Ramsey County MN Archives Obituaries.....Gorman, Willis A.  1816 - 1876
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marti Graham  marti@rootsweb.com August 1999

Marcus F. Wright's Civil War Bios -  General Willis A. Gorman
                                   GORMAN
   p.137
   GORMAN, GENERAL WILLIS A., was a representative volunteer officer of
   the Civil War. When the conflict began he was practicing law in St.
   Paul, and received the appointment of colonel in the First Minnesota
   Infantry. His services in the Mexican war as an officer of the Indiana
   Volunteers served to recommend him as a leader for Minnesota's first
   regiment. He handled it with conspicuous gallantry at the battle of
   Bull Run, and soon after took command of a brigade in the Army of the
   Potomac.
   The First Minnesota became noted as a fighting regiment. At Gettysburg
   General Hancock sent it on a forlorn charge against a whole division
   of the enemy. It was almost destroyed as a regiment, but achieved the
   object of the great sacrifice. Hancock described the charge of the
   Minnesotians as a deed unsurpassed in all history. General Gorman led
   his brigade in the battles of Peninsula, and in the Maryland campaign
   commanded a division of the Second Corps. He took part in the severe
   fighting on the right at Antietam.