota Infantry regiment was a volunteer unit that, between its formation in 1861 and its demuster in 1865, had served in the Civil War, been taken as prisoners of war by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry, had been sent to fight the Dakota War back in Minnesota, and then sent back to serve in the Civil War. The Third was also the Minnesota unit with the highest casualty count--due to disease, not battlefield injuries.

Orrin Mills' Civil War Regiment Pin. Photo courtesy of  June Marcus on Family Search.

Orrin Oliver Mills was born July 7, 1840 in Hermon Township, St. Lawrence County, New York, to parents Joel Mills and Orpha Pratt Mills. He was the youngest of Joel and Orpha’s five children, and he also had two older half siblings. At some point before 1850, father Joel moved his family west, settling first in Dodge County and then moving to Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Joel Mills died January 31, 1858 when Orrin was 17 years old.

Some Mills family members, including Orrin, moved further west to Minnesota, settling in the Blue Earth County area. On October 1, 1861, just months after the start of the Civil War, Orrin enlisted in the Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was twenty-one years old. His company, Company I, was formed from volunteers from the Blue Earth/Le Seuer County area, so the unit probably included many of his young friends and acquaintances.

Civil War photo of Orrin Mills, courtesy of June Marcus on Findagrave 

According to histories of the regiment, the Third Minnesota organized at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, and was then sent to Louisville, Kentucky in November of 1861. They guarded the railroad line in Louisville, and protected Military Governor Andrew Johnson. In April 1862, the regiment was sent to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to join the 23^rd Brigade of the Army of the Ohio. On July 13, a Confederate Cavalry brigade commanded by Col. Nathan B. Forrest conducted a surprise attack on the Union forces in Murfreesboro.

According to Mnopedia, the Third Minnesota “encountered and repulsed two attacks by the Second Georgia Cavelry…before being overrun by Forrest, who burned the officers’ tents.” The Union commander of the 23^rd Brigade surrendered, and the entire 3^rd Minnesota Regiment, except for one company that had been assigned duty elsewhere, became prisoners of war. They were marched to St. Louis where they were held in the Benton Barracks until late August when they were paroled and sent back to Minnesota to fight in the US-Dakota War.

Orrin's Civil War Record

The regiment faced the more of the ugly reality of war in Minnesota. One of their first assignments was burying settlers who had been killed by the Dakota warriors. The regiment then fought at the battle of Wood Lake, described by one of the regiment’s soldiers in a letter to a family member:  

“We saw any amount of Indians on every little knoll. They seemed to be on almost every side of us…They undertook to turn our left flank & get between us and the camp. Major Fowle rode up in front of the men & told them that Col. Sibley ordered them back to camp & told them to get back to camp the best way they could. He seemed much frightened & turned & rode back to camp as fast as he could…Soon everything was in confusion & every man on his own hook. As soon as the Indians saw the retreat, they came pouring in from all quarters, firing into our crowd as fast as they could. We kept retreating, loading & turning & firing as fast as we could…On the top of the hill we made a stand while the Indians took possession of the ravine…”

Ordered to retreat, the 3^rd Minnesota disobeyed, and charged the Dakota warriors, helping to turn the course of the battle. The Minnesota forces prevailed; it was the final battle of the Dakota War. The 3^rd Minnesota lost four men in the battle.

Following that battle, the regiment “foraged” upon the town of New Ulm which had been attacked by Dakota warriors. I am not sure what that phrase meant—did they try to resupply by forcibly taking goods from the settlers they were supposed to protect, or is there a more innocent meaning?

The Third Minnesota was then ordered back to Fort Snelling, where they expected to be paid as other regiments fighting the Dakota War had been. However, the Army for some reason withheld their pay. The men of the Third Minnesota rioted in St. Paul in protest. I can find no record indicating how serious the riot may have been, or whether the pay dispute was resolved, but by January the regiment was on the move, marching back to the Civil War.

The Third Minnesota was sent to Tennessee where they helped to retake Fort Heiman on the Tennessee River early in 1863. They conducted counter-guerrilla operations against Confederate troops along the river. Colored Troop units were being organized at the fort, and the Third Minnesota contributed 82 officers for these new units, making it among the top ten sources for USCT officers in the entire Union Army.

