Minnesota has silenced firecrackers on the Fourth of July, except for illicit “works” smuggled in from other states, but one big noise goes on here.

Unmuted, undaunted and, alas, unheard by most New Ulm residents is the annual Independence Day salute fired by the New Ulm Battery. The 13 volleys at sunrise every Fourth from the New Ulm cemeteries.

The 13 shots are for the 13 colonies that founded this nation. The salute goes back not quite to 1776, but almost. No one knows exactly when the traditional Fourth opener commenced.

The Battery used to line up in a field near Loretto Hospital, from which point it could awaken a good share of New Ulm to the birthday of the county.

“One day,” recalls Dennis Traurig,a battery veteran, “the nuns at the hospital said the cannon was disturbing the patients. We decided to move.”

For a decade the troops of New Ulm’s private army have fired from the city of the dead with no complaints.

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THIS year you may not have heard the legal salute at 5:38 a.m., if you were sleeping off the start of the holiday, but one man drove all the way from Minneapolis for the sunrise shots.

He was Skeets Held, an asphalt contractor who will sponsor the New Ulm Battery in the Minneapolis Aquatennial parade at 3 p.m. July 21. This treat for Aqua parade viewers will cost Held $1,200 to pay for renting 26 horses and transporting men and guns to Minneapolis so he came down Tuesday to be here to see the battery perform at sunrise.

Held,upon learning the battery also would perform at the public fireworks show in Johnson Park at night, remained over.

“He is a real fan of ours,” said Traurig, who is first sergeant of the battery.

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GETTING into the Aqua parade isn’t easy, said Traurig. A group has to prove, for example, it will be non-polluting and biodegradable, after all, with 26 farm horses pulling the caissons and cannons there will be manure.

The New Ulm unit will follow right behind Mayor Stenvig, up front.

The battery was organized in New Ulm following the Indian attack on the town in 1862. Friends and relatives in Cincinnati sent a small howitzer to New Ulm to help in the defense.

A battery of volunteers learned to shoot the piece but never fought a foe. But the unit remained in existence as a ceremonial military organization, partly supported by the City of New Ulm.

New Ulm Daily Journal,

July 8, 1973