No More Gallant Deed in History: The 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg

 

Sad are our hearts tonight,

For our dear brothers.

Sadder the bursting hearts,

Of widows and mothers.

Weep not, ye stricken ones,

Their death is all glorious,

Brothers and noble sons,

Dying victorious!

~ Poem written by former member of 1st Minnesota

 

The 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry suffered an 82% casualty rate during the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the highest percentages suffered by any Union regiment during the entire Civil War. Most of this loss was sustained on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, when the regiment charged forth to protect Battery A of the 4th U.S. Light Artillery and try to turn back a Confederate attack that was driving the 3rd Corps from the field.

General Winfield Scott Hancock who witnessed the charge later wrote, “there is no more gallant deed recorded in history." 

The first reports filtered back to Minnesota on July 10th when M.S. Wilkinson, the state agent in Washington, forwarded a note from Lieutenant Edgar L. Sproat (now with the 82nd New York) reporting that the regiment had “less than one hundred men and officers left. That is all that is left of as fine a body of men as the world ever saw.”

A week later (July 17th), the full casualty list was printed in newspapers across the state. It filled an entire column. The report stated that the regiment mustered 325 officers and men for duty. Losses totaled 47 killed, 121 wounded, and 90 missing, a total loss of 258 men, leaving just 67. A 79% casualty rate.

However, in the grand charge that General Hancock spoke of above, three companies of the regiment were on duty elsewhere- Co. C served on provost duty, Co. F was on the skirmish line, and Co. L was supporting Ricketts’ Battery, so all three companies missed that fight but rejoined the regiment for the fighting on July 3rd. That left 262 men who went into the charge on July 2nd, 215 of whom were lost. Hence the oft-reported casualty rate of 82%.

The entire command staff of the regiment had fallen: Colonel William Colville was wounded in the shoulder and foot; Lieutenant Colonel Charles F. Adams had been struck in the left lung and leg and was now reported dead; Major Mark Downie had been hit in the arm and foot and Adjutant Fuller had his left arm broken.

It would be mid-August before a complete account of the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg appeared in the newspapers. “Few of the regiment have had time to write a full account of the late battles, and so many statements putting us into a false position have been published in the state that at the request of our officers, I have written a correct account of the fight as seen from our standpoint and more especially of our part in it,” the author wrote. This author, unfortunately, is unknown. The article, merely signed as “Sergeant,” first saw publication in the August 14, 1863, edition of the Weekly Pioneer & Democrat published in St. Paul, Minnesota.


Artist Rufus Zogbaum created this painting depicting the 1st Minnesota and their famous charge on July 2, 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg. Of the 262 men who made the charge, 215 were killed, wounded, or missing. Our correspondent offered that no regiment "suffered such an awful proportion of fallen as in this charge of scarce six minutes' duration as did the 1st Minnesota." As horrific as these numbers are, the Civil War Book of Lists reports that two other Federal regiments at Gettysburg exceeded the 1st Minnesota in loss percentage if just barely: the 154th New York suffered a 83.7% loss while the 25th Ohio lost 83.6%. On the Confederate side, three regiments suffered a higher percentage of casualties than the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg: 8th Virginia (92.2%), 23rd North Carolina (89.2%), and the 2nd North Carolina Battalion (82.9%). These staggering casualty figures point to the numbing ferocity of the engagement. 

Camp near Warrenton, Virginia

July 28, 1863

          On the first day of July while passing through Taneytown, Maryland, the well-known sound of artillery came booming on our ears and we saw the clouds of that peculiar white smoke which is only produced by the explosion of gunpowder rising in fleecy drifts between us and the blue hills of Pennsylvania, the first free soil we had seen since we passed the southern boundary of that state two years before.

          Pushing on rapidly, we at nightfall found ourselves among the cavalry, disabled artillery, and runaways that had straggled back from the scene of action. On their lips was the old tale of hard fighting and dreadful disaster which was received by jeers by the veterans of the Second Corps, too old soldiers to believe in straggler’s tales and too confident in themselves to care whether they were true or false, more especially as the narrators wore the half-moon of the 11th Army Corps.

