The Last Man of Company B

by Erica Whalen, former WCHS intern

The originators of the last man’s clubs tradition in the Stillwater area were the Civil War veterans of the famous Company B of the First Minnesota Regiment. The Stillwater men who served in the First Minnesota came primarily from the Stillwater Guard, a local militia originally organized in 1856 to protect early settlers in the Stillwater area from local Native Americans. The First Minnesota is known as the first volunteer regiment to reply to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers in 1861.

Company B of the First Minnesota was involved in many of the most well-known battles of the Civil War. It saw action at Bull Run, Yorktown, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg and was present at Appomattox Court House for General Lee’s surrender on April 9th, 1865. According to Anita Buck in her article on the H & H Last Man’s Club, the rallying cry of the 135th infantry of Company B became “to the last man,” a phrase used at Gettysburg originally to help spur on the troops (Army, May 2004). The phrase also helped to establish the Last Man’s Club after the war.

The Last Man’s Club first met on July 21, 1886, the 25th anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run, in which the First Minnesota played a prominent role. The members agreed to hold meetings annually on the anniversary of the battle. A stringent set of ceremonies was put in place and adhered to at each meeting. Each was made up of a formal parliamentary meeting, a speech by an invited guest speaker, a dinner, and a memorial to those members who had passed away. The format of the first banquet was to be duplicated each year by the Last Man’s Club and by later last man’s clubs in the Stillwater area.

The first years of the Last Man’s Club saw the founding of enduring traditions, many of which survive over a century after their founding. The inaugural meeting saw the implementation of the basic meeting procedure, with John McKusick, the first mayor of Stillwater, as guest speaker. Meetings were held at one of Stillwater’s hotels, the Sawyer House, which today is the site of the Lowell Inn. The club had 34 members by its second meeting in 1887. Also in that year, a bottle of wine was donated with the intention that the “last man” would drink a toast to his fallen comrades at the club’s last meeting.

A poem written by Henry Hayden, called “The Last Survivor,” was read at each meeting since its introduction in 1887, with the final verse of the poem attaining special significance to the Last Man’s Club as well as to later clubs of its kind in Stillwater. The poem was dedicated to the last man but also neatly sums up the ideals of the club. It looks back to “the days of ’61” with nostalgia and refers to club’s deceased as “my patriot dead.” The poem also refers to the end of the club’s last meeting, with no answering call from the dead. The Hayden poem makes frequent reference to the Civil War but its last verse proved an appropriate ending for the meetings of the later clubs while maintaining ties with the originator:

The camp fire smolders-ashes fall;

The clouds are black athwart the sky;

No tap of drum, no bugle call;

My comrades, all, good-by.

By the 1924 meeting of the Last Man’s Club, the three remaining members able to attend voted to change the constitution of the club. Rather than waiting for the last member alone to open the bottle, the present members Peter Hall, John Goff and Charles Lockwood all voted to change the club constitution and have the last two members open the bottle. They tasted the wine, which by this date was sour, and then resealed the bottle for the last man to carry out the planned toast.

Charles Lockwood was the last surviving member of the Last Man’s Club at age 88. On July 21st, 1930, he attended the last meeting at the Lowell Inn, which was attended by widows of two members, Mrs. W. N. McClure and Mrs. Nellie Bloomer as well as several other dignitaries . The long table was still set for 34, with 33 of the chairs draped in black crepe. In keeping with the original plan of the club, he poured a glass of wine from the bottle and toasted to his fallen comrades.

Although the Last Man’s Club passed into history with the 1930 meeting, the conventions of the club were well remembered by Stillwater residents. The veterans of the next large conflict would pick up the traditions established by the 34 men of the Last Man’s Club and carry them on. The continuation of the founding traditions of the Last Man’s Club shows that later veterans saw their actions in the tradition of the famed heroism of the men of the First Minnesota.