Across the Fields
The Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, fought in Pennsylvania, July 2, 1863, is depicted in "The First Minnesota," a painting by Don Troiani. The painting illustrates the First Regiment Minnesota Volunteers, right, fighting Confederate troops along Cemetery Ridge in what is now Gettysburg National Military Park. The First Minnesota also fought in other battles, including the Civil War battles of Bull Run, Antietam and Fredericksburg. Troiani is a realist painter known for his historically accurate military paintings of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Because of the amount of research Troiani put into each work, it often took him years before he would begin painting.