Name: William J. Sturgis Company: B
Veteran; enlisted in Company B; promoted Corporal; promoted Sergeant
Major February 18, 1865.
Birth
Date: about 1835
Place: Unknown
Mustered In
Date: January 17,
1862
Rank: Private
Age: 27
Death
Date: February 1909
Place: Rocky
Mountain region
Mustered Out
Date: August 7,
1865
Rank: Sergeant
Major
Age: about 30
Residence following
military service: Rocky Mountain region
Vocation following
military service: farmer
William J. Sturgis Biography and
Civil
War Narrative
William J. Sturgis was born about
1835. He enlisted as a Private in Company B of the 5th Minnesota
Volunteer Infantry Regiment on January 17, 1862, at the age of 27.
The first order of duty for
Company B was to report to Fort Ridgely. They
left Fort Snelling at noon on March 22, 1862, under the command of
First Sergeant Thomas P. Gere. Through
the snow they traveled up the
Minnesota Valley, stopping at the Scott County court house at Shakopee
the evening of the 22nd, passing throughBelle Plaine, and Le Sueur,
Minnesota on the 23rd. They crossed the Minnesota River on the ice at
Traverse de Sioux after dark and spent the night of the 23rd at the
Nicollet County court house at St. Peter. The company reached La
Fayette, Minnesota, on the 24th--18 miles from their destination. The
Company
arrived at Fort Ridgely at noon on March 25th, serving garrison duty
and continuing their military instruction and drills. On the morning of Monday,
August 18, word was received at Fort Ridgely that a
massacre of
whites was taking place at the Lower Sioux Agency. Company B's Captain
John S. Marsh immediately led
a rescue party of 46 soldiers and an interpreter to the Lower Sioux
Agency.
On their way they passed fleeing citizens, burning houses, and
mutilated
corpses. When the rescue party reached the Redwood ferry crossing on
the
Minnesota River, the Indians ambushed them from all sides. In the
ensuing battle, 24 men died and five were
wounded. In advance of the rest of the party, privates James Dunn and William B. Hutchinson were sent
ahead to Fort Ridgely where they reported the battle to the fort.
When news was received at
Fort
Ridgely just before 8:30 on the evening of August 18 that Captain John
Marsh
and half of his rescue party had died at the Redwood Ferry crossing,
Lieutenant Thomas P. Gere immediately dispatched a message to Fort
Snelling apprising them of the situation and requesting assistance.
This message was sent with Private Sturgis, mounted on the best horse
in the garrison. Sturgis was also instructed to, if possible, inform Lieutenant Norman K. Culver and Agent
Thomas J. Galbraith at St.
Peter, Minnesota, and urge them to return to Fort Ridgely with their
men as soon as possible. Sturgis reached Culver and Galbraith before
morning on August 19.
Courier
Sturgis, after an all-night ride over a dreary road, reached St. Peter
at dawn on the morning: of August 19th, with his message announcing the
dire straits of the Fort and the upper frontier. Here he overtook
Lieutenant Culver, Sergeant McGrew and five other men, all of Co. B,
together with Indian Agent Galbraith and James Gorman, the latter in
command of the Renville Rangers, all on their way to Fort Snelling. St.
Peter was stirred to its foundations with excitement when the contents
of the message of Lieutenant Gere and the verbal report of Sturgis
spread with almost electric swiftness throughout the town, confirming
what up to this time had been a rumor, but one that did not, in the
public mind, portend a general uprising.
In this day no railroad had
penetrated the valley of the Minnesota river; nor was there any
telegraphic communication between St. Paul and this upper country.
Men were never more prompt in
responding to a call than were the brave fellows above named and the
Renville Rangers, the latter newly-recruited, not even mustered into
the service, and unarmed. Under the inspiration of this call to duty,
great vigor attended every detail of preparation for the return to the
Fort. St. Peter was fired with excitement and activity as never before,
and rendered promptly every requirement for the out-fitting of the men.
At 6 o'clock on the morning of the 19th the expedition set out, and
without a break in the rhythmic step, the noble fellows covered in a
forced march the distance of forty miles by evening, entering the Fort
amid wild shouts of joy and welcome, for at last the garrison
considered itself on a "war footing," not only equal to self-defense,
but strong enough to stay the bloody hand raised against the Minnesota
valley.
Before leaving St. Peter a
sufficient number of old Harper's Ferry muskets were secured to arm the
Renville Rangers, each man receiving a beggarly three rounds of
ammunition. [Recollections of the Sioux Massacre, Oscar G. Wall, pp.
80-82]
After his Company rejoined
the rest of the 5th
Minnesota near Oxford, Mississippi, on December 12, 1862, Sturgis
participated with the Regiment in Grant's Central Mississippi
Campaign (November, 1862, to January,
1863), the Siege
of Vicksburg, Mississippi (May 18-July 4, 1863), the Meridian Campaign
(February 3-March 2, 1864), the Red River Campaign (March 10-May 22,
1864), an arduous march through Arkansas and Missouri in pursuit of
Price
(September
17-November 15, 1864), the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee (December
15-16, 1864), and the assault and capture of Fort Blakely (April 9,
1865).
During his service, Private Sturgis was promoted to Corporal and then,
on February 18, 1865,
to
Sergeant Major of the Regiment. He was discharged from the 5th
Minnesota on August 7, 1865.
Returning to civilian life, William Sturgis eventually moved west to
the frontier region of the Rocky Mountains, where he farmed. He died
about February 1908, just a month after sending Oscar Wall a letter
describing his dispatch activities in August 1862.
William
J. Sturgis