NationStates Jolt Archive

"Their service is most remembered for their actions on July 2, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in the prevention of a serious breach in the Union army defensive line on Cemetery Ridge. Major General Winfield S. Hancock ordered the regiment to assault the much larger brigade (commanded by Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox) in an effort to buy time while other forces could be brought up. During the charge, 215 members of the 262 men who were present at the time became casualties, including the unit commander, Colonel William Colvill, and all but three of his officers. The unit's flag fell five times and rose again each time. The 47 survivors rallied back to General Hancock under the senior surviving officer, a captain. The 82 percent casualty rate stands to this day as the largest loss by any surviving military unit in American history during any single engagement.

Despite the horrendous casualties the First Minnesota had incurred, they continued the fight the next day, helping to repulse Pickett's Charge. The surviving Minnesotans just happened to have been positioned at one of the few places where Union lines were breached during that engagement, and as a result charged the advancing Confederate positions one last time as a unit."

-from Wikipedia.

I found out this story today, and I think it's amazing. Just feel like throwing it out, just because I can and because it's an amazing story.

Here's a link to a poem about them.

http://rhet5662.class.umn.edu/heroes/1stmin2.html

Interesting stuff.. what's the occasion?

Interesting stuff.. what's the occasion?
None at all. I just felt like putting it out there.

None at all. I just felt like putting it out there.

Alright then.

"Their service is most remembered for their actions on July 2, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg, resulting in the prevention of a serious breach in the Union army defensive line on Cemetery Ridge. Major General Winfield S. Hancock ordered the regiment to assault the much larger brigade (commanded by Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox) in an effort to buy time while other forces could be brought up. During the charge, 215 members of the 262 men who were present at the time became casualties, including the unit commander, Colonel William Colvill, and all but three of his officers. The unit's flag fell five times and rose again each time. The 47 survivors rallied back to General Hancock under the senior surviving officer, a captain. The 82 percent casualty rate stands to this day as the largest loss by any surviving military unit in American history during any single engagement.

Despite the horrendous casualties the First Minnesota had incurred, they continued the fight the next day, helping to repulse Pickett's Charge. The surviving Minnesotans just happened to have been positioned at one of the few places where Union lines were breached during that engagement, and as a result charged the advancing Confederate positions one last time as a unit."

-from Wikipedia.

I found out this story today, and I think it's amazing. Just feel like throwing it out, just because I can and because it's an amazing story.

Here's a link to a poem about them.

http://rhet5662.class.umn.edu/heroes/1stmin2.html

a couple of reanacters came to my high school last year and told us all about that, even some of the students were demonstraters because they were missing one guy

Minnesotans? Hmm.

Lee should've flanked to the right putting the ANV between Meade and DC, instead of trying to break the army of the potomac.

Just saying.

Lee should've flanked to the right putting the ANV between Meade and DC, instead of trying to break the army of the potomac.

Just saying.
I just think it's important to honor these soldiers, as they really took a thrashing, and they did it to free millions of people, and to keep America together.

I just think it's important to honor these soldiers, as they really took a thrashing, and they did it to free millions of people, and to keep America together.

That's true.

It's a shame that the Park Service doesn't feel the same way that you do. Last time I was a gettysburg the vistor centre was in a horrible state.

"Vimy, located in northern France, was one of the most heavily defended points on the entire Western Front and was thought to be an impregnable fortress. The German army (...)

The Allied commanders decided to launch another assault in 1917. The duty was given to the still relatively fresh, but previously successful, Canadians. For the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps were brought together. They were joined by the British 5th Infantry Division. (...)

At dawn on Easter Monday, April 9, the 30,000-strong Canadian Corps began the attack, using a creeping barrage. The creeping barrage had been used by the British at the Battle of the Somme but had failed as it outpaced the soldiers. However, the Canadians managed to perfect the technique. Soldiers walked across no-man's land, just behind a continuous line of shells (an improvement over previous battles, in which both sides had often shelled their own troops). Several new and untested methods of counter-battery fire were also used successfully at the start of the battle. This disabled a large portion of the German artillery and protected the advancing infantry. (...)

By April 12 the Canadians controlled the entire Ridge, at a cost of 3,598 men killed and 7,104 wounded. The German Sixth Army, under General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, suffered approximately 20,000 casualties. The Canadians also took 4,000 Germans as prisoners of war. The loss of the ridge also forced the Germans to retreat to the lower plains that were far more costly to defend. The attack and objective had only limited grand-strategic significance, and as the simultaneous British and Australian attack to the south of the Ridge was unsuccessful, very little was actually achieved after the Canadian victory."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vimy_Ridge

Just felt the need to up the ante by mentionning a brave contingent of my fellow Canadians who sacrificed their lives for the good of mankind.

Lee should've flanked to the right putting the ANV between Meade and DC, instead of trying to break the army of the potomac.

Just saying.
Lee didn't know that the AotP was there. Remember, his calvary was AWOL?

How about thanking the 16th Michigan, 83rd Pensylvania, 44th New York, and 20th Maine for holding off Hood's assault on Little Round Top, and preventing the entire union army from being flanked.

Lee didn't know that the AotP was there. Remember, his calvary was AWOL?

He did on July 2nd. That was the day of the peach orchard, devils den and little round top.

The Somme

The battle is best remembered there for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead — the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme_(1916)

I thank all who serve in the British and American forces (my family has served in both).