On this day…
While the significance of July 4 is not lost on anyone in America, the significance of July 3 is all but unknown. Power Line has a refresher.
Had the 1st Minnesota regiment not filled a hole in Union lines on July 2, 1863 (and taken the heaviest Union casualties of the civil war in the process), July 3, 1863 may have looked a lot different. Had they not plugged the breach, July 3 may have been the story of the Army of Northern Virginia, under General Robert E. Lee, descending on Washington D.C., where he could have garnered a Union surrender and secured a new nation comprised of the secession states. That story would have rendered General Grant’s July 3 victory at Vicksburg a pyrrhic one.
Independence Day might look a great deal different had the 1st Minnesota not held the line on July 2, allowing for the Union army to hold off Pickett’s Charge on July 3, win the battle of Gettysburg, and because of that victory, the war.
A toast then: Here’s to all the citizens and soldiers who have secured, preserved, and yes, even tested, this great union since it was but an idea. It is they we honor on Independence Day.
Happy 4th!