161 years ago today the 1st Minnesota Regiment sacrificed itself at Gettysburg and saved the Union.
262 men made the sacrificial charge directly into the advancing enemy line. 215 became casualties in under 5 minutes, a rate of 82%. The highest rate for any surviving unit in US military history.
Today, assholes drive around the state with Confederate flags on their pickups, dishonoring the brave sacrifice of those men whose loyalty was to a cause greater than enslavement for personal profit, and whose ancestors still walk here.
Today the 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, US National Guard traces its lineage directly to the 1st Minnesota.
Its motto, “To The Last Man” was coined by Colonel William Colvill, the unit commander at Gettysburg.
