"The most desperate struggle occurred on Longstreet's front , where two Union regiments at separated points of this combat zone, the 20th Maine and the 1st Minnesota, achieved lasting fame by throwing back Confederate attacks that came dangerously close to breakthroughs.
A mile to the north, however, another Alabama brigade threatened to puncture the Cemetery Ridge line near its center.
Their attack hit a gap in the Union line created by the earlier advance of Sickle's corps to the peach orchard. Winfield Scott Hancock's 2nd Corps occupied the sector, but until Hancock could shift reinforcements to stop the assault he had only eight companies of one regiment on hand to meet the oncoming brigade.
The regiment was the 1st Minnesota, veteran of all the army's battles since the beginning at Bull Run. Hancock ordered these 262 men to charge the 1,600 Alabamians and slow them down long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
The Minnesotan's did the job, but only forty-seven of them came back. Hancock plugged the gap, and the Confederate attack all along the southern half of the battlefield flickered out in the twilight."
James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (New York: Ballantine Books, 1988).
"It was at Gettysburg that the First had its rendezvous with history, not once, but twice. It was here that the First earned the right to be on William F. Fox's list of the Civil War's great fighting regiments. On July 2, the First was called upon to stop the advance of the Confederates through a gap in the Union line. They did so at a cost of two-thirds of those involved, described by Hancock as one of the most gallant deeds in history.
The next day, the regiment participated in one of the great military dramas of American History--the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge and repulse. At the Copse of Trees, the First lost another one-third of the few survivors from the day before."
Robert W. Meinhard, "The First Minnesota at Gettysburg," The Gettysburg Magazine (January 1991).
Absolutely!
Much credit is given to the 20th Maine's defense of Little Round Top (and justifiably so) but the charge of the 1st Minnesota is impressive too.
If you're ever in the Minnesota State Capitol, go to the rotunda and you can see the flag of the 1st Minnesota. It is an impressive sight and it reminds me always of the sacrifices of our soldiers throughout history.
For those Freep'ers wanting to learn more, I encourage you to read Pale Horse at Plum Run: The First Minnesota at Gettysburg. It's written by Brian Leehan.
A Minnesotan won the Medal Of Honor during Pickett's Charge when he captured the flag of the 35th Virginia near the stone wall. That flag was never returned after the war and is occasionally on display at the Minnesota Historical Society in St Paul.