WEC: "Born at Harvard, Mass., Nov 27, 1832, married Lydia S. Colburn7 (Ziba6, William5, William4, William3, Robert2, Edward1), 1855, lived some time in Lyme, New Hampshire, to Royalston, Wisconsin next; then to Spencer Brook, Minnesota, 1857. He was Corporal in Company D, 2nd Minnesota Cavalry in the late War. Mrs. Chute died 1875; aged forty, he married 2nd, Mary Jane, an older sister, 1876, and soon after moved to Princeton, Minn." (Page 104, VIII.84.)
In the 1860 Isanti County Census, daughter "Josie L." is identified as "Lydia J." She may be identified also under "Josephine": "Josephine Lydia", "Lydia Josephine", as well as "Josie".
Second Cavalry. --Col., Robert N. McLaren; Lieut.-Col., William Pfaender; Majs., Ebenezer A. Rice, John M. Thompson, Robert H. Rose. This regiment was organized during the fall and winter of 1863 and was mustered in during Jan., 1864. It was engaged in garrison duty, with occasional expeditions in pursuit of wandering bands of Indians until late in May, when it left Fort Snelling for the campaign against the savages.**
[Note**: By "savages", the United States Army record keepers meant, in actuality, the Sioux, who would have posted similar claims against the United States Army of the time. Nonetheless, this record is interesting for several reasons: in the battle of Tahkahokuty Mountain (Killdeer Mountain) in August of 1864, Cornelius would have encountered (in reputation, if not in actual fact) the famous chief of the Wahpekute Dakota Indian tribe, Inkpaduta, who would have participated in this battle. This band of the Sioux was located in the prairies of South Dakota, Iowa, and Minnesota, and certainly had their own legitimate reasons for feeling backed against the wall by the U.S. Government.The 8th Minn. infantry, eight companies of the 2nd cavalry, Brackett's cavalry battalion and Jones' infantry, formed the and brigade of Sully's division, under command of Col. Minor T. Thomas these troops left Fort Ridgely June 5, 1864, and effected a junction with the 1st brigade at Fort Sully on the Missouri July 1. The Indians were driven from their camp on Cannon Ball river and followed to the Little Heart river. The regiment participated and did effective work in the battle of Tahkahokuty mountain, where 5,000 Indians were strongly posted in the hills and ravines. Two men of Co. D were killed the following night, while on picket, Co. D and part of Co. A being detailed for that duty. It was in the two days' engagement in early August, known as the battle of the Little Missouri, reached the Yellowstone on Aug. 13. On the return trip it had several slight encounters with the enemy. A detachment accompanied the expedition for the relief of Capt. Fisk and a party of 50 cavalrymen, who were escorting an emigrant train west. The regiment reached Fort Ridgely Oct. 8 and the several companies were on garrison and patrol duty at Forts Wadsworth, Abercrombie, Ripley and Ridgely, and smaller posts. They were mustered out as fast as regulars could take their places in the fall of 1865, except Co. A, which was mustered out April 2, and L, mustered out May 4, 1866. Battles Fought:As a settler in Minnesota Cornelius would have certainly heard of Inkpaduta already. "Inkpaduta's extreme hatred for whites seemed to be derived from the senseless murdering of his family in 1854 by Henry Lott ... after 1857, Inkpaduta became a legend among settlers, a storybook monster who was often rumored to be somewhere nearby, lurking. Relations between Dakotas and whites staggered on, finally exploding in 1862 with a massive uprising in Minnesota, which claimed the lives of nearly five hundred white settlers and an unknown number of Dakotas. Inkpaduta was there, but his role--if any--is unclear.
As the uprising collapsed, he fled westward onto the plains, eventually falling in with the Lakotas and becoming friends with Sitting Bull. Lakota holy man Black Elk lists Inkpaduta as one of the great men present at the Little Bighorn in 1876, when Custer was "rubbed out." As Lakota resistance disintegrated the following year, Sitting Bull and his people fled to Canada. Inkpaduta, old and increasingly nearsighted, went with them. Unlike Sitting Bull, he never returned to the U.S., never surrendered, was never captured. He died in Manitoba in 1881."]
Details on the Mauvaise Terre and Blue Earth River battles are still being researched.
Another reason this record is interesting is that it reflects the use of the military on two distinct fronts during the Civil War: while most Union army units were engaged with battles against the south, they were also needed in the west. Cornelius's unit is an example of a cavalry unit that fought on both fronts.
Source on the Minnesta Second Cavalry:Historical Data Systems, comp. Military Records of Individual Civil War Soldiers. [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 1999-. Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 - Historical Data Systems Inc.P.O. Box 196 Kingston, MA 02364
Sources on Inkpaduta and the Sioux: