Let’s talk flags. I’m not particularly sentimental about them and dropped out of Brownies the first day as it was spent folding the Stars and Stripes — I figured I could have more fun at home. In my opinion, people and the principles of community that a particular piece of cloth represents are more important than the flag itself; but when recounting the poignant tale of the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment and its stand at Gettysburg against the Confederacy, in addition to participation in Bull Run and Antietam, I can understand the emotion behind and importance of such a symbol.

The casualty rate suffered by those brave southeastern Minnesotans is unrivaled today. At Gettysburg, they held the Union line until reinforcements arrived — pivotal to the Confederacy’s eventual defeat. Five times the First Minnesota’s flag fell, five times it was raised — outnumbered five to one by Wilcox’s Alabama Brigade. Within the first five minutes of battle, 215 of 262 of our men were casualties. Despite this 82 percent casualty rate, a Minnesota First private managed to capture the colors of the 28th Virginia Infantry the following day. It remains the property of the Minnesota Historical Society.

When a citizen of southeastern Minnesota flies or displays the Confederate flag, he or she is not only an apologist for slavery and the continued mistreatment of African-Americans today, but is a symbolic traitor to the United States of America — the Union — and spits on the graves of the brave men of the Minnesota First and the cause for which they volunteered, fought and died.

 

Tessa Schweitzer

St. Charles