We are well into the season of summertime celebrations, community get-togethers that occur over the weekends in big cities and small towns across Minnesota. If you haven’t enjoyed one, especially some of the adorable small-town celebrations, I highly encourage a road trip. Explore Minnesota has a full rundown of festivals and events across Minnesota all summer long.
Sadly, there’s another unfortunate tradition that will occur across the state this Independence Day weekend and throughout the summer. While the United States’ Stars and Stripes is by far the most common flag you will see across the state, occasionally you’ll witness the flying of the Confederate flag as well, the flag of the enemy of the United States, an insurrectionist army that attacked the United States in an effort to continue slavery as a way of life.
Let me be very clear. As a veteran of the U.S. Army, I do understand the First Amendment, and if you so choose to express your freedom of speech by flying that flag, that’s your right. I won’t respect you, but I do respect your right to display the flag of an enemy of the United States (fact). I’ll proudly be flying the Stars and Stripes. The point of this essay is to express my concern over official vehicles (fire trucks, police cars, vehicles carrying local elected officials) that seem to pop up in some of these community celebrations/parades, proudly displaying the flag of the Confederacy.
In Minnesota, this is especially a heinous act when you look back at the bravery and sacrifice of the 1st Minnesota Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.
Although this essay is about to become a history lesson, this isn’t about debating critical race theory, or whether we should even mention the traditional Native American name for Fort Snelling (Bdote, which is cool!). This isn’t about revisiting a white-centric cultural hero, like Christopher Columbus, whose undeniable negative checklist far outweighs his contributions. This is about whether the same people who claim to be proud Minnesotans can claim to be so if they embrace the flag of the Confederacy, and in turn ignore the near immeasurable sacrifice of the 1st Minnesota.
Just 262 men
In the late afternoon of July 2, 1863, little more than five years after Minnesota had become a state, the Union had a major hole in its line on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. The second day of fighting had been brutal, with the Confederacy looking to end the war once and for all by overrunning the Union line. As the Union troops were trying desperately to hold the hill, a major hole opened up and nearly 1,200 Confederate troops marched forward. The only unit that could stop them was the grossly outnumbered 1st Minnesota. They had 262 men.
They never hesitated. The 1st Minnesota charged into the fray. The chaos and insanity that unfolded in the next few minutes is hard to comprehend. Within five minutes, 215 of the 262 men of the 1st Minnesota fell. When the soldier carrying the Minnesota colors was killed, another dropped their weapon and grabbed the flag. Five times that happened IN FIVE MINUTES. Minnesota’s brave, courageous and desperate sacrifice held until reinforcements arrived. The 82% casualty rate still stands as the U.S. Army’s largest loss of life of any unit which still stood at the end of the battle. Minnesota’s colors never were captured, and are on display at the Capitol in the rotunda. Most important, the Union line held for the day.
‘Saviors of their country’
In case I’m burying the lead, Minnesota saved the Union from the traitorous Confederates on July 2, 1863. That’s not just an opinion. Maj. General Hancock, who had ordered the 1st Minnesota into the Confederate line, considered them to be entitled to the rank of “saviors of their country.” Minnesota has a large memorial in Gettysburg describing their sacrifice. I wept openly in its shadow.
[image_caption]Matthew McNeil[/image_caption]
When I’ve seen a Confederate flag on an official vehicle or on an official display at a Minnesota festival, I don’t go and try to rip in down. I don’t scream about how the people who put it up are racist. I simply ask if the people flying the flag know anything about the 1st Minnesota. They always say no. I then inform them of whose side they are taking by flying the Confederate flag, usually as they clearly get more and more uncomfortable with their decisions.
Now that you know about the 1st Minnesota’s history, it’s up to Minnesotans to determine if flying the Confederate flag is appropriate (although I can argue flying it around the United States’ Independence Day seems misguided). If you do fly a Confederate Flag in an official capacity in Minnesota, then do not tell me you’re a proud Minnesotan. A proud Minnesotan would know their history and would always put the 1st Minnesota First, well ahead of the enemies of Minnesota and the United States.
Matthew McNeil is the host of the Matt McNeil show, weekdays, 4 to 6 p.m., on AM950, KTNF.
WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
If you’re interested in joining the discussion, add your voice to the Comment section below — or consider writing a letter or a longer-form Community Voices commentary. (For more information about Community Voices, see our Submission Guidelines.)
Very beautifully said, Mr. McNeil.
Even Minnesotans who should know about the 1st Minnesota don’t. When my oldest son was about to graduate from high school, I went with him to talk to a National Guard recruiter about the opportunities the Guard offered. Towards the end of his spiel, he mentioned the heritage of the Minnesota National Guard, and started rattling off a bunch of Military History Channel-type statistics about World War 2 combat days. I made a brief interjection about the 1st Minnesota at Gettysburg. The recruiter looked at me blankly for a second, and then recovered by saying “Right, they fought in the Civil War, too.”
I thought he should have been able to do better than that.
I was driving through North Branch about two weeks ago and saw a flag that half American, half Confederate. It made me feel sick.
