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A Civil War
Journal
Company K, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment
At
Gettysburg July 1-4, 1863
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A
Winona County Historical Society
Education Project
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This web site journal presents the battle of Gettysburg
July 1-3, 1863 and its aftermath in the words of the men from Winona County's Company K
who were at the center of this significant battle of the Civil War . Letters written by
Alfred Carpenter,
Jane Ely (mother of Charles) Charles
Ely, Charles Goddard, William
Lochren, and Matthew Marvin as well as a lengthy account of the
battle by Alfred Carpenter and portions of Mathew Marvin's Diary are transcribed from the
original manuscripts. The original letters and manuscripts are located in the History
Center, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota and the Archives, Winona County
Historical Society, Winona, Minnesota. Brief biographies of the authors of the letters are
included with, in some cases, photographs in the Manuscript Section of this web site. Also
included in this web site journal are contemporary official documents and reports on the battle;
newspaper articles; photographs and drawings; and 19th and 20th
century articles on the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment's role in this great
battle.
Objectives
The primary objective of this journal is educational. We
believe that primary sources provide the best evidence for analyzing and understanding
historical events. Original sources are difficult to for students to obtain and often too fragile to
handle. The Web offers the opportunity for students (of all ages) easier access to
original documents and sources. To assist students to focus on the documents and to relate
them or put them in perspective, we are including questions which will guide students in
their study of this micro-history of the Battle of Gettysburg.
This web site seeks is to portray the lives and
actions of ordinary soldiers from Winona County prior to, during, and after
this epic battle. The web site is more interested in the social history of
the battle rather than the military aspects of this event. We are interested in
how the men from Company K got to Gettysburg from their base along the
Rappahannock River in the summer of 1863. The observations about events of
the march from their base in Falmouth, Virginia to Pennsylvania they wrote about
in their letters and diaries reveals much about the men of Company K and we
think reflects the experience of ordinary soldiers in this historic event. Reading the
letters and diary allow students to better understand how these soldiers thought
about and experienced the battle. Students can determine if these soldiers
were ready for the task that confronted them and how they responded. Careful
reading of these documents allows us to understand better how these men from a
new state west of the Mississippi got along
with each other. After two years of war and many battles they had become
veteran soldiers and their shared experiences created a
bond that made them a familial community--they were brothers.
The attitude 1st
Minnesota Regiment soldiers had toward Pennsylvanians was not similar to the
historian's consensus interpretation. We would like to know if these
attitudes were held by other soldiers who passed that way.
Some of the
letters and diary entries written and documents that appeared in the days after
the battle disclose events on the Winona home front that offer
students an opportunity to study the relationship between those who remained in
Winona and the soldiers of Company K.
The 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment
The 1st Minnesota was one of the outstanding regiments
of the Civil War. It played a critical role in the Battle of Gettysburg
along with other famous regiments like the 20th Maine and the 140th New
York. On the second day of the battle this regiment stopped the advance of
Wilcox's Brigade. The regiment suffered an 82 percent causality rate. See The
Historian's View.
The Manuscripts
The letters and diaries that make up a significant portion
of this site are transcribed from the original handwritten documents. Our goal is to
transcribe these documents verbatim. In some cases we were unable to determine a word or
phrase, this is signified by an ellipsis . . . in cases where we were not sure of a word
or phrase our best opinion/guess is included in brackets [best opinion/ guess].
Site Description
This site is divided into an introductory
section on Winona and other five sections which tell the story of the men of Company K at the
Battle of Gettysburg and conclude with Charles Goddard's search for the company and the
First Regiment in New York City. The story is told through primary sources, letters,
diaries, newspaper articles, photographs and reports. Additional sections beyond the
"story" are: Winona 1851-1861; 1st Minnesota and 20th Maine
St. Patrick's Day, 1863, Company K Roster and a Manuscript page which contains letters and diary entries as well as the complete
letters and reports which were excerpted in the story. There are also additional letters,
diary entries and newspaper articles.
Each section deals with one subject. For example, July 2
focuses on the famous First Regiment charge which occurred at dusk on that day and was one
of the major contributions to the Union victory. The gallant charge of these 262 men
against an enemy force which outnumbered them six to one is certainly comparable to the
magnificent deeds of the 20th Maine in its ultimate significance. The
section's sub-pages cover
this action as seen by historians, participants and the official records.
The July 4th page briefly describes the
situation on the battlefield and then through eyewitness accounts and reports. A story in
the local paper describing a July 4th outing raises a number of issues, in particular the
apparent contrast between the home front (in Gettysburg and Winona) and the battlefront.
Questions for consideration are offered to guide the students' study of the topic(s). More
evidence on these issues is found (or soon will be) in the manuscript pages. The
manuscript pages contain the complete reports excerpted in the individual pages e.g.
Alfred Carpenter's long letter describing the battle, written on July 30th. These pages
contain many letters and newspaper articles not used in the individual pages. References
are made in some questions to assist students in finding the location of the appropriate
documents.
New information about the Irish Brigade with an
image of a newly discovered battle flag appears
on the St. Patrick's Day page along with a letter and a diary entry describing
how two Winona soldiers viewed this famous fighting force.
To the Top
Comments, Questions, Complaints:
bcrozier@smumn.edu
© 1998 Winona County Historical Society,160
Johnson Street, Winona, MN 55987
08/09/06
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