Customer Reviews

Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This work makes your jaw sag. There were many heroic actions at Gettysburg: Pickett's charge, the 20th Maine, the 15th Alabama, the Iron Brigade, just to mention a few. But no one unit played a more significant role, to less subsequent acclaim, than the First Minnesota Volunteers.

One of the first regiments to respond to Lincoln's initial call, their service reads like a history of the Army of the Potomac. Their key work, however, was done on July 2nd 1863. During the Gettysburg campaign they suffered 70% casualties, 232 out of the 330 engaged. Amazingly, the majority of these casualties occurred in less than 45 seconds.

Even more amazing, after three days of fighting in which many units had distinguished themselves, the contribution of the First Minnesota, especially on the second day, wasn't immediately apparent to those who had not witnessed it. Such was the carnage of Gettysburg.

This is their story.

This is an outstanding book that gives the detail of the First Minnesota's glorious charge at Gettysburg and helped saved the Union line against a largely superior Confederate force. I have been to Gettysburg and saw the field on which they charged against the Confederate line and closed the gap for the critical time needed for Union reinforcements to fill in the gap. The author also gives great narrative in the book as it does not become overwhelmed with unnecessary details that would be distracting to the reader. The timeframe in the book is mostly the summer of 1863 before the Battle of Chancelorsville and ends with the valliant and brutal charge in which the 1st Minnesota lost so many men in less than five minutes. The details of the charge are gripping and individual accounts by the soldiers who were there make the book impossible to put down. The First Minnesota's bravery ranks it right along with Col Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine as doing the suprizing and remarkable thing at precisely the right time, in which saved the Union Army and possibly saved the Union from defeat. This book needs to be reprinted quickly so other Civil War/U.S. History readers could know about this fine, brave regiment.

Richard Moe draws heavily from the letters and diaries (many of them unpublished) of the men of the First and weaves them into a complelling story. This is one of the few books on any topic that I have read twice and I am sure I will read it again. You will never forget Lyman and Issac Taylor and many of the other soldiers of the First after you have read this book. Their very personal writings cover a three year period and give the reader an insight into a soldier's life not often found in any book. I found myself not wanting to finish the book. These men had become friends and I knew full well their fate. They also knew their duty and did not hesitate. 262 of them charged 1,200. Gen. Hancock asked them to give him 5 min. to bring up reinforcements, they gave him 15. Of the 262 only 47 walked away. Many of the voices I had come to know fell silent. History does not allow you to change the ending as much as you might wish you could. By the way, I bought this book in Freeport ME at the 20th Maine Bookstore (it was their last copy). It can be argued that these two units, a mile apart, saved the Union line on July 2nd 1863.

This book tells the story of the First Minnesota in such a way that makes you fell like you are with the soldiers. It was nice to read a book actually made up a lot of the soldiers own writing through letters and diaries. The First was a large part of the Union winning the battle of Gettysburg and it was nice to read the soldiers account of what happened. The author also put in other accounts of the First from the Generals that were involved as they praised the First. Great Book.

Devotion to history isn't as strong in the Upper Midwest as in the Old South. Perhaps oblivion is nobler and less risky than living out a myth, but there are few if any "re-enactors" among my Swedish kinfolk in the Land of Lakes. Of course, the earliest settlers in my clan came to Minnesota in 1872. The Minnesota First Volunteer Regiment, nevertheless, has a good claim on being the most heroic single regiment on either side in the whole war, and Mr Moe documents the history of their heroism most eloquently.
Another review complains that Moe use too many quotes, to much primary source material. I totally disagree. The use of letters, journals, and bits from local newspapers is the strength of this book, the part that carries both conviction and immediacy. Comparison to the Ken Burns TV documentary is apt, and I feel that this book, The Last Full Measure, is stronger both in impact and in scholarship.
We're modest, diffident people, we Minnesotans. You won't find many statues of soldiers in our town squares. Truth is, we don't have so many town squares to show them off in. Kids plow through elementary school in Minnesota thinking of the Civil War as a faraway conflict hardly more intimate to us than the Boer War. I remember being surprised, in college, to learn that there'd been a Souix War in my birth-county, in the 1860s. History was what happened in other places. I wonder... Is our blissful ignorance a handicap or the source of our comparatively lawful and peaceful community? Our grudges stay at home.
Anyhow, as we say in Freeborn County, this here tale of young men fighting for what they care about makes pretty good reading.

Few Union Civil War regiments did more for the Union cause then the First Minnesota. The case could even be made, on a man by man basis, that the sacrifices these men made, culminating in the enormous losses the regiment suffered at Gettysburg, exceeded that of any other unit on the Union side. Yet for many years this gallant regiment was relatively unknown, at least until this excellent regimental history was published. Minnesota native Richard Moe does justice to this great unit by portraying the men just as they were--brave, stalwart, yet human underneath it all. The tenacity these men showed in battle is evident from the first time they saw real combat against the Stonewall brigade at First Manasses, and is demonstrated over and over throughout Moe's work.

