1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment mustered for a three - year term ( 1861 - 1864 ) in the Union Army at the outset of the American Civil War when the prevailing enlistment period was three months . During offensive movements , it sustained high degrees of casualties at the Battles of First Bull Run ( 20 % ) and Antietam ( 28 % ) and a catastrophic degree of casualties ( 82 % ) at the Battle of Gettysburg . It is most noted for its service on the second day at Gettysburg . At a pivotal moment and position during the 1863 conflict at Gettysburg , Major General Winfield Scott Hancock , Commander of the II Corps , ordered the First Minnesota to charge into a situation where it would be outmanned by odds of at least 5 : 1 . The General ' s purpose was to buy minutes of delay with human lives , and one survivor spoke afterward that he expected the advance to result in " death or wounds to [ every single one of the attackers ] . " The Regiment fully and instantly executed the order , received at least 82 % casualties among those making the attack , and contributed significantly to the preservation of a key Union defensive position on the heights of Cemetery Ridge . When given the opportunity to speak about the Regiment after the war , both General Hancock and U . S . President Calvin Coolidge were unrestrained with praise . Hancock placed its heroism highest in the known annals of war and ascribed unsurpassed gallantry to the famed attack . Emphasizing the criticality of the circumstances on July 2 at Gettysburg , President Coolidge considered , " Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as the saviors of their country . " History . Organization and early service . The 1st Minnesota was the first state volunteer regiment formally tendered to the Federal government under Abraham Lincoln ' s call for 75 , 000 troops in 1861 , being offered on April 14 for three months service , Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey happening to be in Washington at the time . It was organized at Fort Snelling , Minnesota , on April 29 and remustered for three years service on May 10 . < br > First Bull Run . On July 21 , 1861 , near Manassas , Virginia , the Regiment joined the first major battle of the Civil War at the First Battle of Bull Run . While straddling Rickett ' s Battery in support , it saw heavy fighting on Henry House Hill in close proximity to the enemy . The First Minnesota was one of the last regiments to leave the battlefield and suffered casualties ( 49 killed , 107 wounded and 34 missing ) among the highest of any northern regiment . During the First Minnesota Infantry ' s initial engagement of the War , its honorable conduct was readily distinguishable from that of the other Regiments in its Brigade : Antietam . During General John Sedgwick ' s ill - fated assault on the West Woods , the regiment suffered significant casualties [ 1 officer killed , 3 officers wounded , 15 enlisted killed , 79 enlisted wounded , 24 enlisted missing , for at total of 122 ( 28 % ) of 435 engaged ] as Union forces were routed on that part of the field . The Brigade commander noted , " The First Minnesota Regiment fired with so much coolness and accuracy that they brought down [ three times one ] of the enemy ' s flags , and finally cut the flag - staff in two . " Gettysburg . July 2 . The men of the 1st Minnesota are most remembered for their actions on July 2 , 1863 , during the second day ' s fighting at Gettysburg , where the regiment prevented the Confederates from pushing the Federals off of Cemetery Ridge , a position that was to be crucial in the battle . Maj . Gen . Winfield S . Hancock , commander of the II Corps , ordered the regiment to assault a much larger enemy force ( a brigade commanded by Brig . Gen . Cadmus M . Wilcox ) telling Col . William Colvill to take the enemy ' s colors . The fateful charge bought the time needed while other forces were brought up . During the charge , 215 members of the 262 men who were present at the time became casualties in five minutes , including the regimental commander , Col . William Colvill , and all but three of his regimental Captains . 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 , Captain Nathan S . Messick . The 83 . 1 percent casualty rate stands to this day as the largest loss by any surviving military unit in U . S . history during a single day ' s engagement . The unit ' s flag is now in the Minnesota Capitol ' s rotunda . The more majestic of two monuments to the 1st Minnesota at the Gettysburg National Military Park bears the following inscription : In his Official Report , C . S . A . Brigadier General Cadmus M . Wilcox perceived the inequality of the fight differently ( bold emphasis likely refers to the First Minnesota ) : and feared complete destruction . July 3 . Rebounding from the horrendous casualties of the previous day , the 47 survivors were reinforced by detached Company F , and the reunited regiment was moved slightly northward on Cemetery Ridge . Destiny placed the remaining Minnesotans at one of the few places where Union lines were breached during Pickett ' s Charge and required them to charge advancing Confederate troops once again . It is here that Capt . Messick was killed , Capt . W . B . Farrell mortally wounded , and then command fell to Capt . Henry C . Coates . During the desperate and chaotic fighting , Private Marshall Sherman of Company C captured the colors of the 28th Virginia Infantry and received the Medal of Honor for this exploit . The Confederate flag was taken back to Minnesota as a prize of war and is kept but not publicly displayed at the Minnesota Historical Society . In the mid - 1990s , several groups of Virginians threatened to sue the Society to return the 28th Virginia ' s battle flag to the Old Dominion . The Minnesota Attorney General advised that such threats were without a legal basis , and the flag remains in the possession of the Society . After being knocked out by a bullet to the head and later shot in the hand , Corporal Henry O ' Brien repeatedly picked up the fallen colors of the 1st Minnesota and carried a wounded comrade back to the Union lines . He was also awarded a Medal of Honor for his heroism . Later service . The 1st Minnesota continued in the Army of the Potomac , serving later in 1863 in the Bristoe Campaign and the Mine Run Campaign . It was mustered out of service upon completion of its enlistment on April 29 , 1864 , at Fort Snelling . Enough of the regiment ' s veterans reenlisted to form the nucleus of the 1st Minnesota Battalion of Infantry which returned to Virginia and served through the end of the war . Other veterans provided officers for the 1st Minnesota Heavy Artillery Regiment . Casualties . The 1st Minnesota Infantry suffered the loss of 10 officers and 177 enlisted men killed in action or who later died of their wounds , plus another 2 officers and 97 enlisted men who died of disease , for a total of 286 fatalities . and 609 wounded . < br > Bull Run < br > Antietam < br > Gettysburg < br > Bristow < br > Petersburg Continued lineage . The 2nd Battalion , 135th Infantry Regiment , 34th Infantry Division ( Minnesota Army National Guard ) traces its roots back to the historic 1st Minnesota Volunteers .