Transcripts

text | pdf |

---

SPEAKER 1: 8 o'clock on a breezy summer morning at a military post in south central Minnesota, a small squad of soldiers marches quietly in formation to a flagpole to get the day officially underway.

[TRUMPET PLAYING]

This is Fort Ridgely, the third military outpost established by the US Army in Minnesota in the 19th century. The flagpole is located just outside the fort's only standing building, the restored commissary. Rock foundations a little more than a foot high are all that remain from the rest of the fort.

This place is a state park now with an interpretive center run by the historical society. On this day, though, a group of local history buffs will bring back to life the Fort Ridgely of the mid-19th century with black powder musket shoots, fur trapper rendezvous, and civil war cannon demonstrations. But first, breakfast.

[SIZZLING]

SPEAKER 2: No, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER 3: Bet you're glad this ain't on camera.

SPEAKER 1: These men are weekend warriors of a sort, not national guardsmen or reservists. Rather, they're members of a 125-year-old citizens militia called the New Ulm Battery. The militia laws have been off the books for years now, but for some reason, the men of New Ulm never got around to disbanding their militia.

They still own four Civil War era cannon, several caissons, the two-wheeled wagons that carry ammunition, and they still train on a regular basis to keep their cannon skills sharp. Throughout the summer, they march their horse-drawn cannon in town parades. They participate in Cannon competition. And on any given summer weekend, they can be found demonstrating the fine art of firing a 125-year-old cannon.

KEN FOSS: Firing mechanism we use is a reproduction of an 1848 E Hidden lock. Mr. Hidden invented it. It's a hammer with a--

SPEAKER 1: Ken Foss is the New Ulm Battery Sergeant, and as often as not, its chief spokesman. He's been involved in the battery for more than a dozen years now. He takes quite obvious pride in the militia's Civil War era hardware.

KEN FOSS: It's a 6-pound field gun is what it is. And it's a model 1841.

SPEAKER 1: How accurate is a gun like this?

KEN FOSS: This particular one isn't, but there are a lot of them that they are accurate, but why this one isn't, we just can't figure out. Within 100 yards, it's very accurate, but you get past 100 yards, and it-- you don't know where it's going to-- the ball is going to go.

SPEAKER 1: How'd you get involved in this, shooting cannons?

KEN FOSS: Well, about 10, 12 years ago, closer to 13, I guess. There were some cannon shoots around, and we went to one a year and then it got to be two and then three, and pretty soon, we're up to five or six a year, and now, we cut back on it.

But that was just a bunch of guys that had cannons that would get together and shoot a target from 150 yards or 300 yards, and that's about how it got started.

SPEAKER 1: It's kind of an odd hobby, isn't it?

KEN FOSS: Yeah, it's very odd.

SPEAKER 1: How much of this has to do with New Ulm and its history? Does that come into play here, or is it simply a matter of it's fun to play around with the cannons?

KEN FOSS: Well, when we're at shoots, we're there to enjoy the sport of it. And when we're at festivals or do salutes in New Ulm or whatever, then it's strictly the history of the battery. That's what we present.

SPEAKER 1: And there is lots of history to pass along about the New Ulm battery. Chuck Niehoff is a retired Navy chief. He holds the rank of corporal in the battery.

CHUCK NIEHOFF: In 1862, during the Sioux conflict, the Indians attacked the town of New Ulm at two different days in August of 1862. And when the citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, the turnverein society, who they have a branch in New Ulm, heard about it, they collected funds and bought a cannon and send it to the city of New Ulm.

And this cannon arrived in January of 1863. And a group of men got together and formed what was known as the New Ulm battery as a militia unit. In 1864, they received another gun as army surplus when the Indian Wars moved to the West. And it just kept on growing and growing and staying.

SPEAKER 1: How come? How come you folks are still together?

CHUCK NIEHOFF: It's tradition. And there was people always interested in it. And I've always been able to round up 40 men, which is the maximum number that we have on our roster.

SPEAKER 1: So you're fairly well equipped here for a militia in the middle of Minnesota.

CHUCK NIEHOFF: Right. If you count the gun that we have in the museum, which is the original gun in the Brown County Museum, that's four cannons, and that is a battery for cannons. So we are actually a battery.

SPEAKER 1: Never fired a shot in war, though?

CHUCK NIEHOFF: Never. The Indians never came back after we got the guns, and no one else has really tried to attack New Ulm, so--

SPEAKER 1: Can't imagine why not.

CHUCK NIEHOFF: They hear about us, I think.

SPEAKER 4: Ready. Fire.

[EXPLOSION]

Ceasefire. Secure equipment.

SPEAKER 1: After firing their Civil War era cannon, the members of the New Ulm battery hitch up their cannon and caisson to a team of four horses. They exit the parade grounds at full gallop, accompanied by a bugler trying his best to sound the charge.

SPEAKER 5: Get on there, you guys.

SPEAKER 6: Oh, Jimmy, I don't know if you got room for four.

SPEAKER 5: Yeah.

SPEAKER 6: We got room for four just.

SPEAKER 5: OK. OK.

SPEAKER 7: Hang on.

ALL: Team.

[TRUMPET PLAYING]

SPEAKER 1: From Fort Ridgely, this is Mark Heistad reporting.