One of the great challenges in writing combat history lies in doing justice to the battle narrative without coming across as over-dramatic in the telling. Moe does an excellent job of relating the combat experiences of the First Minnesota, with his telling of the First's participation in the battle of Gettysburg being very moving and some of the best combat narrative I believe I've ever read. In those few pages alone Moe accomplishes his objective--to make the reader appreciate the part these great men played in the war--and even without the rest of the book I believe his point would be made.

This is a regimental history, of course, so the focus is on the First Minnesota rather than the actions of the Army of the Potomac in general. There are parts of the narrative, such as when the regiment is guarding Harper's Ferry, when relatively little happens, yet such is the nature of a unit history such as this one. I think a full appreciation of this book requires some knowledge of the first three years of the Civil War, but Moe provides enough detail that one could probably get a general idea of what was going on elsewhere in the war even without it.

The Last Full Measure proves to be one of the best books ever written on regimental history. The subject here was the First Minnesota who founded lasting fame on the fields of Gettysburg. The author, Richard Moe, did a superb job bring this regiment alive, using primary sources of diaries, letters and reports.

The book traces the regiment's history from its Minnesota origins as it mustered into the Union army and fought its campaigns from First Manasass to Gettysburg. After Gettysburg, the regiment wind down before it was discharged in February of 1864. But it was at Gettysburg where the regiment met their final fame and glory. Just as 20th Maine showed their right stuff at Little Round Top and General Greene's brigade held by their fingertips over at Culp's Hill, First Minnesota saved the Union center by making a "banzai" charge against overwhelming odds with successful result. Their losses were heavy. The book skillfully reflects on their heroic actions against unsurmountable odds. It proves to be a very exciting and informative reading.

They came on the field with roughly 330 men and lost 229 men (killed and wounded), about 67% loss. It was not the most in the Union Army for this battle. 24th Michigan of the Iron Brigade for example lost 73% loss while 2nd Wisconsin lost up to 77% of their strength. First Minnesota ranked 15th among Union regimental losses based on percentage.

A well written book, superbly researched and easy to read, many Civil War regiments could wish that their stories could be as well told as the First Minnesota's thanks to the author. I believed this book belong to the "must read if you are interested in the American Civil War" list.

I heard Richard Moe on National Public Radio promoting this book. Having heard of the First's heroism in Ken Burns' "The Civil War" I was curious. Did 262 frontiersmen from Minnesota really save the Union line at Gettysburg? They did.

I knew how these men's charge would end, and so did they. "Every man knew in an instant what it meant. Death or wounds to us all." Knowing this, they fixed their bayonets and charged into a force that outnumbered them five to one. As I was reading the climactic pages of the book, my wife walked into the room and saw me with tears streaming down my cheeks, and asked why. I couldn't bring myself to read it to her aloud.

Men like the First Minnesota willingly sacrificed themselves to save our Union. In so doing, they covered themselves in glory forever. Comparisons to the Spartans at Thermopylae are not out of line. All Americans should pray that we as a nation be worthy of that sacrifice.

Richard Moe's narrative brings the men of the First to life. The reader gets to know the Taylor brothers, the regiment's commander, Major Colville, and the others whose letters, diaries and memories bring the reader into their world. An altogether beautiful book. It will break your heart.

Richard Moe has written a good book. Drawing heavily on diary entries, he follows the course of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers during the Civil War. The unit had a rather typical experience of front line Union combat regiments. Until Gettysburg. Resting on Cemetary Ridge on July Second, they (all 262) were fortuitously (for the rest of the Union Army) available to throw against onrushing Confederates who had a chance to take the center of the Union line. Gen. Hancock ordered them forward, telling their Colonel to take the oncoming flag of the much more numerous rebels. In a shocking movement, the Minnesotans did their duty, knowing that they were being sacrificed so that the Union side could live to fight another day. They were successful, blunting the southerners. The cost: the 1st Minnesota had more causualties than any other Union regiment at Gettysburg.

Moe lets his fellow Minnesotans do much of the speaking which lends great authenticity to the tale. This is a heroic story of grand sacrifice during the unit's unique moment in history. It also offers an informative telling of life on the road with the Army of the Potmac during the first three years of the war.

(Moe describes being enthralled by a painting of the 1st Minnesota's heroic charge that hangs in that state's state house as a youth. It helped create a mental image that led to his writing the book. It also gave me the idea to tell a similar story of bravery via a painting in Delaware's state house. Next January, the State of Delaware will hang an oil by Bradley Schmehl in Legislative Hall in Dover, DE. The painting will depict the 2nd Delaware advancing through the Wheatfield during the Battle of Gettysburg, an action that helped secure the flank of Gen. Sickle's Corps during a time when it was threatened with being rolled up and opeining the Union center).

This is an account of mostly young, inexperienced, rurual boys and men from Minnesota (three years after statehood) who fought to preserve the Union, giving the last full measure at Gettysburg. A breathtaking narrative. All to not let a wrong thing happen to our nation. If today's generation of boys and men could grasp what the 1st Minnesota taught us, the present war on terror would be quickly addressed.