The sleepy river town of Hastings was far from the front lines of North versus South and the battles of Gettysburg and Antietam. That distance, however, is not indicative of Hastings residents’ involvement and Minnesota’s importance within the United States’ bloodiest war.
This was the topic the President of the Hastings Area Historical Society and former Hastings Middle School teacher Spencer Johnson spoke to at last week’s Lunch and Learn at The Confluence Hotel.
“There’s so many little stories here,” said Johnson about Hastings’ involvement in the Civil War.

The Road to Civil War
Before getting to Hastings, Johnson focused on the runup to the war, on what causes spurned South Carolina and 10 other states to secede in 1861.
“Nothing ever happens overnight,” said Johnson.
More than a decade before any state would secede, the issues of how to address the expansion of slavery cut the nation across geographic lines.
To share that explanation, Johnson again started in Minnesota with the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford that centered on the ability of formerly enslaved people to gain their freedom from living in northern states.
The case, which was heard before the Supreme Court in 1857, came from Dred Scott, an enslaved man who filed a freedom suit for his own freedom and that of his daughters after living and getting married in Minnesota, a free territory at that time.
The Supreme Court ruled that enslaved people were not citizens and as such couldn’t sue for their own freedom. This landmark case set forth the precedent that even in free states and territories, enslaved people did not have rights and were not citizens.
It further divided a nation that was already literally divided on the issue.
“It was very controversial,” said Spencer.
Many of the run-up issues preceding the war, according to Johnson, were centered around the expansion of slavery rather than its abolition.
The famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 between Abraham Lincoln and Sen. Stephen Douglas were not about the abolition of slavery but rather focused on whether slavery should be allowed in new states.
It was about this very issue that caused fighting to break out in Kansas in the late 1850s between pro-slavery settlers and abolitionists over whether the state would allow slavery in a series of conflicts that would later be known as Bleeding Kansas.
“There was open warfare and the federal government should have called troops in, but they didn’t do that and that caused problems,” said Johnson.
In the runup to the 1860 presidential election, South Carolina threatened to secede if Abraham Lincoln was elected, and when he was sworn in in 1861, made good on that promise.

Company H
Minnesota was the first state to offer a regiment to the Union, which would later be the First Minnesota. Regiments are composed of 10 companies, one of which, was from Hastings: Company H.
Hastings Mayor Oren T. Hayes listed a notice in the local paper calling for 100 volunteers to form the company. That “Appeal to Patriots” reads:
“Minnesotians! Citizens of Dakota County!! Are you Cowards? Can you set a price upon your Liberties? Your honor? If not Arouse! Your Country Calls!! TO ARMS!!
“The President, the head of the Nation, by proclamation, has called for 75,000 MEN! To defend the Constitution—to execute the laws—to protect the National FLAG from insult and dishonor.
“Minnesota is called upon by proclamation issued by the Governor of this State to furnish One Regiment to responded to the call of the President. Shall Old Dakota County be behind her sister counties in responding to this Our Country’s Call? Dakota County must and shall be represented.
“We are told that we cannot and must not ‘coerce’ a Sovereign State. My God! Fellow-Citizens, are we guilty of listening to this senseless twaddle, and remain passive while the Sovereign Nation is ‘coerced’ by these same twaddlers? No, never! In the name of the Eternal, NEVER!!
“Holding as I do, the Commission of Adj’t of the 13th Regiment, which comprises Dakota County, I hold it to be my right and duty to make this strong appeal to the citizen soldiery of this County to respond and furnish one noble, gallant and fearless company, who dare go where I will lead.
“Volunteers will be received at this place forthwith, to proceed to the Capital of the State—thence to the Capital of the Nation; or wherever duty calls. Then, hurrah!! Who will Volunteer under Capt. O. T. Hayes, Hastings Min, April 19, 1861.”
Hayes apparently had ambitions of glory for the war because in the notice he called himself a captain but enlisted as a lieutenant. After the battle of Bull Run, Hayes was mustered due to physical disability. He is buried in Lakeside Cemetery.
When the company travelled to St. Paul, they lacked uniforms and even proper muskets. Members of the First Minnesota wore red shirts during the battle of Manassas, sometimes called The Battle of Bull Run, because standardized Union uniforms didn’t exist yet.
According to Johnson, this lack of uniforms was an issue for soldiers across the country even after the Union blue and Confederate gray was established, with soldiers on both sides wearing the other’s colors.
“It got really confusing […] that’s why flags are so important,” said Johnson.
The 1st Minnesota would fight in many of the major battles within the Army of the Potomac, from Bull Run to Antietam to even Gettysburg.
To learn more about Hastings history, follow the Hastings Area Historical Society Facebook page for future meetings, outings, and discussions on local history.