It is largely because of the popular versions of the Battle of Gettysburg — the novel “The Killer Angels,” the Ken Burns series on PBS, and the movie “Gettysburg” — that the contribution to the Union victory of the 1st Minnesota Regiment during the second day of the battle is largely overlooked or unknown.
The popular versions of the second day at Gettysburg emphasize the heroic exploits of Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain and his 20th Maine regiment in defending the Union position on Little Round Top from repeated Confederate assaults. Today, the 20th Maine monument at the scene of the regiment’s desperate bayonet charge is one of the most visited sights on the battlefield.
It does not detract from the heroics of the 20th Maine to point out that on that same day, north of Little Round Top near the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, 262 men of the 1st Minnesota made a more desperate charge to prevent much larger Confederate forces from penetrating the Union center and quite possibly defeating the Army of the Potomac.
On July 1, 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia clashed with Union forces on a series of ridges west of Gettysburg. By the end of the fighting that day, Confederate forces, at great cost, had pushed the Union Army through the town of Gettysburg and onto strong defensive positions south of the town.
Before the fighting began on the second day, the northern flank of the Union Army was lodged on Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill. From there, the Union line stretched south over Cemetery Ridge to the extreme left on Little Round Top.
At about 4 p.m. on July 2, the Confederate attack on Cemetery Ridge began. The attack proceeded in stages, first striking Union forces on Little Round Top and the area to its front. The fighting was so fierce in the fields and rocky ground in front of the hill that the area later became known as the “Valley of Death.”
About an hour later, the second stage of the assault was launched against the center of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. Several brigades of Gen. Richard Anderson’s division, including Gen. Cadmus Wilcox’s 1,600-strong Alabamians, surged across the Emmitsburg Road toward the dried-up Plum Run swale in front of Cemetery Ridge.
Just as the Alabama troops were about to ascend the ridgeline in force through a gap in the Union line, Gen. Winfield Hancock spotted the 1st Minnesota regiment and its leader, Col. William Colvill, and ordered the men to charge the oncoming Alabamians. Hancock was trying to buy some time until reserves could arrive on the scene.
Without hesitating, Colvill ordered his men to follow him down the slope of the ridge. All 262 men of the 1st Minnesota immediately surged forward with outthrust bayonets into the much larger force of Alabama troops.
“Bullets whistled past us; shells screeched over us … no one took a second look at his fallen companion,” wrote Pvt. Alfred Carpenter. A Minnesota sergeant recalled, “The bullets were coming like hailstones, and whittling our boys like grain before the sickle.”
The fighting lasted for about 15 minutes. Union reserves arrived in time to permanently plug the gap in the line. Hancock, Colvill and the 1st Minnesota had saved the Union center, but at frightful cost. Colvill and most of his officers were killed. Casualty estimates for the 1st Minnesota range from 178 to 215 men — dead, wounded or missing. In 15 minutes, the 1st Minnesota lost nearly 80 percent of its men.
As evening approached on July 2, Confederate forces continued their efforts to penetrate the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, coming close further north near the Codori Farm and at East Cemetery Hill. Nevertheless, when nightfall came, Union forces still commanded the ridge.
The next day, the grand Confederate assault, popularly known as Pickett’s Charge, failed to push Union forces off Cemetery Ridge, and the Army of Northern Virginia retreated to the south. The greatest battle ever fought on the North American continent was over.
A monument honoring the heroism of the 1st Minnesota stands on Cemetery Ridge. If you travel north on the Park Service road on Cemetery Ridge, the monument is on the left side of the road just before the huge Pennsylvania monument. It consists of a lone soldier standing on a pedestal with his bayonet thrust outward, facing the Emmitsburg Road. It marks the approximate location where 262 heroes helped save the day for the Union Army at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.
Francis P. Sempa is an assistant U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and an adjunct professor of political science at Wilkes University. He is the author of “Geopolitics: From the Cold War to the 21st Century” and has written on historical and foreign policy topics for numerous publications.
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