The USS Minnesota (BB-22) was a Connecticut Class battleship laid down at Newport News Shipyard on October 1903, launched in April 1905 and commissioned March, 1907.  There were five other ships of the class, Connecticut, Vermont, Kansas, Louisiana and New Hampshire, all built between 1903 and 1908.  USS New Hampshire was the only one that did not participate in the cruise of the Great White Fleet.  Captain John Hubbard was in command at commissioning. The ship completed a shakedown cruise, then on June 10, 1907 she participated in a Presidential Fleet Review of the Fleet at the Jamestown Exposition.  The next months were spent in training up until the departure on the cruise around the world.  In the first part of the cruise she was part of Third Division but during the second part of the cruise she was moved to First Division.  

This patriotic postcard is part of a series of cards created by Waldon Fawcett of the American Naval Fleet.  Currently my collection of these cards has almost 20 and can viewed at the follow link:  Waldon Fawcett Series

After the cruise Louisiana she spent the next three years as part of the Atlantic Fleet doing routine training and exercises.  Starting in 1912 she started to spend more time in the Caribbean patrolling Cuban waters and visiting the base at Guantanamo Bay.  When the Mexican Revolution began she was sent to protect American interests patrolling the eastern cost of Mexico.  In 1914 he visited from January 26th to August 7th and from October 11th to December 19th.  In 1915 she returned to the United States to resume her routine.  During WWI she was a training ship for gunnery and engine room personal at Tangier Sound in Chesapeake Bay.   Minnesota received reinforced bulkheads within the ship, and in September of 1918 when she struck a mine off Fenwick Island, the bow flooded, but the new bulkheads prevented massive flooding and the ship was able to return to Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs under her own power.   Her final service was to assist in the return of soldiers from Breast, France, making three trips, then as a training ship during 1920 and 1921.  In December 1921 she was decommissioned and broken up as scrap in1923 at Philadelphia Navy Yard under the Washington Treating limiting the size of the fleet.