William J . Colvill William J . Colvill , Jr . ( April 5 , 1830 – June 12 , 1905 ) was a Union colonel in the American Civil War who led the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry in the Battle of Gettysburg . He was Minnesota Attorney General from 1866 to 1868 and he also served in the Minnesota House of Representatives . Early life . Colvill was born in Forestville , New York on April 5 , 1830 to Irish and Scotch parents . He was graduated from the Fredonia Academy and taught a country school for one year . He studied law at Forestville and Buffalo , where he read law in the office of Millard Fillmore . He was admitted to the Bar in 1851 . He practiced law in Forestville about three years and , in 1854 , migrated to Minnesota . He spent the first year , or more , in St . Paul , during which time he was , first , enrolling clerk and then secretary of the Territorial Council . He then moved to Cannon Falls and took a tract of land upon which part of the city now stands . He opened a law office in Red Wing in 1854 and in 1855 established The Red Wing Sentinel , a Democratic newspaper . His papers were always Democratlc in politics , but always for the Union and against secession . Those who held such views before the war were known as Union Democrats and generally supported the policies of Stephen A . Douglas . Civil War . When the Civil War broke out , the 31 year old Colvill was the first man from Goodhue County to volunteer . The local men elected him captain of Company F , 1st Minnesota Regiment . On June 26 , 1861 , the regiment arrived in Washington D . C . First Bull Run . A month later , the regiment with the Union Army , marched south into Virginia . On July 21 , the met the Confederate Army outside Manassas , Virginia at the First Battle of Bull Run . The regiment saw heavy fighting on Henry Hill where they were ordered to support Rickett ’ s Battery . The 1st Minnesota was one of the last regiments to leave the battlefield , and suffered the highest casualties of any northern regiment ( 48 killed , 83 wounded and 30 missing ) . The Seven Days Battle . The Union Army , now under the command of General George B . McClellan , landed on the peninsula between the James River and York River , and marched west towards Richmond . The two armies fought a series of battles over a week known as the Seven Days Battle . On June 30 , 1862 , at the Battle of White Oak Swamp , Colvill received a bullet wound in the shoulder . He was sent to Baltimore where he spent the rest of the summer recuperating . Antietam . Colvill returned to his unit on August 31 . Shortly after he was promoted to major . On September 17 , the unit , having a strength of 435 men , participated in the Battle of Antietam . The 1st Minnesota was on the extreme right of the leading brigade ( commanded by the regiment ' s former colonel , Willis A . Gorman ) as John Sedgwick ’ s division ill - famed assault on the West Woods , resulting in a Union rout from that part of the field . Bursting through the far side of the woods , the column was exposed to heavy fire from both flanks . The unit suffered 15 killed , 79 wounded and 21 missing . Shortly after the battle he was promoted to lieutenant colonel . Fredricksburg , Chancellorsville and Haymarket . On December 11 , the 1st Minnesota was one of the units that captured the town of Fredericksburg where they pludered the town in one of the more controversial acts in the war . Two days later , during the Battle of Fredricksburg , they were not sent in one of the many suicidal charges against Mayre ' s Heights . The unit saw little action during the Battle of Chancellorsville . After the battle , General Joseph Hooker marched the Army of the Potomac north to counter General Robert E . Lee ' s invasion of Pennsylvania . On June 23 , Colvill was promoted to colonel and commander of the regiment . Two days later , on June 25 , the unit was attacked by General JEB Stuart ' s cavalry at the Battle of Haymarket . During the battle while leading the reginment , Colvill ' s horse was shot from underneath him . On the 29th , Colvill was arrested for allowing the men to cross a three - foot deep river on logs whereas the orders were to wade across . The march from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg would take 14 days with traveling 11 of those , averaging over 14 miles a day . By the time they reached the small town they were exhausted . Gettysburg . On July 2 , 1863 the regiment was on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg . In the morning , Colvill had been relieved of arrest and resumed command the regiment . Late in the afternoon , Confederate General Cadmus Wilcox ' s Alabama Brigade broke through the III Corp at the Wheatfield . Union II Corp commander , General Winfield Scott Hancock seeing the danger of the Union position being overrun on Cemetery Ridge , ordered Colvill and his regiment to make a suicidal charge to delay the Confederates enough to get reinforcements to the ridge . Wilcox had begun the days fighting with some 1 , 800 men in his unit although it is not known exactly how many were left at the time of the action with the 1st Minnesota . Without hesitation , Colvill ordered the charge against a brigade four to five times larger . Of the 282 Minnesotans who made the charge , 217 were killed or wounded . Despite the heavy losses , the Minnesotans were successful in slowing the Confederates until more regiments arrived . Among the wounded was Colvill who was hit three times and severally wounded . He was shot in the shoulder and the ankle . One bullet entered the top right shoulder and tore across his back , clipping off a part of his vertebra and lodging under his left scapula . Both wounds would force Colvill to use a cane the rest of his life . Later life . After the battle , Colvill recovered in a private home in Gettysburg at 303 Baltimore Street , at the corner of Baltimore and Breckenridge Streets . Being a very tall man at 6 ' 5 " , it was not easy fitting him into a bed . The surgeons at first wanted to amputate his foot , saying it was necessary in order to save his life , but Colvill would not allow it . From there he was sent to a hospital in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania where he remained until February 1864 . He was reunited with his regiment that month as they were being mustered out and sent home . Back in Red Wing , Minnesota , he edited the Red Wing Republican newspaper . During this time , he was elected to the Minnesota State Legislature . He took his seat in January 1865 . Immediately after the adjournment of the legislature , he received an appointment as colonel of the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment , which was stationed in Chattanooga . On May 6 , 1865 , he received a brevet commission as brigadier general and was mustered out of service in July 1865 . After the war , he returned to the state legislature until 1866 . He was then elected Minnesota Attorney General from 1866 to 1868 . Then he returned to his law practice in Red Wing . He also served in the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1878 . During the next decade he served as register of the Duluth Land Office , from 1887 to 1891 . Colvill married Elizabeth Morgan ( a direct descendant of Elder Brewster , one of the Pilgrim Fathers ) of Oneida County , New York , in April , 1867 . In 1893 , Colvill had a 167 - acre homestead in Grand Marais , Minnesota next to Lake Superior . Others settled there creating a small community . It was named Covill in 1906 after his death . In 1905 , Colvill traveled to the Soldiers Home in Minneapolis to attend a reunion of the veterans of the First Minnesota . While there , he died in his sleep on June 13 . He is buried in the Cannon Falls Community Cemetery in Cannon Falls , Minnesota . In 1928 , President Calvin Coolidge was present for the dedication of a statue that was placed next to his grave . Colvill Park in Red Wing , Minnesota is named for Colvill , and he is represented by a statue in the Minnesota State Capitol . In addition , a section of Minnesota State Highway 19 from Gaylord to Red Wing is named in his honor .