It was not the fortune of the Fourth Minnesota to be decimated in any one engagement. Its heaviest loss, thirteen killed and thirty-one wounded, was in its participation in the heroic defense of the post at Altoona, Georgia, when a force numbering less than two thousand stood off repeated charges of a Confederate division of seven thousand. Several men of the Fourth whose term of enlistment had expired shared in the battle, and of them some were numbered with the dead.
The gallant behavior of the men of the Fifth Minnesota and Colonel Hubbard’s instant perception of the proper line of action at Corinth on October 4, 1862, have already been related. It was the fortune of this command, together with the Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Minnesota Infantry regiments, to share in the glory of the battle which destroyed the Confederate power in the Mississippi valley.
Thomas, commanding at Nashville, Tennessee, on December 15, 1863, delivered a blow on Hood’s left wing which caused that commander to retire to a position on a range of hills two miles to the south, admirably chosen, and capable of effective intrenchment. The attempt made soon after noon of the 16th to crush the right of Hood’s army on Overton Hill had no result but the loss of many brave men. McArthur’s division was then ordered to assault the Confederate left, strongly posted behind a breastwork revetted by a stone wall. The first brigade was put in motion as if to make the principal charge. The Minnesota regiments were in the front line of the second and third brigades, commanded respectively by Hubbard and Marshall. Observing the movement, these commanders at once ordered their brigades forward, and away they went over a muddy cornfield, up a slope covered with boulders and obstructed by stone walls, ditches, and rail fences. Without halt or interruption, under a heavy front and cross fire, the lines pressed on, and stormed over the enemy’s intrenchment, capturing the defenders, with guns and colors. A general charge of the whole line now put the entire Confederate army to rout and ended the war in the West.
The Minnesota regiments suffered a loss of three hundred in the charge. Jennison, lieutenant-colonel commanding the Tenth, received a severe wound, as he led his battalion over the works. Hubbard had three horses shot under him, and was wounded. The colors of the Fifth were three times shot down. Captain Sheehan (hero of Fort Ridgely) picked them up and saw them planted on the stone wall. Marshall and Hubbard were both brevetted as brigadiers, and both afterwards became governors of Minnesota.