The History of Minnesota and Tales of the FrontierFlandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
History
The History of Minnesota and Tales of the Frontier
Flandrau, Charles E. (Charles Eugene)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- History
In the fall of 1858 a man named Wallace was killed in Wright county.
Oscar F. Jackson was tried for the murder in the spring of 1859, and
acquitted by a jury. Public sentiment was against him, and he was warned
to leave the county. He did not heed the admonition, and on April 25th a
mob assembled, and hung Jackson to the gable end of Wallace's cabin.
Governor Sibley offered a reward for the conviction of any of the
lynchers. Shortly afterwards one, Emery Moore, was arrested as being
implicated in the affair. He was taken to Wright county for trial, and
at once rescued by a mob. The governor sent three companies of the
militia to Monticello to arrest the offenders and preserve order, the
Pioneer Guards being among them. This force, aided by a few special
officers of the law, arrested eleven of the lynchers and rescuers, and
turned them over to the civil authorities, and on the 11th of August,
1859, having completed their mission, returned to St. Paul. As there was
no war or bloodshed of any kind connected with this expedition, it was
called the "Wright County War."
Gov. Sibley, having somewhat of a military tendency, appointed as his
adjutant general, Alexander C. Jones, who was a graduate of the Virginia
Military Academy, and captain of the Pioneer Guards. Under this
administration a very complete militia bill was passed, on the twelfth
day of August, 1858. Minnesota from that time on had a very efficient
militia system, until the establishment of the national guard, which
made some changes in its general character, supposed to be for the
better.
THE CIVIL WAR.
Nothing of any special importance occurred during the years 1859 and
1860 in Minnesota. The state continued to grow in population and wealth
at an extraordinary pace, but in a quiet and unobtrusive way. The
politics of the nation had been for some time much disturbed between the
North and the South, on the question of slavery, and threats of
secession from the Union made by the slave-holding states. The election
of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States, in 1860,
precipitated the impending revolution, and on the fourteenth day of
April, 1861, Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina,
was fired upon by the revolutionists, which meant war between the two
sections of the country. I will only relate such events in connection
with the Civil War which followed as are especially connected with
Minnesota.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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