A notable North Dakotan of the past was a man named James Morris O’Neale, well-known as a Civil War veteran.
He was born in Ireland in 1840, immigrated to America with his parents, arriving in Minnesota in 1854 at age 13. At the age of 22, O’Neale had joined the First Minnesota Regiment in April 1861, enlisting as a private in Company “I” from Wabasha.
O’Neale and the First Minnesota fought in the Battle of Bull Run in 1861, where now-Corporal O’Neale was wounded by a bayonet thrust above the left knee. He recovered. O’Neale also survived later battles at Fair Oaks and Savage’s Station, then Antietam, where the First Minnesota suffered heavy losses and Fredericksburg.
In 1863, James O’Neale took part in a legendary bayonet charge. On July 2nd, the second day at Gettysburg, General Winfield Hancock ordered the 262 men of the First Minnesota to block a powerful Confederate counterattack near Cemetery Ridge. The regiment was guarding a Union artillery position when Hancock commanded them to fill a gap in the battle line. His reinforcements were still half a mile away.
Hancock called out: “What regiment is this?”
Colonel William Colvill replied: “First Minnesota.”
Hancock ordered: “Charge those lines.”
It was a desperate charge to buy just five minutes’ time. Charging at double-time speed, bayonets fixed, just 262 men ran at 1,600 Confederates. Within ten minutes, 215 of those Minnesotans lay dead, dying, or wounded but they plugged the gap. O’Neale was hit by a piece of shell in his left leg, but he did not leave the ranks.
The First Minnesota had saved the day. The next day, O’Neale and his fellow Minnesotans helped repulse Pickett’s Charge. O’Neale became a sergeant and served until his honorable discharge in 1864. He moved to Reynolds, North Dakota, in 1881, then to Thompson, and in 1888, to Grand Forks with his wife, Leila.
On this date in 1897, the Grand Forks Herald reported that J.M. O’Neale, feeling deeply honored, had just returned from a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield, where a monument to the First Minnesota Regiment had been dedicated.
James O’Neale worked in the grain elevator business until his death in 1913 at the age of 73. He was remembered for his patriotic ardor and courage as a Civil War soldier in the valiant First Minnesota Regiment.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Hoffbeck, retired MSUM History professor
Sources:
- “Home From Gettysburg,” Grand Forks Herald, July 10, 1897, p. 4.
- Steven R. Hoffbeck, “Colvill Smiled:” The Legend of the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment at Gettysburg (Fergus Falls, MN: Hoffbeck of Minnesota, 2025), p. 19, 21-23.
- “J. O’Neale, Old Resident Dies,” Grand Forks Herald, October 31, 1913, p. 9; “J.M. O’Neale, Former G.A.R. Department Head, Died Today,” Grand Forks Evening Times, October 30, 1913, p. 1-2.
- “O’Neale Funeral Held On Sunday,” Grand Forks Herald, November 4, 1913, p. 10.
- O’Neale listed as “Corporal Jas. O’Neil,” in “List of Killed, Wounded and Missing of the Minnesota First,” Chatfield [MN] Democrat, August 3, 1861, p. 2; and in “The Following is a List . . . of the Wabashaw Co., Volunteers,” Wabasha County Herald, May 11, 1861, p. 3; and in William Lochren, “Narrative of the First Regiment,” in Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 1861-1865 (St. Paul: Pioneer Press Company, 1890), p. 64.
- “Legal Notices: Estate of Leila O’Neale,” Grand Forks Herald, March 17, 1939, p. 15.
