![]() “I may not live to see it but I believe that God will yet deliver our nation from the difficulties which agitate and threaten her. In another letter, written on March 1, 1862, the eve of the Peninsula Campaign, he again reminded his family what he fought for and that he might not survive the conflict. The terrible realities of my soldier’s life have taught me better than to desire to see and mingle in the like again, but they have taught me something concerning the cost of the government, and have thus served to establish my patriotism the more firmly and more than ever willing to labor and sacrifice for the good of my country.” I have an intelligent understanding of the character of this struggle and of the principles which are at issue between the contending parties and in devoting my all to my country I believe that I am only acting in accordance with the dictates of duty, patriotism and affection. “You must not infer from what I have said that I am sick of my bargain and anxious to be released from it far from it. A typical passage in one of his letters, written on August 8, 1861, several weeks after the first Battle of Bull Run, explained to his family why he was serving. They reveal an intelligent, articulate, sensitive and highly observant young man. Philip wrote home regularly and thankfully his letters survived and today are preserved by the Minnesota Historical Society. Their estimate of Hamlin proved correct for he was eventually promoted to sergeant then 1st sergeant of the company. ![]() Sergeant James Wright, who served in Hamlin’s company and knew him well, described him as an “honest, earnest, consistent, christian man,” who “deprecating war, loving and praying for peace, he was fighting for his government as the performance of a sacred duty he owed to it and to God.” The other members of Company F clearly saw leadership qualities in Philip for he was elected a corporal. With hundreds of other men he mustered into Company F, of the 1st Minnesota Infantry on April 29, 1861. When President Lincoln made his call for 75,000 volunteers following the bombardment of Fort Sumter, Hamlin was among the first to answer the call. Philip Hamlin, 1st Minnesota Infantry (Minnesota Historical Society)ġst Sergeant Philip Hamlin, 1st Minnesota Infantry, was the subject of our January 9 challenge. Over the course of the Challenge I will use this blog to expand on some of the individuals highlighted in the challenge so that we can get to know them better, and also so that those people who live in a place where it is impossible to participate in the Challenge may experience it vicariously.ġst Sgt. They are instead usually ordinary people swept up in great events. The people in our Footsteps Challenge experienced extraordinary events but they are not well known. There are few things that help us “feel” history like walking in the footsteps of someone that lived before us and who experienced extraordinary events. It could be their home, another battlefield, a place they camped, etc. For those who cannot make it to Gettysburg, we encourage you to find some other location that individual might have trod during the course of the war and snap a picture. ![]() ![]() This January GNMP began a new program for the 150th anniversary through Facebook that we call the “52 Footsteps Facebook Challenge.” Each week a new historical personality associated with Gettysburg and the Civil War is introduced and readers are encouraged to find a Gettysburg spot where that person stood, snap your picture, and post it on the park Facebook page.
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