Sunday, July 19, 2020

BULLETS AND FLAMES - THE BATTLE OF LINCOLN

7/19/1878 - Revenge killing begetting revenge killing, the Lincoln County War for commercial control of a huge portion of the New Mexico Territory (at the time, the county is the biggest in the country, covering about 1/5 of New Mexico territory) between members of the Murphy-Dolan-Riley Faction (known as "The House") and the Tunstall-McSween-Chisum Faction culminates in a five-day battle in the town of Lincoln that will also directly involve the United States government, in the form of Lt. Colonel Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley and a contingent of thirty-four Fort Stanton troopers and soldiers.
War in Lincoln County - To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid ...
Lincoln, New Mexico Territory
Lincoln County War by Emerson Hough – Page 4 – Legends of America
Lincoln, New Mexico Territory

Trouble brewing between the two conflicting factions for years, the Lincoln County War is set off with the assassination of wealthy 24-year-old English rancher, John Henry Tunstall, on February 18, 1878 by a bogus posse of Murphy-Dolan followers (with a warrant from Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady to attach Tunstall's cattle and arrest his partner, lawyer Alexander McSween).  Match to a powder keg, the 1878 conflict for control of the region that breaks out upon Tunstall's death will include the Blackwater Massacre (3/9) in which a group of Tunstall supporters (including Billy the Kid) calling themselves Regulators kill arrested "House" members William "Buck" Morton (a deputy sheriff believed to be one of Tunstall's killers), Frank Baker (another deputy sheriff, though one that was not on the Tunstall posse ... his and Morton's body will each have eleven bullet wounds ... the exact number of Regulators present after McClosky is subtracted), and William McCloskey (a Regulator and friend of Morton's who is shot for trying to stop the murders, the Regulators' murder of Sheriff Brady and Deputy George W. Hindman (4/1 ... the crime for which Billy the Kid will be sentenced to hang) on the streets of Lincoln, the Battle of Blazer's Mill (4/4) in which a group of Regulators mistakenly take out local rancher Andrew L. "Buckshot" Roberts (he has nothing to do with the Tunstall killing and is actually leaving the area due to the increase in violence), but not before Roberts kills Regulator leader Dick Brewer, and wounds John Middleton, Doc Scurlock, and George Coe (along with knocking Billy the Kid senseless with the butt of his Winchester rifle when he runs out of ammo), a gunfight at the Fritz Ranch (4/29) that results in the death of Regulator Frank McNab (the newly elected leader of the Regulators after the death of Brewer), the wounding of Regulator Ab Saunders (shot in the hip), and the capture of Regulator Frank Coe, the Lincoln town murders (4/30) of "House" gunmen Tom Green, Charles Marshall, Jim Patterson, and John Galvin (no one is ever charged in the deaths) and the killing of "House" gunman, Manuel Segovia (5/15).  On July 15, 1878, when armed men from both factions make their way into Lincoln, all the pieces are in place for yet even more murders.
Dolan and Murphy | Old west photos, Old west, American history
Murphy & Dolan
Lincoln County War | Historica Wiki | Fandom
Tunstall's Death - True West Magazine
Lincoln County War - Wikipedia
Billy The Kid
I Shot the Sheriff (and I Killed a Deputy, Too) - True West Magazine
The Sheriff Brady Ambush - True West Magazine
Shootout at Blazer's Mill - True West Magazine
Buckshot Fights Back - True West Magazine

Tired of living in the hills to avoid being a target in the ongoing war, McSween returns to Lincoln and his store on Monday morning, 7/15/1878 ... with him are numerous Regulators who place themselves strategically about town (about sixty men altogether), barricading themselves into position with sandbags and carving firing holes in adobe walls.  Activity noticed, Dolan-Murphy supporter, recently elected Sheriff George Peppin, sends out riders to bring the men he has out searching for Regulators, his "deputies," back to town (mostly gunmen hired from the outlaw gangs of John Kinney, Jesse Evans, and the Seven Rivers Warriors) and positions the gunslingers he has at the west end of town, in the Murphy-Dolan store and inside the Wortley Hotel.  Negotiations unsuccessful to bring the situation to a non-violent conclusion (with Lt. Daniel Appel of Fort Stanton the middleman), the two sides begin trading shouted insults and hot lead ... and the first victim of the battle falls, a horse in the Wortley Hotel corral.  As the sun sets on the first day of the Battle of Lincoln, over a hundred shots have been exchanged between the two factions and they are not even close to being done with each other.

