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By Patrick Tepoorten
The state’s sesquicentennial celebration got me to thinking about Minnesota’s role in shaping a nation. Though the North Star State has made countless contributions to our history since admitted to the union in 1858, there has been perhaps none greater than 15 minutes in the summer of 1863.
When seccesionists broke away from the U.S. over states’ rights, and Abraham Lincoln began a four-year campaign to reunite the country by force - at a cost of over 600,000 lives, including his own - Minnesotans, including many from right here, answered the call.
The 1st Minnesota regiment was formed at Fort Snelling and ultimately assigned to the Army of the Potomac, which over four years did battle with the south’s Army of Northern Virginia, from Pennsylvania to southern Virginia.
In early summer of 1863, looking primarily to relieve pressure Union General U.S. Grant was putting on Confederate stronghold Vicksburg, Miss., Confederate General Robert E. Lee embarked on what would be his second and last invasion of the north.
The Army of the Potomac, under General George Meade, moved to block Lee, whose army was north of D.C. at a quiet burg known to us all; Gettysburg, Penn. The two armies squared off on opposite ridge lines on July 1, with nothing less than the outcome of the war at stake. A victory for Lee would allow him to descend upon D.C., take the Capitol, and sue for a peace recognizing the existence of two separate countries; one slave, one free. Our entire history from that moment would have been completely altered, and some have even suggested had that happened, the land mass known as the U.S.A. would be as many as three different countries today.
Lee, hungry for an end to the war, launched an all-out assault against union lines over three of the bloodiest days in our history. Soldiers from both sides proved their valor during the contest at places like Little Round Top, the Peach Orchard, and the Angle. And, many times Lee’s forces came so very, very close to breaking union lines. But he may have never been closer than the evening of July 2.
With Sickles Third Corps under intense pressure on the left, a division from the center was moved in support, but it wasn’t enough. The 262 soldiers of the 1st Minnesota, in a supporting role, were hardly sufficient to stop the rush threatening the entire position, but adequate reinforcements were at least five minutes away; too late to stop the chain reaction.
It was General Winfield Hancock (himself wounded the next day near the Angle) that rode up to the 1st Minnesota’s Colonel Colvill in desperation, pointed at the oncoming Confederate army and said, “Charge those lines.” It was 262 against over 1,000 rebels with the end of the war in their grasp.
In “The First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” Robert Meinhard described the scene:
“Colvill, and every member of the First realized what they were being asked to do - sacrifice themselves to gain the few minutes Hancock and the Union army so desperately needed.”
Obeying Hancock’s order put the regiment under a withering fire from front and flanks, but the 1st Minnesota bought Hancock his five minutes, plus another 10, under those most horrible conditions.
When it was over, only 47 of the 262 came out unscathed. The 1st Minnesota’s 15 minutes of incredible bravery produced 82 percent casualties,, the highest of any Union regiment during the entire war.
Hancock later informed a Minnesota senator that he had no choice, that he would have ordered the charge if he had known all would die in the trying. But he credited the “superb gallantry” of the 1st Minnesota with nothing less than saving the army.
Sure we talk funny, love hockey, fish all year, and drink “pop,” not soda. But it was also our farm boys, from a place only a state five years, that saved the day on July 2, 1863. The war would drag on another two years, but Lee would never be anywhere as close to victory as he was moments before his army was stopped cold by the 1st Minnesota.
Saving the day probably saved the Union. Could there be any greater contribution than that?
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