d mustered in 2,883,000 men, 400,000 of
whom had lost their lives. To this army Minnesota contributed 25,052, or
about one-seventh of her entire population. Of this number 2,500 were
killed or died of sickness during the war, and it is calculated that
5,000 died since the war on account of wounds and diseases contracted
during service. The Third regiment had, during four years' service, a
total enrollment of 1,417, of which number there were left only 432 men
when we returned in September, 1865. The war cost the Union about two
billion, seven hundred million dollars. The sacrifice of gold and blood
was not too great. Not only America, but the whole human race has gained
more through the victories of our army than can be estimated in gold and
blood. And the Scandinavians of the West may justly feel proud of the
part they took in this struggle for liberty and human rights.

CHAPTER VIII.

My Reason for Taking Part in the Civil War--The Dignity of Labor--The
Firm Mattson & Webster--_Svenska Amerikanaren_, its Program and
Reception--The State Emigration Bureau of Minnesota--Its Aim, Plan and
Work.

The war which closed with the events narrated in the last chapter was
one of the most important of modern times, and proved the greatness and
the resources of the American people never properly appreciated before.
But it revealed a still greater nobility of character when our immense
army, after four years' service, suddenly disbanded, its soldiers
quietly and peacefully returning to their common daily toil without the
least disorder or disturbance of any kind. The swords were turned into
plowshares as quietly and naturally as if they never had been steeped in
blood.

For my own part--and that was undoubtedly the case with most of our
volunteers--I entered the service because I considered it to be my duty
to do my little part in defending the country which had adopted me as a
citizen, and not, as many have supposed, on account of ambition or for
the sake of gain; in fact, as has been shown already, I resigned a more
important and remunerative position in the civil service than the one I
first accepted in the army; hence it was quite easy for me to exchange
the uniform for the plain garb of the citizen and hang my sword among
the reminiscences of the past.

One day shortly after my arrival home, while walking along a street in
Red Wing, I noticed a former professor of a university, who had been a
captain in the