After the organization of the First Regiment out of existing state militia, other militia companies remained over, equally desirous for a part in the war for the Union. When Governor Ramsey called for a second regiment on the 14th of June, 1861, the response was immediate. Before the end of July the Second Minnesota Infantry had been mustered in at Fort Snelling, uniformed and supplied. It received as commander Colonel Horatio P. Van Cleve, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, who had resigned from the regular army after some years of service. On October 14 the regiment left Fort Snelling, without patriotic exercises, for Louisville, Kentucky, where it joined Buell’s army. At Mill Springs it behaved with coolness and gallantry, suffering a loss of twelve killed and thirty-three wounded. The whole remaining season of 1862 was occupied with laborious marches between the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, with occasional minor engagements. It was present at Shiloh, Corinth, and Perrysville, where its losses were nominal. The Third Minnesota Infantry was called for on September 18, before the Second had gone to the front. The companies were promptly recruited by aspirants to commissions, and the organization was complete by the middle of November. For its colonel Governor Ramsey selected Henry A. Lester of Winona, who had made a creditable record as a captain in the First Regiment. In a few months he brought the command to a high state of discipline, and by his personal qualities gained the complete confidence of officers and men. In April, 1862, the regiment was sent to Murfreesboro’, Tennessee, a point of some strategic importance, thirty miles southeast of Nashville, and was there in July when the Confederate cavalry leader Forrest was raiding thereabout to delay the movements of Buell. The covering force was a small brigade in two separate encampments. A Michigan infantry battalion of five companies and two cavalry troops were stationed to the east of the town, the Third Minnesota about a mile and a half northwest on the Nashville pike. No intrenchments seem to have been constructed. At an early hour of July 13 Forrest’s advance brushed away the cavalry outposts, captured the brigade commander in his quarters in the village, and fiercely attacked the Michigan men. It was not till noon, however, that he was able with his main force of more than one thousand men to compel their surrender. At the sound of the firing, Colonel Lester got his command under arms and placed them in a good position for defense not far from his camp, and there he held his men while the forenoon wore away with the sound of battle in his ears and the smoke rising from the burning warehouses in the town. The barest show of attack was made on his front, but Forrest in person led a considerable party around his flank to attack his camp, defended by Corporal Charles H. Green with twenty teamsters, convalescents, and cooks. It took three charges,