In June 1863, the Third Minnesota was sent to Vicksburg and helped to take the city. They were then assigned to the “Arkansas Expedition” to seize Little Rock. They were the first infantry regiment to enter the city. Stanley M. Arthurs painted the regiment entering Little Rock over a pontoon bridge. The painting now hangs in the Minnesota Capitol. They spent several months serving as Provost Guard in Little Rock protecting the state’s constitutional convention.

"Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Entering Little Rock" by Stanley M Arthurs. 

In April 1864, most of the regiment re-enlisted, lured by both patriotism and the promise of bonuses. Orrin re-enlisted as well. The regiment then became known as a “veteran unit”, staffed by experienced soldiers.

The Third Minnesota was sent to Pine Bluff, Arkansas that spring, where the heat, mosquitos and contaminated water sources were devastating. Many of the troops fell ill from malaria. The regiment had no quinine (the only treatment for malaria at the time) despite repeated pleas to headquarters from their officers. At one point, so many troops were ill that there weren’t enough healthy troops to bury the regiments’ dead; soldiers from other regiments had to be brought in to handle the burial detail.  One of the regiment’s colonels wrote in desperation to Minnesota’s governor and Senator Ramsey, which finally produced results. The state sent the regiment a surgeon carrying a large supply of quinine. Some of the troops were sent home on furlough to recover—many boarding the train home on stretchers-- while the others were sent to a healthier site in Arkansas. Over one hundred soldiers from the regiment were buried in Arkansas.

I can’t imagine how a young man like Orrin who had grown up in the cooler states of New York and Minnesota dealt with the debilitating heat, humidity and disease. He must have been so afraid, watching the suffering and death of his friends and comrades and fearing for his own health. Somehow Orrin survived.

At some point during the final years of the war, Orrin was promoted from private to corporal. He mustered out at war’s end in September 1865 in Arkansas. The regiment headed back to Minnesota, where they attended a celebratory dinner in Red Wing before heading to Fort Snelling. Eager to return to their homes, they turned down St. Paul’s offer of a parade and banquet in their honor and were discharged from service on September 16, 1865.

Orrin Mills' Civil War pension record

Orrin was only 24 years old when he was mustered out of the army. He went home to Blue Earth County and began farming. He married Harriet Jane Britt on April 21, 1868, and their daughter, Carrie Belle Mills, was born a year later on July 6, 1869. Tragically, Harriet died six days later from childbirth complications. Eight months later, Orrin married Harriet’s sister, Martha Isabelle Britt. They had six children of their own.

Orrin and Martha Mills and six of their children, circa 1887. Photo courtesy of totapaint on Findagrave.

In 1891, Orrin and Martha and five of their children moved to Kitsap County, Washington where Orrin started farming in the Port Orchard area. Eventually their eldest son, Olney Orrin Mills, moved to Port Orchard as well.

Orrin died October 31, 1917 at age 77. According to his obituary, he was still a vigorous, active man up until the moment of death:

“Up till 2 o’clock he had been working on his place picking apples, after which he took his gun and went out hunting. Returning in the evening, he took his milk pail and went to the barn to do the milking.” He collapsed “just as he had taken the milking stool in his hands” and was found dead of a heart attack by one of his daughters. Orrin was buried at Bethel Cemetery in Kitsap County, Washington. His headstone bears the inscription:

Life’s race well run,

Life’s work well done,

Life’s Crown well won,

Now comes rest.”

Photo by Mick Hersey on Findagrave.

A fitting tribute for a veteran of a renowned Civil War regiment.

