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

Follows the progress of the First Minnesota--the Union Army's first full regiment of volunteers--from Bull Run to the close of the war

The first Minnesota Volunteers company, that state's sole representative in the Army of the Potomac, is best remembered for its heroic charge on the second day of Gettysburg. The Minnesotans, however, served for three full years, beginning in 1861 at Bull Run and enduring some of the Civil War's bloodiest battles. Of a thousand original enlistees, fewer than 200 stood in ranks when the regiment mustered out in April 1864. Moe's account is regimental history at its best, as he synthesizes letters, diaries and contemporary newspaper reports to recapture the perspective of the men themselves. He depicts their bursts of patriotic zeal, their frustration in the face of repeated defeats, and above all their sense of duty and comradeship, which kept the regiment steadfast through the Union's darkest days. Moe is president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One of the few first-rate small-unit histories of the Civil War, expertly conceived and gracefully written by the president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The rule in modern Civil War studies seems to be that the more ``micro'' the focus, the duller the book. Moe's tale of one of the first volunteer regiments to enlist after the fall of Fort Sumter is a happy exception, a worthy companion to John Pullen's The Twentieth Maine (1980) and Warren Wilkinson's Mother, May You Never See the Sights I Have Seen (1991). Fresh from the farms, small settlements, and logging camps of a western frontier unknown to most of the Army of the Potomac, most of the Minnesotans who responded to the federal government's initial attempt to augment its small regular army had never seen a big city or a black American: The war proved a profound learning experience--and not merely in the school of combat. At first, the Minnesotans were afraid that they would have to sit out the war on Indian patrol, but then--even before they received regular uniforms--they were brought east to add to the Union corpses at First Bull Run. During that disastrous reversal, they stood as long as any federal troops, and their toughness was exhibited again and again on the Peninsula and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and, finally, Gettysburg (where one of the two brothers Moe follows through the book was killed). In addition to battle history, we learn how enlisted men felt about long months on picket duty; what they ate (when they did eat); and how they related to the civilian population. Moe makes judicious use of the period's ubiquitous diaries and letters, as well as fascinating columns sent home to local newspapers by soldier- correspondents writing under pen names like ``Raisins'' and ``Shingles.'' A seamless narrative of Civil War sights, sounds, and emotions that deserves the warmest reception. (Photographs--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The First Minnesota Volunteers were among the earliest groups to volunteer for service during the Civil War. The unit was usually on the front line for every major battle and paid the extreme sacrifice, especially at the Battle of Gettysburg. This is a skillful portrait of the trials and tribulations of those volunteers during the first three years of the war. Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, uses the letters, diaries, and personal narratives of the unit's soldiers to create an excellent eyewitness account of battles from Bull Run to Gettysburg with the Army of the Potomac. The author creates a graphic picture of the horrors and sufferings that were endured during battle as well as life in the camps between battles. This account will rank among the best regimental histories of the Civil War. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/93.
- W. Walter Wicker, Louisiana Tech Univ., Ruston
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.