First Minnesota

This is the monument to the First Minnesota regiment.  Late in the afternoon of July 2, as the fighting died down around Little Round Top, the Confederate attack spread north.  A confederate brigade under Cadmus Wilcox charged across the field between Seminary Ridge and Cemetary Ridge meeting little resistance.  Winfield Scott Hancock was there and looking for reinforcements to stem the attack could only find this one small regiment of men from Minnesota.  262 men in all.  Needing to do something to delay the Rebels till he could put together a real defense, Hancock ordered the First's Colonel, William Colvill to attack a force 8 or 9 times it's size.  It worked.  The Confederate attack was stalled till reinforcements showed up, but the First Minnesota had been reduced to 47 men, not killed or wounded.  The monument stands on Cemetary ridge, where the First Minnesota charged from.