A History of the New Ulm Battery

Southern Minnesota was not a pleasant place to be in the years around 1862. Sioux Indians had been squeezed out of their native land and forced farther west. The food and supplies they were to receive were months late. And again the white settlers were encroaching on the new Sioux territories for farmland. The Indians, frustrated beyond patience, retaliated in the only way they knew, swift and brutal attack.

After  the attacks on New Ulm in August, 1862, word of the uprising spread east. German friends in the Cincinnati, Ohio Turnverein Society collected donations, purchased a 12 Pound Mountain Howitzer and sent it to the Turnverein Society in New Ulm.

Upon receiving the little cannon, the German settlers decided never to be caught defenseless again.  In early 1863, under the state militia laws, forty prominent citizens organized and elected officers. Richard Fischer, being a discharged Civil War artillery officer, was duly elected to become the Battery's first captain.

The early years of the New Ulm Battery consisted of drills, marches, and artillery practice on a monthly basis. In 1864, with the Indian Wars moving farther west, the Battery obtained a 6 Pound field gun, limber, caisson and harness as war surplus.

With relative calm in the area, the state militia laws were suspended in 1871, No longer an official army, interest in the Battery began to decline. It took the strong hand of  former German artillery officer Frank Burg to organize the unit into a traditional working Battery in 1890 with monthly meetings and drills. The New Ulm Battery took on the nickname of Burg's Battery.

In 1907, through the efforts of  Captain Burg, Minnesota Governor Johnson donated National Guard surplus of two 3 inch rifled guns, limbers, caissons and harness.   Since the Battery has never been called to active duty, no shot has ever been fired in anger.  So the Battery continues its long history.

Throughout the years, the New Ulm Battery has sponsored dances, picnics and participated in parades throughout  Southern Minnesota.  More recently the New Ulm Battery has been a participant in live fire cannon competitions and re-enactments of the Civil War in three states, also going to schools to give students a taste of living history of the 1860's.  The New Ulm Battery is also an active participant providing both units and  floats in the Memorial Day and Bavarian Blast parades in New Ulm.