2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment

{{Infobox Military Unit

| unit_name = 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment

| image = Battle Flag of the 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Cavalry Regiment.jpg

| caption = Battle Flag of the 2nd Minnesota Volunteer Cavalry Regiment

| dates = December 5, 1863, to May 4, 1866

| country = United States

| allegiance = Union

| branch = Cavalry

| equipment =

| colonels_of_the_regiment =

| battles = *Sully's Expedition Against the Sioux

}}

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was a Minnesota USV cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment was mustered at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. for three year's service on December 5, 1863, and were mustered out on November 17, 1865, and May 4, 1866. It served entirely in Minnesota, Dakota Territory, and Montana Territory guarding the frontier against the Sioux Indians. In 1864 the 2nd Minn. Cavalry was headquartered at Fort Snelling under Colonel R.N. McLaren.Fort Snelling Items, The Saint Paul Press, May 22, 1864, p.1, Minnesota digital newspaper hub, 2024 [https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/PsImageViewer.jsp?doc_id=dd7a89df-77d2-48b3-bec0-eea9d975c66c%2Fmnhi0007%2F1DFIPY56%2F64052201]

Battles and campaigns

Battle of Tah Kah A Kuty or Battle of Killdeer Mountain, July 28, 1864.
Battle of the Badlands, August 8 to 9, 1864.
Rescue of Fisk's Emigrant train at Fort Dilts, September 10 to 30,1864.

Colonels

Colonel Robert Neill McLaren

Casualties and total strength

The 2nd Minnesota Cavalry had 4 enlisted men killed in action or died of wounds received in battle and an additional 3 officers and 56 enlisted men died of disease. Total fatalities were 63.[http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmncav.htm]{{Cite book |last=Minnesota. Board of commissioners on publication of history of Minnesota in civil and Indian wars |url=http://archive.org/details/minnesotaincivil01minn |title=Minnesota in the civil and Indian wars 1861-1865 |date=1891 |publisher=St. Paul, Minn. : Printed for the state by the Pioneer press company |others=Robarts - University of Toronto}}

War Poet

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Edward Thomas, a Welsh-language war poet native to Centerville, Ohio and whose Bardic name was Awenydd, was living and working as a schoolmaster at the Welsh-American farming settlement at South Bend Township, in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. In 1862, he enlisted in Company E of the 2nd Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. During his military service, Thomas wrote many Welsh language poems, including Pryddest ar Wir Fawredd, which later won the Bardic Crown at an Eisteddfod held in Minersville, Pennsylvania. Following the end of the war, Thomas became a Presbyterian minister.Edited by Revs. Thos. E. Hughes and David Edwards, and Messes. Hugh G. Roberts and Thomas Hughes (1895), History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston, and Lime Springs, Ia., page 273.

References

{{Cite book |editor1-first=C. C. |editor1-last=Andrews |editor1-link=Christopher Columbus Andrews |publisher = Printed for the state by the Pioneer Press Co |location = St. Paul, Minn |title = Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1861-1865 |date = 1891 |ol=7088819M }}
{{cite book

| last = Jones

| first = Robert Huhn

| title = The Civil War in the Northwest

| publisher = University of Oklahoma Press

| date = 1960

}}

External links

[http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unmncav.htm The Civil War Archive Website]
[https://books.google.com/books?id=hR2BAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22&pg=PA543 Narrative of the Minnesota Second Regiment of Cavalry]
[http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dgarvey/MN_Garveys/Sullly_map.html Map of General Sully's 1864 Campaign]
[http://sites.mnhs.org/civil-war/ Minnesota Historical Society page on Minnesota and the Civil War]