McSween
Another Corrupt Sheriff
Peppin

At dawn of the second day of the clash the pot shooting begins again and Peppin sends a message to Fort Stanton that he can end the battle if Lt. Colonel Nathan Dudley will loan him one of the fort's howitzers for the day (figuring the mere threat of the weapon will cause the Regulators to surrender).  Still bound by the Posse Comitatus Act that prevented Lt. Appel from getting involved on the first day, Colonel Dudley sends Private Berry Robinson to Lincoln to give the sheriff the bad news, but things change when Robinson reports back to the fort that while passing on the information, the trooper was fired on by Regulators (though historians now believe the gunfire came from Murphy-Dolan followers).  Calling a meeting with his officers, it is decided that a ride to Lincoln is warranted for the following day to see exactly what is going on in town.  Again as night falls, the sniping and insults end.
Hero' of the Lincoln County War
Dudley

On the third day of the battle, Wednesday morning, the first human life is lost.  Believing a Regulator position in the Montano home has been abandoned, Murphy-Dolan gunmen casually approach the house ... and learn the error of their ways when Fernando Herrera, the father-in-law of Regulators Doc Scurlock and Charlie Bowdrie, and takes out Charlie "Lollycooler" (don't ask, I have no idea!) Crawford with a single round from his Sharps rifle (the bullet goes in one hip and out the other, severing Crawford's spine in the process).  Around noon, the contingent from Fort Stanton (two captains, Lt. Appel, and five troopers) arrives to investigate what happened the day before to Private Robinson).  A fruitless effort to find the truth, under a flag of truce the Murphy-Dolan men say the Regulators fired on Robinson, and the Regulators say the shots came from the Murphy-Dolan faction ... deciding it must have been the Regulators when the soldiers are fired on as they pluck the mortally wounded Crawford from his exposed position on the hill overlooking the Montano residence (taken to Fort Stanton by the soldiers, Crawford will die later that night).  Soldiers gone, the two factions start up again and in the exchanges of lead, Seven Rivers Warrior William Johnson is hit in the neck and has to ride to Fort Staton for treatment, unarmed Regulator supporter Ben Ellis takes a round to the neck while feeding a mule behind his home (where several Regulators are staying, rushing out to grb Ellis, the men wound Seven Rivers Warrior Jim Jones), and Doctor Taylor Early is chased back into the McSween home by gunfire at around midnight when he tries to leave the structure to attend to the wounded Ellis; the only shooting that takes place after the sun disappears.
1878 Main Street, Lincoln, Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory ...
Downtown Lincoln - True West Magazine

Thursday, the morning of the fourth day of the conflict includes the arrival of three Hispanic women at Fort Stanton (they have walked there from Lincoln), who unsuccessfully beg Colonel Dudley to send help (he refuses to get involved again, only offering help in the form of shelter behind the fort's walls ... by this time, only twelve out of the fifty or so families that call Lincoln home are still in the town), and Doctor Ellis, his wife, and the couple's two infant daughters defiantly walking down Main Street to the Ellis home where the doctor treats the man's neck wound from the previous day (Ellis will survive) before returning to the McSween home.  Once returned to the McSween property, the battle begins again and Regulator George Bowers joins the ranks of the wounded when he is hit defending the McSween abode.  Not as fortunate is Regulator Tom Cullens who is also at the McSween home, where he is killed by a stray bullet.  Around noon, a rumor begins flying about Lincoln that rancher John Chisum is on his way into town to join the McSween side at the head of over thirty of his cowboys and a deadly howitzer.  Not taking any chances that the rumor might be true, Dolan and a small group of men leave the fighting and ride off to Fort Stanton, once again asking the colonel privately to intervene in the conflict and end things.  And this time after meeting with his officers again, Dudley decides that the next morning a contingent of his men will march to Lincoln "... for the preservation of the lives of women and children ..." still in the town, citizen safety that will come from the soldiers, and the howitzer and Gatling gun the Fort Stanton (the blacksmith of the fort, Mr. Nelson, works through the night to get the howitzer ready for combat).men will march into the battle.