Sources:

Union Regimental Histories: Minnesota. Third Regiment Infantry.  http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmninf1.htm

3^rd Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. http://Libguides.mnhs.org/cwmu/infantry3

https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/search-soldiers.htm#sort=score+desc&q=orrin+mills

Third Minnesota Veteran Volunteer Infantry Regiment. https://www.mnopedia.org/third-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

Photos of Mills’ Civil War Pin and Mills in Civil War, posted by June Mills Marcus n Ancestry. https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/46986934/person/24020284640/media/04ebe18b-62d3-4cf5-b198-6ce5280d12ed?_phsrc=Acy5398&usePUBJs=true&galleryindex=3&albums=pg&showGalleryAlbums=true&tab=0&pid=24020284640&sort=-created

Painting- "Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Entering Little Rock" by Stanley M Arthurs. https://collections.mnhs.org/search/collections/record/10413809?__hstc=98931905.c78978b6bb3504b2a5ad823a719f44a0.1718063865104.1719612820147.1719630157282.6&__hssc=98931905.2.1719630157282&__hsfp=2678111119

Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-1865. Charles E. Flandreau. Minnesota Board of Commissioners on Publication of History of Minnesota. https://archive.org/details/minnesotacivil01minnrich/page/164/mode/2up

Drawing of Battle of Wood Lake, by Colonel Alonzo Putnam Connolly - Minnesota Historical Society - https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/multimedia/wood-lake

The Language of the Old Country: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Language”

The Fiction that Our Immigrant Ancestors Quickly Learned English

People who are hostile to new U.S. immigrants often complain that immigrants cling to their home country’s language and prefer to live with other immigrants. What happened to the idea of the melting pot, these people gripe. Our ancestors learned English right after they came to America, and quickly adopted American culture, they claim. They chide today’s immigrants, demanding that they learn to speak English!  Now!

But did our ancestors really embrace American culture and the English language right after they landed in America? I’m sure there were a few people who did, but most of our immigrant ancestors did the same things that modern immigrants do: they took decades to truly learn English, and they preferred to live with other people from their home country, speaking the Old Country language, eating Old Country foods, and worshipping and reading newspapers in their native language.

Examples abound from my own family. My father’s grandparents all immigrated from Norway, and joined other Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota, forming a Norwegian community in Brown County. Nearby was a German community, and a few miles away, a Swedish community. Each community set up their own churches that used their home country language. Newspapers were printed in their home country language. My father, born in 1917, nearly fifty years after his Syverson grandparents immigrated, spoke with a strong Norwegian accent. Why? Because his parents, who had spent most of their lives in America, spoke Norwegian at home as well as English.

An example is this postcard from my great-uncle Siver Syverson addressed to his mother Ragnhild. While my photo cut off the postal cancellation date, the company that made the post card did not begin producing them until 1909. I am guessing Siver travelled to Canada and sent the postcard sometime between 1912 and 1915. Siver was born in the United States in 1882. His parents immigrated in 1868, so Ragnhild had been in America for at least forty years by the time this postcard was written. But her American-born son was still communicating with her in Norwegian.

My father’s family attended a nearby Lutheran church that continued to offer services in Norwegian well into the 1900s. Here is the parish register for my father’s 1917 baptism. The headings are in Norwegian. Most of the ministers that served such churches came directly from Norway to serve American congregations.

My grandmother, Nora Hoffman, was the child of German immigrants, and attended a German Lutheran church in Mankato, Minnesota. Many of the forms they used, like wedding, baptism and confirmation certificates, were written in German. Hymns and services were conducted in German into the 20^th century even though the German immigrants in the area had arrived at least thirty years earlier. Below you can see my grandmother’s 1900 baptism certificate in German. 

No matter how eager immigrants are to start new lives in America, they still take pride in their home culture—and they should! I take pride in my Norwegian and German roots, after all. And it is perfectly natural that immigrants would seek to settle near other immigrants from their homeland—it offers a built-in support system and a sense of community. Our ancestors did the same. In addition, English is a complex and difficult language to master, so it is perfectly natural that adults would take decades to become comfortable and fluent, often being forced to rely on their children, who attended schools taught in English, to act as translators.

We accept that we need to examine historical records to trace our ancestors. We also need to look at what historical records tell us about American immigration before we make unfounded claims about our immigrant ancestors’ embrace of American culture and language.

 

Sources:

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives; Elk Grove Village, Illinois; Congregational Records. Church Name or Description: Lake Hanska Lutheran. Births: 1917. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60722/images/41742_314248-00282?pId=776547