Since 1893 the 1st Minnesota Infantry Monument has marked this ground on the Gettysburg Battlefield, and you face it now. It sits between Cemetery Ridge and The Angle by Plum Run, marking the ground where the 1st Minnesota charged against Cadmus M. Wilcox’s Alabama Brigade of Richard H. Anderson’s Division of the Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. A secondary monument, also erected in 1893, shows the regiment’s position during Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863.
Listen for the particulars: on the second day, July 2, 1863, the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel William J. Colvill, played a crucial role. Only 420 men strong, they arrived as part of the reinforcements of the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division of the II Corps under Brigadier General William Harrow. Small detachments were already away — 32 men of Company L were detailed as skirmishers and 56 men of Company C had been detached that day.
When Confederate General James Longstreet assaulted the troops of Union General Daniel Sickles’ Corps at Cemetery Ridge, a gap was formed that threatened the line. The monument before you honors that desperate, defining service. Just 420 men from Minnesota closed that gap, a sacrifice that still echoes across Plum Run toward your path to the Angle.