Fort Stanton

The final day of battle begins with the odd sight of the United States mail carrier silently making his rounds through Lincoln.  Route completed, the carrier leaves Lincoln at about 10:00 in the morning and the lead exchange begins again ... until Colonel Dudley, a group of his soldiers, and the howitzer and Gatling gun make their appearance on the scene.  Stopping at the Wortley Hotel, Dudley advises the Murphy-Dolan faction that he is in town to protect "the women and children" of Lincoln, not join a side in the combat, but that he will turn his guns on anyone that fires at his men ... then the party moves down the street and tells the other gunmen in town the same story, before setting up camp in a vacant lot just across the street from the Montano home.  Seemingly neutral, Dudley's arrival in town actually gives the Murphy-Dolan faction a decided advantage ... if they fire on the McSween property, any misses will just fly out of town, while misses from the McSween faction have the very likely prospect of hitting a trooper.  Seeing the handwriting on the wall as to what is coming, Regulators start abandoning positions ... positions Sheriff Peppin soon reoccupies with his own men.
At around lunch time, the first request for the surrender of McSween and the men in his home is answered with gunfire (when told there is a warrant for his arrest, Regulator Jim French will yell that he has a warrant to arrest Murphy-Dolan men too ... and states when asked to produce it, "They're in our guns, you cock-sucking sons-of-bitches!").
The Five-Day Battle
Final Day At The McSween's

Fleeing the Ellis house when the Gatling gun is turned it's way, a group of Regulators mounts up and flees town, getting into a short gun battle with a small group of Murphy-Dolan men ... in the gunfire that takes place, Murphy-Dolan acolyte John Jones is slightly wounded, and Regulator Dan Dedrick is shot in the arm (Peppin's men also capture for their own use, four pistols, six rifles, twelve saddles, and thirteen horses).  With the Regulators that have left due to Colonel Dudley's arrival, the McSween force has been reduced from over 60 men to 15 ... 12 are at the McSween property and 3 are in John Tunstall's old store.  As the afternoon begins, armed with new bogus arrest warrants that have been coerced from Squire J. P. Wilson (Peppin threatens to arrest the man), Peppin and his men begin preparations to get the last Regulators by firing the house they are holed up in.  Before the house is set on fire though, Susan McSween bravely walks across the street and gives Colonel Dudley an earful of bile (which he colorfully sends back at the woman) about his failure to actually protect any women and children, then she returns to her home.  Logs stacked against the outer wall of the east kitchen, wood soaked in coal oil, John Long and a Cowboy known as "The Dummy" set the McSween abode on fire (using two buckets of water, the blaze will be put out by Billy the Kid and Elizabeth Shields; and Regulator gunfire will keep the two firebugs, soon joined by Murphy-Dolan man, Buck Powell, hiding in a disgusting backyard privy hole for the next two hours).
New Mexico's Lincoln County War – Legends of America
The Murphy-Dolan Mercantile Which Will Become The Lincoln County
Courthouse
Sweet Revenge — How Susan McSween Really Won the Lincoln County ...
Susan McSween

At around 2:00 in the afternoon, after a band of Regulators (eight men) on a small hill overlooking Lincoln are chased off by the howitzer, Andy Boyle ignites a second log fire in the summer kitchen at end of the west wing of the McSween property.  Regulators kept at bay by gunmen shooting at them from a stable behind the house, the fire is soon out of control and slowly spreads from room to room, with the last of the fourteen occupants of the home finally gathering in the only room remaining to them, the east kitchen where the first fire had been set (out with a bang, on the last day of battle, the belligerents fire over 2,000 rounds at each other).  It is now 9:00 in the evening and with a depressed McSween giving no directions to the men who have supported him, Billy the Kid takes over (Billy slaps McSween, trying to bring the man out of his darkened state, but the lawyer responds byshaking his head and muttering, "Boys, I have lost my mind!").  Asking for four volunteers, the Kid's plan is for the men (Jim French, Jose Chavez y Chavez, Harvey Morris, and Tom O'Folliard volunteer), along with Billy, to slip out the house and only start shooting back when they are spotted, the signal to the rest of the party to escape while their attackers are preoccupied with Billy.  Taking off their boots to make less sound, the first party makes sure their guns are fully loaded as Billy lights a cigar and then places a pistol in each hand as the men move into the McSween backyard ... Morris first, French second, O'Folliard third, Chavez fourth, and Billy bringing up the rear.  Unseen, walking slowly, Morris makes it to the backyard gate leading off the property, where the Murphy-Dolan men suddenly come to life as Billy's band of volunteers begins firing back ... Morris is hit in the head by a round that causes instant death, O'Folliard takes a bullet in his shoulder trying to rescue the already dead Morris, Billy shoots John Kinney in the face, knocking the man unconscious.  Eventually, the four men make it to the relative safety of the darkness of the riverbank of the nearby Rio Bonito (while this is taking place, Regulators George Coe, Sam Smith, and Henry Brown leave their position in the grain-shed of Tunstall's store, and quietly climb over a high adobe wall using beet bottle perches, and make their way to the river too.).

