eous--and had he lived would undoubtedly been placed high in rank
long before the close of the rebellion. No person ever went to the
front in whom the citizens of St. Paul had more hope for a brilliant
future. He was born in New York State in 1833, and was twenty-eight
years of age at the time of his death. He came to St. Paul in 1854 and
commenced the study of law in the office of his brother-in-law, Hon.
Edmund Rice. He did not remain long in the law business, however, but
soon changed to a position in the Bank of Minnesota, which had just
been established by ex-Gov. Marshall. For some time he was captain of
the Pioneer Guards, a company which he was instrumental in forming,
and which was the finest military organization in the West at
that time. In 1860 he was chosen commander of the Wide-Awakes, a
marching-club, devoted to the promotion of the candidacy of Abraham
Lincoln, and many of the men he so patiently drilled during that
exciting campaign became officers in the volunteer service in that
great struggle that soon followed. Little did the captain imagine at
that time that the success of the man whose cause he espoused would so
soon be the means of his untimely death. At the breaking out of the
war Capt. Acker was adjutant general of the State of Minnesota, but he
thought he would be of more use to his country in active service and
resigned that position and organized a company for the First Minnesota
regiment, of which he was made captain. At the first battle of Bull
Run he was wounded, and for his gallant action was made captain in
the Seventeenth United States Regulars, an organization that had
been recently created by act of congress. The Sixteenth regiment was
attached to Buell's army, and participated in the second day's battle,
and Cat. Acker was one of the first to fall on that terrible day,
being shot in the identical spot in the forehead where he was wounded
at the first battle of Bull Run. As soon as the news was received in
St. Paul of the captain's death his father, Hon. Henry Acker, left for
Pittsburg Landing, hoping to be able to recover the remains of his
martyred son and bring the body back to St. Paul. His body was easily
found, his burial place having been carefully marked by members of the
Second Minnesota who arrived on the battleground a short time after
the battle. When the remains arrived in St. Paul they were met at
the steamboat landing by a large number of citizens and escorted to
Masoni