RED CEDARS IN SUMMIT PARK: LIVING CIVIL WAR MEMORIALS

On July 4, 1863, the Union Army of the Potomac was reveling not only in the anniversary of the nation’s birth, but in its own great victory over the three previous days in the Battle at Gettysburg. July 1, 2 and 3 mark the 155th anniversary of that monumental Civil War battle. Minnesotans proudly recall the heroic service of our 1st Minnesota Regiment of volunteers in the final two days of that great contest, which at long last terminated offensive actions by the deadly Confederate Army of Northern Virginia for the rest of the war.

St. Paul contributed greatly to the composition of this famous regiment, supplying its first volunteer (Josias King), its first commander (Willis Gorman) and two full companies (A and C). So it is only fitting that Summit Park in St. Paul would possess a nationally exclusive living memento of that great battlefield.

Fifteen years ago, in the spring of 2003, while visiting Gettysburg, I was standing before the primary monument to the 1st Minnesota Infantry there on Cemetery Ridge. I noticed as the grounds crew drove a portion of its fleet of mowers across the ground in front of our monument — which included some annual red cedar sprouts — as part of its regular maintenance, attempting to preserve the field in its 1863 appearance. This was the very ground over which our regiment made its heroic and legendary charge to interrupt a Confederate advance. The Minnesotans would pay a shocking price in this 15-minute engagement, suffering 82 percent casualties.

Federal law prohibits the removal of flora from a national park or battlefield by citizens. However, since these seedlings were a waste product to the park staff, which they eradicated annually, I hoped they would grant permission to allow collection of a few of them about to fall before their mower blades and permit donation to the city of St. Paul.

After coordinating correspondence between the city and the national park for most of six months, the park allowed the donation if the city would send agents to harvest them under its direct supervision in the spring of 2004. My friends Greg Johnson and Perry Tholl, Civil War re-enactors with the 1st Minnesota Infantry, joined me, representing the city, in the collection of six 1-foot-tall red cedar seedlings.

Red cedars are not native to our temperate zone, so the city placed them under the care and supervision of their talented staff at the Como Conservatory for the next four years. By 2008, they had reached a height of 3 feet and were transplanted, as planned, in a circle surrounding the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Summit Park across the street in front of the Cathedral.

The summers of 2008 and 2009 were dramatically dry and the survival of the transplants was severely challenged. Only the purchase of water from a kind homeowner across the street, allowing generous watering through both summers, saved the lives of four of six trees. They are now healthy 12-footers that appear to have a bright future under the protection of the city Parks and Recreation Department. Related Articles Letters: Bad laws led to Breonna Taylor’s death

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St. Paul now has these gifts as living Civil War memorials, likely unique in the nation. While celebrating the anniversary of our country’s birth this July 4 holiday, perhaps take a few minutes to also recall the heroism and sacrifice of Minnesota’s 1st Civil War regiment in the Battle of Gettysburg on the three preceding days 155 years ago. A good way to do so might include a brief stop at Summit Park to see these trees that originated on the precise ground in Pennsylvania where a century and a half ago so many Minnesotans suffered and died to preserve our nation.

Patrick Hill, St. Paul

The author is a historic preservation activist and frequent writer on aspects of the Civil War.