Discovered - True West Magazine
Billy's Backyard Breakout Billy the Kid vs Peppin's Posse - True ...
Fighting Back - True West Magazine
1878
Escape

Alerted by the departure of Billy and his confederates, the Murphy-Dolan men open up on McSween's party as soon as the men leave the back door, and the last Regulators are forced to hide in the shadows and smoke of the Mc Seen house burning down.  Defending himself with only the Bible he holds in his right hand, someone in the party calls out, "I will surrender."  A notification that brings Deputy Sheriff Bob Beckwith forward as he proclaims, "I am a deputy sheriff, and have a warrant for your arrest."  A new voice calls out, "I shall never surrender!" and the gunfire at the McSween abode breaks out again, with mortal consequences ... Beckwith is struck in the right wrist and then another round that goes through his right eye and strikes the deputy dead, five bullets hit McSween in the chest and he goes down dead still holding his Bible, Francisco Zamora and Vincente Romero hide in a wooden chicken shed and are both killed when the Murphy-Dolan men turn the structure into a piece of Swiss cheese with their bullets (Zamora is hit eight times and Romero is pierced by three rounds), Ignacio Gonzales is hit in the right arm but manages to make it to the river, and the youngest participant in the fighting, 15-year-old Regulator Yginio Salazar, is knocked unconscious by bullets to his back and shoulder (waking later, Salazar will pretend to be dead until all the Murphy-Dolan men withdraw and start celebrating their victory with lots of booze, tall tales, and the music that two local fiddle players are forced at gunpoint to produce), but manages later in the evening to crawl a half mile to the home of his sister-in-law, Nicolasita Pacheco, where his wounds are treated.  Of the second party to leave the remains of the McSween home, only Joe Smith, George Bowers, Florencio Chavez, and Jose Maria Sanchez make it off the property unscathed.
Deputy Sheriff Robert W. Beckwith, Lincoln County Sheriff's Office ...
Beckwith
Alexander A. McSween (1843-1878) - Find A Grave Memorial
McSween
Ygenio "Eugene" Salazar. The youngest of the Regulators. As one of ...
Salazar

Battle for the town of Lincoln over, so too is the war for the county with neither side really winning (recognizing the lack of law and order in the region, the area will briefly be infested by Texas outlaws) ... combat maybe over, but for many of the belligerents, there will be much more violence. Upset with the performance of Territorial Governor Samuel Beach Axtell during the war, President Rutherford B. Hayes sacks the man and replaces him with Civil War general Lewis Wallace (who is in the process of writing a little piece of historical fiction called Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ) and gives him directions to clean up the territory ... and slowly, but surely, civilization comes to the Land of Enchantment.  Of the major players in the war, Lawrence Gustave Murphy dies of cancer on his New Mexico ranch outside of Lincoln at the age of 47 in October of 1878, while his partner, 49-year-old James Dolan, dies of alcoholism at the Tunstall Ranch he has pilfered during the war in February of 1898 (their military helper, Dudley, will go on to pursue the Apache renegade, Victorio, put down a rebellion on the Crow Indian reservation, retire from the Army as a brigadier general, and in 1910 atthe age of 84).  On the other side, rancher John Chisum dies in December of 1884 at the age of 60 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas from surgical complications from having a growth removed from his jaw.  As for the foot soldiers of the conflict, Billy the Kid (after Governor Wallace reneges on his amnesty promise ... outlaw, the Kid will kill two guards escaping from the Lincoln jail), Tom O'Folliard, and Charlie Bowdrie are all killed by Lincoln County Sheriff Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett or one of his posses, Regulator Henry Newton Brown will go on to become a Kansas lawman, until he and three cronies rob a bank, are caught, and end up dancing on air for a lynch mob in 1884, Chavez y Chavez wears the hats of both lawman and outlaw too, pardoned from a life sentence behind bars for murder, he dies of natural causes in Milagro, New Mexico in 1924,  Doc Scurlock will move to Texas, where he marries and raises a family while serving as the area's post master and writing poetry until he dies in 1929 at the age of 80, Jim French is either killed stealing cattle in 1879, or, spends the rest of his life hiding in South America, or, killed robbing a Catoosa, Oklahoma bank, or, shot robbing a different Oklahoma bank in 1923 (or choose your own fate for Mr. French), after being arrested in Mexico by Texas Rangers, outlaw Jesse Evans is brought back to the United States, escapes from prison, is recaptured and sent to Huntsville Prison, and upon being released in 1882 vanishes from any known historical record, and Yginio Salazr, the youngest warrior, recovers from his wounds, marries, has a daughter, and ranches in the area until his death in 1936 at the age of 72.

