Men from Minnesota gave their lives to keep the United States from fracturing during the American Civil War, Bemidji State University senior Caleb Curfman told a group in Brainerd Monday.

Over the course of a presentation at the Brainerd Public Library that included contemporary artwork as well as modern graphics, Curfman explained how the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment was the very first body of troops formed in response to Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers, and was later annihilated in a heroic charge at Gettysburg. Curfman, a history major, said he prefers telling the story of the Civil War not through movements of huge armies, but through the experiences of individual soldiers.

He spent the first part of his hourlong report giving context to the First Minnesota’s actions by talking about Northern and Southern societies at the time of the war and what caused hostilities to break out, but the majority of the talk centered on the experience of the First at the opening major battle of the Civil War—First Bull Run—and what’s perceived as the most pivotal, Gettysburg.

As Curfman told the crowd, a regiment consisted usually of about 800 men, although this varied widely among different armies and different parts of the war. The First consisted of more than a thousand men when it was originally deployed.

Since the First was created before there was a standardized, widespread blue uniform that Union soldiers could wear, they marched in Virginia wearing bright red shirts, black pants and black felt hats, Curfman said. The hot, old, stuffy shirts would shrink as they wore them, and as a result, on the eve of First Bull Run they were writing home to their families not about the upcoming battle but about their outfits. Curfman interpreted this as a sign of the unblooded innocence of men and boys who saw war as an exciting diversion.

“Think of where their heads are at right now,” he said. “They’re going on this great adventure, they’re going to prove something, and they don’t want to do it wearing red shirts.”

The unsystematic kaleidoscope of different apparel at Bull Run made the chaos of battle even worse.

In one instance, the First was firing at an unseen enemy unit when a frantic officer came out of the woods on horseback, riding toward their line and yelling that they were making a terrible mistake—they were shooting at friendly troops. As it turned out, though, it was that soldier who was wrong: he was a Confederate who had mistaken the First Minnesota for the Fourth Alabama, who also wore red shirts. The Minnesotans had just bagged the highest-ranking officer captured at Bull Run.

“This is where Minnesota Nice comes in,” Curfman said. “There wasn’t a prisoner-of-war (system) yet. They didn’t have the means to keep them. So they took his weapon, and said ‘Go home and stop fighting.’ And he went.”

The First Minnesota distinguished itself in the battle, staying on the line and firing even as other units fled. They later formed the rearguard, helping to protect the rest of the Union army as it retreated from the battlefield.

The North’s fortune was better at Gettysburg two years later, although it cost the lives of most of the First Minnesota to prevent a disaster on the second day of fighting.

The ego-filled Union general Daniel Sickles advanced his part of the Army of the Potomac far past the rest of the Union troops, dangerously exposed. When Sickles’ corps dissolved, it helped create a large gap in the line—with a rush of Confederates coming to exploit the gap and rout the Union army.

Because of casualties and soldiers being mustered out over the years since Bull Run, the First Minnesota was down to 262 combat-ready soldiers available to help. They were facing several regiments of Confederates, more than a thousand men. With Union commanders desperate to plug the gap, they were ordered into the fray regardless, performing a rare fixed-bayonet charge to give their comrades time to fix the line.

They made it about 250 yards to a small creek, where they turned back the Confederates who outnumbered them. Only 47 survived, making it the highest casualty rate for any U.S. Army regiment in history, Curfman said.

Curfman expressed the horrendous loss by highlighting plight of two brothers in the First Minnesota during the battle who both made the fatal charge.

One brother, Henry, made it back with the remnants of the regiment, but the other, Isaac, was missing after the charge. Henry couldn’t bear to write home about the loss of his brother, but he did write in his journal.

“He just said ‘Where is Isaac?'” Curfman said.

Dawn revealed that Isaac was one of the hundreds of Minnesota men who were killed during the charge.

In Curfman’s view, the charge of the Minnesotans saved the battle, and maybe even the war itself.

“You could have easily rolled up the entire Union line,” he said. “If this happens, now you have no Union army north of Washington … in my mind, that could have been very disastrous.”

To prevent that from happening, most of the First Minnesota gave their lives.

“Unfortunately, it was the end of them,” Curfman said. “They sacrificed.”

ZACH KAYSER may be reached at 218-855-5860 or Zach.Kayser@brainerddispatch.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ZWKayser.