The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment has three monuments at Gettysburg. The first regimental memorial placed at Gettysburg was an urn to the 1st Minnesota placed in the National Cemetery in 1867. (National Cemetery tour map) The main monument is on Hancock Avenue near the Pennsylvania Memorial. (Hancock Avenue Part 1 or Part 2 tour map) A smaller secondary monument (Hancock Avenue Part 3 tour map) is 1/3 mile north on Hancock Avenue. Both monuments were erected in 1893.

Main monument to the 1st Minnesota Infantry at Gettysburg

Main monument to the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg

The 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg

The 1st Minnesota Infantry performed one of the most critical actions of the battle during Longstreet’s Assault of July 2nd. Sickles’ Corps was falling back in disarray. Longstreet’s men were advancing to penetrate the center of the Union line, which had been dangerously thinned to prop up other sectors. General Hancock rode up to the 1st Minnesota, the only organized Union troops at hand, pointed at the advancing Confederates, and ordered them to “Take those colors!” Their sacrificial charge against overwhelming odds halted the Confederate advance. It bought desperately needed time for the center of the Union line to reform. The result was that Lee was forced into one last desperate gamble the next day with Pickett’s Charge.

The regiment entered the field 420 strong. Company L’s 32 men served as skirmishers and Company C’s 56 men were detached on July 2.

Colonel William Colvill, an attorney and newspaper owner from Red Wing, led the men into action. He was wounded during the July 2 charge. Captain Nathan Messick took over command only to be killed the next day during the repulse of Pickett’s Charge. Captain Wilson B. Farrell briefly took over until he was also killed. Finally Captain Henry C. Coates took over command for the rest of the battle. The regiment lost 50 men killed, 173 wounded and 1 missing.

2nd Corps Headquarters Flag Flag for the 2nd Corps, 2nd Division

The Medal of honor as it looked at the time of the Civil War

Corporal Henry D. O’Brien of Company E was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on July 3rd when, “taking up the colors where they had fallen, he rushed ahead of his regiment, close to the muzzles of the enemy’s guns, and engaged in the desperate struggle in which the enemy was defeated, and though severely wounded, he held the colors until wounded a second time.”Private Marshall Sherman of Company C was awarded the Medal for capturing the flag of the 28th Virginia Infantry on July 3rd.

Main monument to the 1st Minnesota

Closeup of the statue on top of the main monument to the 1st Minnesota Infantry at Gettysburg

Closeup of the statue on top of the main monument to the 1st Minnesota

The main monument to the 1st Minnesota stands on Cemetery Ridge at the place the regiment began its charge on July 2. It features a bronze statue of a charging soldier sculpted by Jacob Fjelde of Minneapolis and cast by the Henry Bonnard Bronze Company of New York. The statue stands on a base of Barre granite, for a total height of 32 feet.

The monument was dedicated on July 2, 1897, before a crowd that included Colonel Colville and 160 other veterans of the regiment who traveled all expenses paid from Minnesota in several sleeping cars provided by Minnesota railroads.

Text from the front of the main monument:

First Regiment
Minnesota Vol’s
1st Brigade 2nd Div 2nd Corps
April 29 1861 – May 4 1864
Bull Run, Balls Bluff, Berryville, Yorktown, West Point, Hanover Court House, Fair Oaks, Peach Orchard, Savage Station, White Oak Swamp, Glendale, Malvern Hill, 2nd Malvern Hill, Vienna, South Mountain, Antietam, Charlestown, Ashby’s Gap, Fredericksburg, Marye’s Heights, Haymarket, Gettysburg, Auburn, Bristow Station, Mine Run and numerous skirmishes

Erected by The State of Minnesota a.d. 1893

Text from the bronze plaque on the right side of the monument

On the afternoon of July 2, 1863 Sickles Third Corps having advanced from this line to the Emmitsburg road eight companies of the First Minnesota regiment numbering 262 men were sent to this place to support a battery. Upon Sickles’ repulse as his men were passing here in confused retreat two Confederate brigades in pursuit were crossing the swale. To gain time to bring up the reserves and save this position General Hancock in person ordered the eight companies to charge the rapidly advancing enemy.

The order was instantly repeated by Col. Wm. Colvill and the charge instantly made down the slope at full speed through the concentrate fire of the two brigades breaking with the bayonet the enemy’s front line as it was crossing the small brook in the low ground. There the remnant of the eight companies nearly surrounded by the enemy held its entire force at bay for a considerable time and till it retired on the approach of the reserve. The charge successfully accomplished its object. It saved the position and probably the battlefield.

The loss of the eight companies in the charge was 215 killed and wounded, more than 85 percent. 47 men were still in line and no missing. In self-sacrificing desperate valor this charge has no parallel in any war. The next day the regiment participated in repelling Pickett’s charge losing 17 more men killed and wounded.

Location of the main monument to the 1st Minnesota Infantry at Gettysburg

The main monument to the 1st Minnesota infantry is on Hancock Avenue. It is due south of the Pennsylvania memorial at the intersection of Hancock Avenue and Humphreys Avenue.

Secondary Monument to the 1st Minnesota

Smaller monument to the 1st Minnesota

Secondary monument to the 1st Minnesota showing its position during Pickett’s Charge on July 3

A second, smaller monument stands about 1/3 of a mile north of the main monument, at the location where the regiment counter-charged against Pickett’s Charge on July 3. It features a bronze bas relief (below), also by Jacob Fjelde, depicting the counterattack.

Broze bas-relief from the smaller 1st Minnesota monument at Gettysburg

Bronze bas-relief from the smaller 1st Minnesota monument

Text from the bronze plaque on the smaller secondary monument:

1st Reg. Minnesota Vols.
1st Brigade, 2d Div. 2d Corps.
Erected by State of Minnesota

On July 3d, 1863 the survivors of this regiment (see large monument 1/3 mile south of this) aided here in repelling Picketts Charge and ran hence to the aid of Webb’s Brigade taking a conspicuous part in the counter-charge which successfully ended the conflict. Losing then 17 additional killed and wounded and capturing a Confederate flag. There Captains Nathan S. Messick and Wilson B. Farrel successively commanding the regiment were killed. Total killed and wounded in the battle 232 out of 330 engaged.”

Location of the smaller 1st Minnesota Monument at Gettysburg

A smaller secondary monument to the 1st Minnesota is 1/3 mile north of the main monument. It is on the west side of Hancock Avenue south of the United States Regulars monument.

Memorial Urn to the 1st Minnesota in the National Cemetery

Urn honoring the 1st Minnesota Infantry in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg

Urn honoring the 1st Minnesota Infantry in the National Cemetery

Text from the front of the Urn:

First Minnesota Volunteers

From the rear of the Urn:

The surviving members First Regiment Minnesota Infantry.
To the memory of their late associates who
“died on the field of honor”
at Gettysburg July 1863.

From the sides of the Urn:

These dead shall not have died in vain.
“All time is the millenium of their glory.

Location of the Urn to the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg

The memorial urn is in the National Cemetery west of the Soldiers National Monument. It is between the first and second rows of headstones.

See more on the history of the First Minnesota Infantry Regiment in the Civil War