True West Magazine - The McSween's In Front Of Their Lincoln Home

Perhaps the only person to emerge as a "winner" in the Lincoln County War is Susan Hummer McSween (and she comes out of the war a widow), who will be called the "Cattle Queen of New Mexico.  Loyalty, fearlessness, and smarts on display during the five-day battle for Lincoln, after the fighting ceases, she hires lawyer Huston Chapman to pursue charges against those she feels are responsible for her husband's death (Chapman will be gunned down in Lincoln by Jesse Evans in February of 1879), though no one will ever be found guilty (at trial, both Dudley and Dolan are acquitted) .  Marrying again in 1880 (to lawyer George Barber ... they will later divorce), she manages to pay off the debts of Tunstall and her husband (by selling off her own assets), then start her own ranching operations using the gift of a 40 head herd of cattle from John Chisum (worth about $400).  Taking over 1,158 acres of land from the west side of the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, her ranch will become the Seven Rivers Cattle Company and her bovine herd will grow to over 8,000 (she will also become known for the fruit orchard she starts with plants obtained from Chisum, the silver mine on her property).  Moving to White Oaks, New Mexico in 1902, McSween dies of pneumonia on January 3, 1931 at the age of 85.
Susan McSween Barber (1845-1931), as she was then known later in ...
McSween At White Oaks

7/15/1878 to 7/19/1878 ... the climatic battle of New Mexico Territory's Lincoln County takes place in the town of Lincoln.
One of two confirmed photographs of Billy the Kid (left), playing croquet in New Mexico, 1878.
Newly Discovered Billy The Kid Picture - In Striped Sweater Playing Croquet - Estimated Value Of $5,000,000
Is this a real photo of Billy the Kid? If so, it could be about to ...
Newly Discovered Billy The Kid Picture - Playing Cards Are Dick Brewer, Billy The Kid, Fred Brown, And Henry Brown - Estimated Value Of $1,000,000



Thursday, July 2, 2020

SAVING THE DAY!

7/2/1863 - Union forces reeling from a day and a half of battering at the hands of General Robert E. Lee's Gettysburg invaders, Cemetery Ridge defensive line about to be breached, 262 men of the First Minnesota Infantry Regiment cover themselves in forever martial glory by fixing bayonets, and though horribly outnumbered, charging into the advancing Alabama Brigade of Confederate Brigadier General Cadmus Wilcox (the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 14th Alabama regiments, 1,400 soldiers) ...saving the day for the Union Army and saving the nation itself ... 262 men!
Sacrifice: Remembering the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg - The Daily ...
Dave Geister - Painter, Illustrator, Time Traveller . . . Geek
Charge

