Gettysburg

[rhettbutler1865]

"Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country" --Calvin Coolidge

 

[GABoy]

Now that I know this, what do I do?

 

[CheathamHill]

 

[ErnieMac]

Address Dedicating a Memorial to Col. William Colvill, Cannon Falls, Minn.
July 29, 1928

"The gallant First Minnesota, led by Colonel Colvill, at once responded with an impetuosity that broke the first and second line of the enemy and stopped the advance. When the action was over but 47 men of the 262 who began the charge were still in line. The remaining 215 lay dead or wounded on the field. In all the history of warfare this charge has few, if any, equals and no superiors. It was an exhibition of the most exalted heroism against an apparently insuperable antagonist. By holding the Confederate forces in check until other reserves came up, it probably saved the Union Army from defeat. What that defeat would have meant to the North no one can tell. Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and the whole heart of the North would have been open to invasion, and perhaps the Union cause would have been lost. So far as human judgment can determine, Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country."
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http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=461