          We slept that night near the field and in the morning moved up in order of battle to a ridge where our troops had fallen back that day. The right of the corps rested on Cemetery Hill while the left near Sugar Loaf Mountain which brought our division, commanded by General John Gibbon, in the center of our entire battle line. This, running in a horseshoe shape, left us to hold the “toe” directly in front of Lee’s main position.

          The morning was foggy, sultry, and murky. We spent it skirmishing, reconnoitering, and desultory cannonading. At 4 p.m., an advance of the Third Corps on our immediate left unmasked a similar movement by the enemy. The rattling fire of the skirmishers deepened into the continuous roll of musketry. The artillery on both sides opened vigorously and the engagement became general all along the left of our line. Although obliged to keep low, to avoid the cannonballs and shells continually whistling and bursting above and around us, we now beheld a grand sight. Below and before us was the plain where the battle was raging. Every movement was discernible and we watched with the anxiety of spectators so deeply interested in the result. Little of this could be seen in the faces of our boys, long accustomed to concealing their emotions on such occasions beneath the mask of reckless indifference.

          Presently their view was obscured for, though the sun shone brightly, the air was damp and the smoke lay heavily over the fight. Sometimes it formed a well-defined wall, following the lines of battle and reaching from the ground straight up to the clouds. Through this the moving battalions could be seen, but the positions of the batteries, more densely clouded, could only be discovered by the red flashes glaring through the darkness. Again, the cause of all the turmoil, cheers and noise would be completely hidden and none could tell how the battle was going. When, after such a moment, the wind would raise the veil, but few could repress a smile or an exclamation of delight to see that our flag was still there and that our men were crowding the fight.

          At 6 o’clock there was a lull of a few moments’ duration and then the enemy, advancing in heavy columns, began to drive the Third Corps steadily back. All was now bustle among us and from spectators we were to become actors. Co. L was detached to support Ricketts’ battery, and General Hancock in person moved our regiment and posted it to the left of Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, and behind the right division of the Third Corps. Co. F was sent out as skirmishers and Co. C was on provost duty just behind us.

General Winfield Scott Hancock
Commanding Second Army Corps

          About this time, General Dan Sickles was wounded and the front line of his corps gave way, their wounded and stragglers going to our rear. The second line met the shock gallantly and turned the enemy back. The enemy charged again and for a while this contest was sharp and desperate. At this critical moment, a fresh division of the enemy charged down and the Third Corps gave away, coming to the rear in squads carrying back men, flags, and wounded, running over our ranks in spite of all our attempts to rally them.

          The enemy’s artillery poured grape and shrapnel into the retreating groups and in return our battery A opened upon the Rebel infantry who were advancing with loud cheers and pouring volley after volley into the broken ranks of the Third Corps. This turned the enemy’s attention to the battery and soon a dozen of their crimson battle flags followed by as many regiments were advancing towards it, its only support being the eight companies of the 1st Minnesota, 270 officers and men all told.

          General Hancock rode up to Colonel William Colville and pointing to the smoke-covered masses of the advancing foe said, “Colonel, advance and take those colors!” Colonel Colville shouted “Forward” and as one man we commenced to move down the slope towards a little run at its foot which the enemy evidently wished to gain. Now their cannons were pointed at us and round shot, grape, and shrapnel tore fearfully through our ranks, and the more deadly Enfield rifles were directed at us alone.

          Great heavens, how fast our men fell! Marching as a file closer, it seemed as if every step was over some fallen comrade. Yet no man wavers; every gap is closed up, and bringing down their bayonets, the boys press shoulder to shoulder and disdaining the factitious courage proceeding from noise and excitement, advanced without a word or a cheer but with silent, desperate determination and step firmly forward in unbroken line.

          Within a hundred, within fifty steps of the foe. Three times the colors are shot down, three times arising they go forward as before. One fourth of the men have fallen and yet not shot has been fired at the enemy who pause a moment to look with awe upon that line of leveled bayonets and then, panic-stricken, run, but another line takes their place and pour murderous volleys into us not 30 yards distant. “Charge,” cries Colonel Colville and with a wild cheer we run at them. We could not see our comrades fall when every faculty was absorbed in the one thought of whipping the enemy in front.

The 1st Minnesota was primarily equipped with .58 caliber Model 1861 Springfield Rifle Muskets like the one depicted above at Gettysburg but Co. L, deemed a sharpshooting company, was armed with .52 caliber Sharps' rifles. 