Answering President Abraham Lincoln's call for troops to defend the Union following the fall of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, the day after the battle Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey creates the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment from 1,009 men of the city of St. Paul and other nearby towns (lots of loggers and farmers, one man, Newton Brown, will walk 65-miles barefoot to enlist).  The unit is mustered into existence (for three years of service) at Fort Snelling, Minnesota on April 29, 1861 and by the Fourth of July they are stationed in Alexandria, Virginia, completing their training under the command of Colonel Willis A. Gorman.  The unit sees action for the first time at the First Battle of Bull Run (7/21/1861) ... in the thick of the afternoon fighting that takes on Henry House Hill supporting the artillery guns of Captain James B. Ricketts, the unit has a casualty loss of 20%, with 49 killed, 107 wounded, and 31 missing.  At the Battle of Antietam (9/17/1862), still the bloodiest day in American history, the unit fares even worse during Major General John Sedgwick's ill-fated morning assault on Confederate forces positioned within the battlefield's infamous West Woods ... contributing Minnesota crimson to the carnage with a 28% casualty rate consisting of 16 killed, 82 wounded, and 24 missing (122 casualties out of 435 soldiers engaged).  Nowhere as desperate and deadly as at First Bull Run or Antietam, the men from Minnesota are also present for the Battle of South Mountain (9/14/1862), Major General George McClellan defeat at the Battle of Ball's Bluff (10/21/1861), McClellan's bungled Peninsula Campaign of 1862 (March to July), the Seven Days Battles outside of Richmond, Virginia (6/25/1862 to 7/1/1862), the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg (12/11/1862 to 12/15/1862), and Major General Joseph Hooker's defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville (4/30/1863 to 5/6/1863).  It is at Gettysburg however that the First Minnesota has its finest day.
Willis Arnold Gorman (1816-1876) - Find A Grave Memorial
Gorman
First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment | MNopedia
First Minnesota Officers - Left To Right Back Row - Captain Wilson Farrell, Lt. Samuel
Raguet, Captain Louis Muller, Lt. Charles Zurenberg, And Captain Henry Coates -
Center - Major Mark Downie

Part of the 12,000 men in the II Corps of the Union Army (their new commander as of 5/22/1863 is Major General Winfield Scott Hancock who will become known as "Hancock the Superb" for his actions during the battle), the 262 men of the whittled down First Minnesota (three companies are on detached duty, Colonel William Colvill Jr. is in command of the rest of the unit) arrive on the Gettysburg battlefield shortly after sunrise on the second day of the clash (it is Thursday and the weary men have averaged a daily fourteen mile march for two weeks) and are assigned a place on the Union's line to protect and support Battery C of the 4th U.S. Artillery.  Disaster impending when the line is compromised by "political" soldier Major General Daniel Sickles moving his III Corps forward without orders (the man is also the murderer of Philip Barton Key II for the man having an affair with Sickle's wife), Hancock spends the day trying to stave off disaster as he moves units about the field to help at crisis areas ... by late afternoon though, he has a last crisis to deal with and is almost out of troops to commit, there is a gap in the Union line that is about to be attacked by Confederate troops..
Gen. Winfield S. Hancock - NARA - 529369.jpg
Hancock
William Colvill.jpg
Colvill

Another snap decision (if the gap is exploited, Confederate troops will split the Union Army in half and can roll up the segmented flanks of the northerners), Hancock orders the divisions of Brigadier General John Gibbon and Brigadier General Alexander Hays into the opening, but the movement of men will take five minutes of time, time Hancock doesn't have unless he can find a means of stopping the immediate southern advance.  He finds his means in the men of the First Minnesota.  Seeing a regiment of blue soldiers moving towards him, Hancock gallops up to the officer commanding the column and asks, "What regiment is this?"  The answer comes back immediately, "First Minnesota, Sir!" (a regiment that belongs to Hancock's II Corps, and that is commanded by a man only three days before, Hancock had placed under arrest for allowing his men to slow their advance by staying dry and crossing a river single file over a log instead of everyone wading the three-foot-deep wet, 33-year-old Colonel William J. Colvill Jr.).  "Colonel, do you see those colors?" Hancock calls out, pointing to Alabama flags approaching, with Colvill stating his acknowledgment of the colors, the general then gives his orders, "Advance, Colonel, and take those colors."  One regiment against a brigade, murder (Irish-born lawyer Lt. William Lochran will later write, "Every man realized in an instant what that order meant - death or wounds for us all; the sacrifice of the regiment to gain a few minutes of time, and probably the battlefield ... but unwilling to face Hancock's wrath again, Colvill orders his men forward on double-quick.
Licensed Battlefield Guide Rich Goedkoop: Union Counterattacks ...
"Take Those Colors!"

