The muster of the Fifth Minnesota began December 19, 1861, and was completed on the 29th of March following. Three companies were sent to the frontier forts to relieve companies of the Fourth called in. To encourage recruiting Governor Ramsey proposed to appoint to the field and staff positions such gentlemen as the line officers should nominate to him. For colonel their choice fell upon a gentleman, German born, who had seen service in the Prussian army. The experience of a few months proved to him and his friends that a mistake had been made. Lieutenant-Colonel Lucius F. Hubbard, afterwards governor of Minnesota, succeeded and held command until assigned to a brigade. Leaving behind the three companies on duty in the frontier forts, the regiment went south in May, 1862, in time to participate in the operations which resulted in the occupation of Corinth, Mississippi. The summer was passed in quiet, diversified by the affairs at Farmington and Iuka. When Price and Van Dorn undertook, on October 8, to dislodge Rosecrans from his intrenched position at Corinth, it fell to the Fifth Minnesota to take a most honorable part in their repulse. Recalled late that night from outpost duty, the men bivouacked in a street of the town. In the forenoon of the 4th, after a furious bombardment, the Confederates assaulted and pushed a column of attack through the Union line near its right. Colonel Hubbard saw the impending danger, and without waiting for orders threw his regiment on the flank of the Confederate column, broke it into fragments, and drove it back in complete disorder. The batteries temporarily lost to the enemy he retook, and restored the shattered battle line. Such is the willing testimony of Rosecrans himself. Survivors of the Fifth delight to recall the gallant and fearless behavior of their young Catholic chaplain on that field. He is now the Most Reverend John Ireland, Archbishop of St. Paul, known everywhere for splendid services in church and state. In addition to the five infantry regiments recruited under the calls of 1862, five minor organizations were formed, one of which, the Second Company of Minnesota sharpshooters, has been mentioned. The First Sharpshooters were mustered in at Fort Snelling, October 5, 1861, and sent to Washington to become Company A of the Second Regiment of United States Sharpshooters. That command participated in the battles of second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, doing effective work with its Sharps rifles. The Minnesota company had ten wounded at Antietam.