Last Full Measure

The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers

Richard Moe

Publication Year: 2001

Since its publication, Richard Moe's The Last Full Measure has garnered a reputation as the definitive history of the First Minnesota Regiment and one of a handful of classic regimental histories of the Civil War. The First Minnesota Volunteers, the first regiment offered to President Lincoln after the fall of Fort Sumter, served in virtually every major battle fought in the eastern theater during the first three years of the Civil War. This is the story of the Army of the Potomac during that period: the initial enthusiasm dashed by sudden defeat at Bull Run; the pride at being shaped into an army by George McClellan and the frustration with his--and his successors'--inability to defeat Robert E. Lee; and, finally, the costly battle of Gettysburg, the decisive battle in which the First Minnesota played a crucial, and tragic, role. Drawing on a wide array of letters, diaries, and personal reminiscences, Moe tells the story anew through the experiences of the men who lived it. As James MacGregor Burns notes in his foreword, "Like Tolstoy's War and Peace, this work sticks close to the men in battle, and hence, like Tolstoy, the author keeps close to the human size of war."

Published by: Minnesota Historical Society Press

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Military historians are fond of the hoary old adage that, on the day of battle, naked truths are there for the seeing; very soon they put on their uniforms. Those of us who served as cornbat historians in the Pacific were well aware of this warning; hence...

PREFACE

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pp. x-xiv

Like most boys growing up in Minnesota at midcentury, I saw the Civil War as ancient and largely irrelevant history. It was simply too remote in time, place, and effect to have much meaning for a youngster preoccupied with the here and now. That began to change one day, however, when, for reasons long forgotten, I was selected to be...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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pp. xv-xvii

One of the joys of writing about American history is the opportunity to meet and work with people who love history, whether they are professional historians, archivists, librarians, collectors,...

FORT SNELLING

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pp. 1-33

Gen. George Gordon Meade, the commander of the Army of the Potornac, was emboldened by his recent successes against the Confederate army. Not only had he defeated Robert E. Lee several months earlier at Gettysburg, the single most important...

BULL RUN

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pp. 34-64

The train carrying the First Minnesota pulled into Washington near midnight on 26 June. There to greet it was Col. Cyrus Aldrich, one of Minnesota’s two congressmen, “followed by a large squad of colored servants, bearing pails of hot coffee, baskets of sandwiches, and other refreshments.”’ It appears that the “other

EDWARDS’ FERRY [Includes Image Plates]

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pp. 65-119

On 23 July the regiment returned to its campsite on Capitol Hill, where the Minnesotans used the humiliation at Bull Run to give voice to all their frustrations. “Here . . . for the only time in the service of the regiment, was manifested some slight feeling of discontent and lack of morale,” Lochren recalled years later with characteristic...

THE PENINSULA

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pp. 120-171

The Taylor brothers awoke the morning of 27 March to discover that their regiment had left without them. Apparently unconcerned, they took advantage of the unexpected chance to do some sight-seeing in Alexandria. They visited the Marshall House, where, in the first days of the war, Elmer Ellsworth, a friend of Lincoln’s...

ANTIETAM

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pp. 172-196

While Isaac and Henry Taylor were wondering whether they would ever get off Belle Isle, their regiment was on the steamer Mississippi heading back up the Chesapeake. To Edward Walker, conditions on board were almost as oppressive as...

FREDERICKSBURG

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pp. 197-232

Named in 1825 for the Great Liberator, then fighting for national independence several thousand miles to the south, Bolivar Heights was a ridge running roughly north and south about two miles west of Harpers Ferry and three hundred feet above it....

CHANCELLORSVILLE

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pp. 233-257

"Old Hooker,” as Walker called him, had spent the last several months planning an attack on the Confederates still dug in across the Rappahannock behind Fredericksburg. To repeat Burnside’s assault on Marye’s Heights would be sheer folly; Lee had...

GETTYSBURG

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pp. 258-297

Cut free from its supply line to Virginia, Lee’s army split into three parts, which foraged their way leisurely through southern Pennsylvania. Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s corps were twenty five miles northwest of Gettysburg, at Chambersburg; part of Richard...

EPILOGUE

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pp. 298-314

The next morning, the Fourth of July, the men awoke fully expecting a resumption of the fighting. Hancock had, in fact, urged Meade to follow up the destruction of Pickett’s force with...

NOTES

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pp. 315-334

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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pp. 335-338

INDEX

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pp. 339-346

E-ISBN-13: 9780873517393
E-ISBN-10: 0873517393
Print-ISBN-13: 9780873514064
Print-ISBN-10: 0873514068

Page Count: 368
Illustrations: 19 b&w photos, 5 maps
Publication Year: 2001

Edition: 1