Born in Forestville, New York on April 5, 1830, Colvill is the son of Irish-Scottish parents.  Intellectually gifted (he graduates from Fredonia Academy and teaches at a country school for a year before studying law), he reads law out of the offices of 13th U.S. President, Millard Fillmore and in 1851 passes the bar.  For three years he practices law in New York before migrating to Minnesota, where along with opening up a law office, Colvill becomes active with Minnesota's Territorial Council and establishes the Red Wing Sentinel in the town of Red Wing.  When the Civil War breaks out with the shelling of Fort Sumter, Colvill becomes the first man to volunteer from Goodhue County and is elected captain of Company F of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.  Wounded in the shoulder at the 1862 Battle of White Oak Swamp (he is an easy target, measuring 6'5" in his stocking feet), by the time of Gettysburg Colvill is a colonel in command of what is left of the First Minnesota.
Minnesota and the Civil War' Exhibit Experience & Images ...
Colvill

Opposing Colvill is the brigade of 39-year-old Brigadier General Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox.  Born on May 20, 1824 in Wayne County, North Carolina, Wilcox is raised and educated in Tennessee (his family moves there when he is only two), attending Cumberland College before matriculating at West Point with its class of 1846 (among his classmates are future generals, George B. McClellan and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, he finishes #54 out of a class of 59).  During the Mexican-American War, Wilcox gallantly fights at the Battle of Veracruz, the Battle of Cerro Gordo, the Battle of Chapultepec, and the Battle of Mexico City.  After the war, he remains in the army, teaches at West Point, spends a year in Europe, and writes a manual on rifles and rifle firing.  He is a captain in the New Mexico Territory when the Civil War begins and he joins the Confederacy.  On the other side of many of the battles Colvill is also in, by the time of Lee's Gettysburg Campaign, Wilcox is a brigade commander reporting to Major General R. H. Anderson, belonging to the III Corps of Lt. General A. (Ambrose) P. (Powell) Hill (for the day, he is on loan to Lt. General James Longstreet for use in the attack Lee has ordered his I Corps to make against the left of the Union line atop Cemetery Ridge).
CMWilcoxCSAright.jpg
Wilcox

Off without hesitation, Colvill's men charge down the rise, level their bayonets, shout "HURRAH," and then crash into Wilcox's brigade .  Already tired from a run of over a mile and the fight they have made reaching the Union line, surprised at being attacked themselves, the Alabamians recoil as the First Minnesota hits them just as they are crossing a small creek (the infamous Plum Run which will turn crimson during the battle), but after a few moments, come on again and pour devastating fire on to Colvill's command.  In the blood bath that takes place, five times the Minnesota flag goes down, and five times it rises, Colvill is hit three times and severely wounded (hit in the right shoulder and ankle, a bullet will clip off a piece of vertebra in the colonel's back and he argues doctors out of amputating his damaged foot ... making a slow recovery first in a Private Gettysburg home, then at a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania hospital, Colvill is not out of bed until February of 1864 and walks with a cane for the rest of his life ... mustered out of the army as a brigadier general in 1865, he spends the next forty years in Minnesota as a member of its legislature, as the state's attorney general, practicing law, as register of the Duluth Land Office, and running his farm, which will one day be the small community of Colvill.  He dies in his sleep at the age of 75 while attending a reunion of First Minnesota veterans in 1905.  At the dedication of the statue that stands at his grave, President Calvin Coolidge will state, "Colonel Colvill and those eight companies of the First Minnesota are entitled to rank as saviors of their country."), and all but three officers are hit.  Needing five minutes for supports to arrive, the men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry instead give Hancock (he will later praise the men for their unsurpassed gallantry and heroism, the highest known in the annals of warfare) fifteen minutes (seeing Union troops approaching his flanks, with no supports behind him, Wilcox will retreat back down the hill).  But the time comes at the grisly cost of 215 casualties (retreating with discipline and their faces forward, Captain Nathan Messick will lead the 47 unscathed survivors of the clash back to the Union line), an 82% rate, still the largest percentage of casualties to be taken by any U.S. regiment in a single day of battle!
No grander heroism: The story of the 1st Minnesota, and Winona's ...
Map Of The Charge
THE FIRST MINNESOTA, BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG - DON TROIANI — Horse ...
First Minnesota
Kill the Jellyfish: The First Minnesota's Last 5 Minutes
Charge
The Last Full Measure: 1st Minnesota Regiment at Gettysburg-Keith ...
Last Full Measure
Heroes of Gettysburg: First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment ...
Attack (Colvill Is Slightly To Right Of Flag, Arm Upraised)
Not a Man Wavered by Dale Gallon: 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg ...
Retiring With Order

