On Shy's Hill on December 16, 1864 Minnesota troops made what historians call the "Decisive Charge in the Decisive Battle of the Civil War" that led to the destruction of the Confederate army of Tennessee. The 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Minnesota Infantry Regiments were in the 1st Division of XVI Corps fighting as a detachment of the Union Army of Tennessee. Minnesota suffered the most Union killed and wounded in the Battle of Nashville. The following verse memorializes the men killed at Nashville.
"Comrades who month after month have marched by our side sharing with us danger and privation.
Comrades who have grown as dear to us as brothers lie dotting the steep hillside, their battles ended, their warfare over. Never more they press with us shoulder to shoulder as the bristling steel points sweep restlessly on, never more in our hours of glee will their voices join in the merry jest or fill the air with laughter - they are gone and the everlasting mountains in the shadow of which they lie shall be their eternal monument: Year after year the forest trees will shed their crowns of glory over them. And day by day the winds, as they sigh through the Brentwood hills will chant a low, sad, requiem to their memory."
John Milton Benthall, Pvt., Co. C, 10th MN Infantry
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