           I know we reached the brink of the little run and gave them one volley which swept them from the earth, but a new line rises from the bed of the run at our feet and a brigade advances down the hollow on our right. Both open fire and our men fall, many pierced by balls both from the right side and front which crossed each other in their courses through the body. We fire away three, four, five irregular volleys, and but little ammunition is wasted when the muzzles of opposing guns almost meet. The enemy seemed to sink into the ground. They are checked and staggered; one division came up this instant and before we recovered from the bewilderment of the shock, we scarcely know how, but the Rebels are swept back over the plain.

          But good God! Where is the 1st Minnesota? Our flag was carried back to the battery and 70 men, scarcely one of them unmarked by scratches and bullet holes through their clothing, are all that formed around the colors. The other 200, alas, lay bleeding under it. Noble and heroic men, this alone must tell the tale of your glory. Poets have sung of “The Old Guard at Waterloo” and the “Light Brigade at Balaclava,” but the simple truth-telling lists of figures show that neither the one nor the other suffered such an awful proportion of fallen as in this charge of scarce six minutes’ duration as did the 1st Minnesota. It reads like the legend of Chevy Chase.

          Our field officers, rendered conspicuous by their great personal statues and cool and dashing gallantry, had all fallen, each pierced by several balls, and the command devolved upon Captain Nathan S. Messick of Co. G. Here I will add that the Fifth Corps reinforced the left and center of the Third Corps as we did its right, and with equal success. Night fell upon the field and we turned our attention to helping our wounded and gather together our dead. Scarcely had we begun this mournful task when the order came to move and join our brigade at our position of the morning. So, leaving our boys to the tender mercies of doctors and hospital attendants, we move our squad to the designated point.

          Here we were reinforced by Co. F which had been skirmishing and while doing service as effectually as the regiment had happily been more sheltered. Tired and weary, we might not sleep or even build fires to make coffee, but rested on our arms all the long, damp, drizzly night in wakeful anticipation of an attack.

         Sergeant’s account goes on to explain the action on July 3, 1863, in which the 1st Minnesota played a key role in repulsing Pickett’s Charge, in the process capturing the colors of the 28th Virginia. Sergeant concludes his account by stating that “we now muster about 100 men altogether, and the command devolving on Captain Henry C. Coates of Co. A, he marched us back to our old position where we spent the next two nights and on the morning of the 5th, after allowing us a few hours to hastily bury our dead, we were marched in pursuit of the enemy and have been in the front ever since. This is all right, though there are plenty of full regiments in the service that have never fired a gun at the enemy. But when we see the “cornstalk militia” and “emergency men” who turned out to save their homes and who, while near enough to hear the battle were not called on to go into it, and who, during the whole campaign, never smelled powder yet are to receive for their distinguished services medals of honor. While regiments such as the 1st Minnesota and its companions get nothing but curses for not “bagging” Lee and his whole army, we come to the conclusion that republics are ungrateful.”

If you’d like to walk the path of the July 2, 1863, charge of the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg with American Battlefield Trust historians Garry Adelman and Kris White, click here. 


Sources:

“Terrible Slaughter in the First Minnesota,” Weekly Pioneer & Democrat (Minnesota), July 10, 1863, pg. 4

“Meeting of the Old Members of the Minnesota First,” Weekly Pioneer & Democrat (Minnesota), July 17, 1863, pg. 3

“Complete List of the Casualties in the First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” Weekly Pioneer & Democrat (Minnesota), July 17, 1863, pg. 6

“The Part Taken in the Battle of Gettysburg by the First Minnesota,” Weekly Pioneer & Democrat (Minnesota), August 14, 1863, pg. 3

Letter from “Sergeant,” Weekly Pioneer & Democrat (Minnesota), August 14, 1863, pg. 4

Comments

Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Arming the Buckeyes: Longarms of the Ohio Infantry Regiments