Union line saved for a third day of mayhem, the survivors of the charge are reinforced by one of its detached companies returning to the unit (Company F) and moved slightly north on Cemetery Ridge to rest and recuperate ... right at one of the spots in the line Picketts Charge of 7/3/1863 will try to breach.  Again at the seemingly epicenter of the battle's carnage, the men of the First Minnesota will charge an advancing enemy of superior numbers ... and once again southern attackers can not get past the men of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  But again, there is a cost to pay ... attacking the attackers (the First Minnesota will lose seventeen more men on the third day of Gettysburg), slightly wounded twice the day before, 36-year-old Captain Messick is killed by a shell fragment that just above his right eye, and then his replacement, 33-year-old Captain Farrell, is mortally wounded and goes down too (at the end of the day, Captain Henry C. Coates will be in command). 
 Pickett's Charge - Battle of Gettysburg - Woodmere Art Museum
Pickett's Charge
Nathan S. Messick (Cpt.) · Hall of the Dead · Civil War In ...
Messick
Great Victory Won!
Coates

And once again there is glory for the men of Minnesota.  Picking up the unit's flag when the last color bearer falls, 21-year-old St. Anthony Falls miller, Corporal Henry O'Brien wins a Congressional Medal of Honor for leading the charge to the right, carrying the flag throughout the rest of the battle despite taking a grazing round to the head and a second bullet that punches through the soldier's hand (it will cut the flagstaff in half after blowing out of the back of O'Brien's palm).  And 41-year-old Private Marshall Sherman of St. Paul (where he is a house painter) also receives a Congressional Medal of Honor for capturing, at the point of his bayonet, the battle flag of 28th Virginia Regiment of Brigadier General Richard Garnett (who is yet another casualty of the battle).

O'Brien

Sherman And Flag   
 
Heroes over a century ago, the men of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry remain heroes to this day!  On the Gettysburg battlefield there are three memorials to the northerners ... one is a statue of a soldier running forward that stands at the spot where Colvill's charge began, another is an obelisk marking where Minnesota met the Virginians of Garnett during Pickett's Charge, and there is a memorial urn in the national cemetery on the battlefield that honors the First Minnesota.  And back in Minnesota itself, the souvenirs and trophies of the Civil War include the battle flag Private Sherman captured (with the Minnesota Historical Society despite Virginia's repeated attempts to get it back), the First Minnesota badge Sgt. Chesley Tirrell wears into battle, an officer's hat insignia, and the Minnesota men's battle flag ... along with having a statue in the Minnesota State Capital honoring his deeds, Colonel Colvill has a park named after him in the town of Red Wing, and there is a section of State Highway 19 between the towns of Gaylord and Red Wing named for the First Minnesota's gallant commander.
TCMthoughts – Gettysburg (1993) forgets 1st Minnesota | Tim Russo
Where The Charge Took Place
Minnesota at Gettysburg - Monument to the 1st Infantry Regiment ...
Charge Monument
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment - The Battle of Gettysburg
Where The Men Met
Pickett's Charge
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment - The Battle of Gettysburg
Bronze Bas-Relief On Obelisk
1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment - The Battle of Gettysburg
Memorial Urn At Gettysburg National Cemetery
Minnesota has a Confederate symbol — and it is going to keep it ...
Captured Battle Flag
First Minnesota Regiment Civil War snare drum
Snare Drum Of The First Minnesota
Flag of First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment: The first ...
Battle Flag Of The First Minnesota

First Minnesota Badge Worn By
Sergeant Chesley Billings Tirrell

Colvill

7/2/1863 ... the largest and bloodiest battle to take place on North American soil enters its second day, a second day in which a few men from Minnesota help decide the fate of their nation ... may their sacrifices never be forgotten.
Capitol art: First Minnesota at Gettysburg is a must-keep | Star ...
Charge Painting Detail - Colvill To Right Of
Flag With Arm Raised
Colors of valor : the 28th Virginia Regiment's flag in Minnesota ...
1905 Reunion Parade
1st Minnesota Volunteers 1905 Reunion Badge | Cowan's Auction ...
Reunion Medal With Colvill Badge
Brigadier General William Colvill - U.S. Civil War General Statues ...
Colvill Grave & Statue