A noble life had been sacrificed in the cause of
freedom--one more name had been added to the long death roll of the
nation's heroes.
Capt. Acker was born a soldier--brave, able, popular and
courteous--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.
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