Image
     A common question that comes up in conversation about Civil War Buckeye regiments is "What were they armed with?" We are fortunate in that the state of Ohio kept good records of how the regiments were armed when they went into service, this being especially true for those regiments which went into service in 1861 and 1862. The state adjutant general's reports for 1861 and 1862 have been heavily drawn upon to construct this article, as well as consultation with Phil Spaugy who has done extensive research on how Ohio's troops were armed during the war.      Buckeyes carried a fairly wide variety of weapons into the field, and the below article breaks this down into weapons of both domestic manufacture and imported arms. The early days of the war found the state of Ohio practically bereft of longarms; as an example, when the 1st and 2nd Ohio Volunteer Militia left the state in late April 1861, they left unarmed, being armed at Lancaster, Pennsylvania on their way to
Read more

Bullets for the Union: Manufacturing Small Arms Ammunition During the Civil War

Image
       Civil War bullets are perhaps the most common item collected from the era; the two armies expended bullets by the millions during the four years’ conflict and spent or deformed bullets of all shapes and sizes have made fascinating and affordable collectibles since the guns went silent in 1865.       I recently acquired a display piece featuring 35 different types of small arms ammunition used during the Civil War, including everything from a small .28 caliber ball up to a .69 caliber three-ring Minie and it triggered some questions: how did the Federal army obtain its small arms ammunition during the war? Where did the lead come from to make the bullets, and where and how was the ammunition manufactured? This post seeks to answer those questions. A typical .58 caliber 3-ring Minie bullet   “Whenever the blasts of war blow in the ears of men who trade in the implements of destruction, they are apt to experience more joy than the true warrior, for then comes the harvest of gain.
Read more

Dressing the Rebels: How to Dye Butternut Jeans Cloth

Image
     In the early days of the Civil War,  the Southern states found themselves with an abundance of cotton but a shortage of cloth with which to make army uniforms. The trade in cloth prior to the war had largely been to send raw cotton or wool north to New England (or Great Britain) where it was converted into usable cloth; but now that trade was broken and the Southern states were thrown upon their own resources in their efforts to properly clothe the Confederate army.  This collection of Confederate enlisted men's frock coats and shell jackets gives some indication of the variety of shades of butternut worn during the war. All of them are shades of yellow brown, some heavier on the yellow and some heavier on the brown. The blue used around the collar or as rank insignia indicates that the soldier was in the infantry. Surviving Confederate uniforms are considered rather rare and command quite a healthy price in the collecting market. For an in-depth study of how Confederate jacke
Read more

The Wizard of Oz and the Civil War

Image
T he 1939 film The Wizard of Oz has delighted viewers for 85 years and ranks as a personal favorite, especially during the Halloween season. While watching it with the family the other night, I wondered if there were any connections between the film and the Civil War. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes and those connections touch both the blue and the gray.           Interestingly both “witches” in the film not only had Civil War ancestors but had connections with Civil War soldiers from Ohio. Margaret Hamilton, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 9, 1902, to attorney Walter Jones Hamilton and his wife Mary Jane Adams; Margaret’s grandfather was Judge Edwin Timothy Hamilton. Judge Hamilton had served as a private in Co. D of the 84 th Ohio Infantry during the summer of 1862. The 84 th Ohio, a three months’ regiment, served nearly the whole of its service attached to the Railroad District in western Maryland, performing provost duty at Cumberlan
Read more

The Vaunted Enfield Rifle Musket

Image
     The English-made Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield Rifle Musket was widely regarded as the best infantry arm in the world at the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. Favorable international press describing its efficiency in the Crimean War and in suppressing the Indian rebellion led to the widespread desire of American infantrymen (both Federal and Confederate) to be armed with these accurate and well-made arms. The lock plate of this well-worn P1853 Enfield rifle musket produced in 1862 shows the typical markings of a British-made weapon that made it through the Federal blockade.  ( Army of Tennessee Relics ) Enfield-pattern weapons were imported into the states by the tens and hundreds of thousands during the war years; one estimate stated that the Federal government purchased 500,000 while the Confederates purchased another 400,000. The Confederate government dispatched Captain Caleb Huse to Europe in April 1861 to purchase weapons and Huse focused on securing all the Enfi
Read more