Yes, beautifully said indeed. I might add that the Minnesota 4th Regiment also needs to be raised up this time of year. The Minnesota 4th served under Grant in the Vicksburg campaign an event commemorated in the painting of the 4th entering Vicksburg on its surrender by Francis David Millett hanging in the Governor’s Reception Room at the State Capitol. Vicksburg surrendered on July 3, 1863 at the same time the Battle of Gettysburg was raging. Gettysburg has since overshadowed the achievement of the surrender of Vicksburg for that reason and because the Vicksburg campaign was a complicated affair involving a series of engagements and battles that wore on so long, Grant was nearly fired. But his superb leadership and victory at Vicksburg broke the back of the “slavocracy” instituted in the South and, as Frederick Douglass wrote: “. . . the liberty which Mr. Lincoln declared with his pen General Grant made effective with his sword.”
If more people knew what these people sacrificed, many of them with their lives, would they be so cavalier in flying the flag of treason, especially on Independence Day?
As Merlin suggests in Excalibur: “For it is the doom of men that they forget”
Intentional for some, over-site by others, old age, or perhaps just plain old ignorance.
Thanks to you, I am 1st Minnesota advocate. I remember reading about the 1st Minnesota when the controversy over the 28th Virginia Battle flag came up a few years back. At first I thought what the hell, give it back, then I read about how it had been taken at the battle of Gettysburg and the heroism shown by the 1st Minnesota without hesitation charging into what they knew to be certain death. That changed my mind about Virginia’s flag. I with you, when I see that flag in Minnesota I tell the story.
After growing up in Minnesota and hearing the story of the First Minnesota several times, I finally visited the battle field and was shocked by the small scale of it: I had always envisioned a massive battle field where acres and acres initially separated the battling forces. Reality is that these two sides were in very close hand to hand combat from the start and anyone entering the battle must have immediately known that their chances for survival were minimal: I understand Mr. McNeil’s emotions when actually seeing where it happened.
Well said, Mr. McNeil.
The fact that as a nation we danced around the most horrific act of treason in our history for over a century is inexcusable to begin with. I hope the reality of Confederate treason and it’s bloody results finally emerges from the fog of history and takes it’s rightful place of shame next every other atrocity it resembles.
What exactly did we dance around? The acceptance at the end of the war was to help heal the country. It isn’t about retribution. The Confederacy was thoroughly beaten and drained of all resources (including men). You cannot apply the ideals of today, to how the war ended (and reconstruction) over 150 years ago.
Mr. Weir, it’s not my job to teach you the history of your own country… you clearly missed huge chunks of it… you could start by looking at all the Confederate Statues that sprang up, and the flags flying over State Capitals… etc. etc.
Most people today are not even away of why the Civil War was fought. It was not fought over abolishing slavery, it was fought to end the expansion of slavery. It was fought to limit states powers from selectively removing themselves from the Union. Abraham Lincoln didn’t even contemplate ending slavery as we know it until well into the war, and at first it was just in the Confederate states. There were people on both sides of that fight that gave their lives for the cause. Today we simplify the cause of the war saying it was to end Slavery. That was not the case at the time. Mr. Udstrand you need to polish up on your history. I am not condoning slavery in any way, shape or form, even though there were strong pockets of Abolitionists in some parts of the Union, by not means was it strong sentiment across the North.
If the Union wouldn’t have given the ex-confederate states their freedom and dignity back the South would still be a occupied 3rd world country today. What would that have done for us? You can’t look at history through the lens of today, without considering why history turned out the way it did at the time.
On another note, why do we let the little symbols bother us so much? A statue is just a statue, a flag is just a flag. The first amendment gives us freedom to express ourselves. Why is becoming ok to stifle that? Can’t we accept the fact that some people think differently?
Mr. Weir, I fear you need to brush up on your reading and comprehension… you might actually find a way to respond to my actual comment. No one asked why the Civil was fought or whether or not you endorse slavery. And the subject I raised concerned the post war era.
You cannot discuss post war policy and politics without looking into the reason the war was fought in the first place.
I’m discussing the post war era. Yes, we CAN discuss the role of the 1st Minnesota at the battle of Gettysburg without exploring the causes of the war. Just like we can discuss D-Day, or Stalingrad, or Iwo Jima without talking about what caused the war. Historians do this all the time, and so those who take history classes.
Mr Udstrand, I believe you are the one who brought up the post war Confederacy and the statues that were erected, not me. The first Minnesota was sacrificed to save the battle and potentially the war for the Union. Hats off to them. We shouldn’t belittle their memory with the noise we are generating today.
Capitols with an “o” are the building. Capitals with an “a” are the cities with capitols.
Virginia has repeatedly made formal requests that Minnesota return the Confederate battle flag the Minnesota regiment captured.
Their requests have been repeatedly denied. It is the property of the people of Minnesota to this day.
From The Atlantic 2013 archives:
” Here’s the controversy: The Minnesota Historical Society has a Confederate flag in their possession, captured from a Virginia regiment during the last day of the battle. For the sake of the anniversary, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell asked Minnesota to loan it to them (McDonnell is the governor who had declared April 2010 “Confederate History Month” at the behest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, but then apologized for not mentioning slavery in the proclamation). Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton’s response to the request is simple: No way.”
The piece offers more details of the proud service of the MN 1st Regiment.
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/150-years-after-gettysburg-virginia-and-minnesota-fight-over-confederate-flag/313796/
I was never a Jesse Ventura fan, but I did admire the way he stood up to Virginia and refused to return that flag.