In front of Atlanta with the 68th Ohio

Image
  The arrow corps badge of the 17th Army Corps was worn by many members of the 68th Ohio in the latter days of the war.       Private Edward A. Bigelow of Co. F of the 68th Ohio Volunteer Infantry wrote this brief account of the Battle of Atlanta just two days afterwards to his father back home in Henry County, Ohio. The regiment formed a part of Colonel Robert K. Scott's three regiment all-Ohio brigade consisting of the 20th, 68th, and 78th regiments, being designated the Second Brigade of the Third Division of Frank Blair's 17th Army Corps. Bigelow's letter originally appeared in the Napoleon Press newspaper and was copied in the Toledo Daily Commercial which was providential as no known copies exist today of the wartime Napoleon Press.  
Read more

Charging Battery Robinett: An Alabama Soldier Recalls the Vicious Fighting at Corinth

Image
W riting 30 years after the Battle of Corinth, James A. McKinstry of the 42 nd Alabama recalled his experiences storming Battery Robinett with Colonel William P. Rogers of the 2 nd Texas and expressed guilt that it was perhaps his action that brought about the colonel’s demise. “On seeing a line of Federals approaching, and before giving the situation a thought, I immediately raised my gun and fired full into the breast of a Federal sergeant, who was in front of the column, and only a short distance from us.  'Twas then that Captain George Foster shouted, "Cease firing, men! cease firing!" and waved his handkerchief, then I realized the true situation. 'Twas too late! That fatal volley had been turned on our little band from the muzzles of 1,500 muskets. I was still standing just as I was when I fired my last shot, and within a few feet of Colonel Rogers, when a Minie ball went crashing through my left hip and turned me half round; another went tearing through my
Read more

Federal Arms in the Stones River Campaign

Image
  T he following list, constructed after many years of research, lists unit by unit which type of weapons were carried by the Army of the Cumberland during the Stones River campaign. A number of sources were consulted including state ordnance reports, Federal quarterly ordnance reports (thank you Research Arsenal ), Ken Baumann’s Arming the Suckers, regimental histories and memoirs, captured ordnance reports, and consultation with knowledgeable experts in the field of firearms. Some of this information has been shared on the blog before in “ Rosy’s Heavy Metal: Artillery of the Army of the Cumberland ” or “ Shoulder Arms: How Sheridan’s and Davis’s Divisions Were Armed at Stones River ” but this is the first time the army as a whole has been presented. The overall conclusion I drew from looking at this data is that the Army of the Cumberland in December 1862 was an organization in the midst of transformation as far as arms. Many of the regiments still retained their original issue
Read more

Cook & Brother of New Orleans

Image
    The lockplate of a New Orleans-made Cook & Brother Enfield rifle produced in 1862 shows the fine craftsmanship that became the hallmark of the maker throughout the Civil War. Note the stars and bars flag at left, an emblem used on C&B's production throughout the war and the Cook & Brother, N.O. 1862 markings. Earlier production weapons at New Orleans had the flag located just above the maker's name while later weapons produced in Athens, Georgia would have a modified flag and Athens on the plate followed by the serial number.        In the spring of 1861, two English-born businessmen, Ferdinand and Francis Cook of New Orleans, perceived the need for the South to have its own domestic production of firearms and  set out to prove "that rifles could made here as well as in Yankee land or in Europe." The brothers  elected to produce copies of the British Model 1853 .577 caliber Enfield rifle as this was considered the benchmark longarm at the outset of the
Read more

Revisiting Snodgrass Hill: Memories of a 21st Ohio Officer

Image
Captain Isaac Cusac, Co. G, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry proudly displaying his rank as captain in an image likely dating from early 1863. One of his shoulder straps was shot off in the final stages of the 21st Ohio's fight atop Snodgrass Hill on September 20, 1863. Cusac brought it back to Chickamauga 50 years later.  I n September 1913, 83-year-old Isaac Cusac, a retired Presbyterian minister from the little town of McComb, Ohio, returned to Chattanooga to attend the national G.A.R. encampment. The former captain of the 21 st Ohio returned to Snodgrass Hill on the old Chickamauga battlefield on the 50 th anniversary of the battle carrying with him a precious relic of his wartime experiences. “He carried with him there an epaulet that was shot from his shoulder at the battle,” it was reported. “The bullet clipped off the epaulet and then struck him on the left hand, injuring two fingers.”           The flood of memories as he walked the grounds must have been overwhelming. The f
Read more