Featured "Best" and "Worst" monuments at Gettysburg

pamc153PA

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Most people who have been to the Gettysburg battlefield often enough have their own personal "bests" and "worsts" when it comes to the monuments there. Notice I have the adjectives in quotes, for it really is a personal thing. It could be the design of the monument, your own connection to the regiment, or just something about the monument's placement that either makes you like it--or not.


My question, what is your favorite monument on the battlefield? What is your least favorite? And why for both?

My favorite monument is the 153rd PA monument on Barlow's Knoll, because my gggg-uncle fought with the regiment, and was mortally wounded there on Day 1.

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A close second for favorite is the Buford statue on McPherson Ridge.

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As far as a "worst" or least favorite, I have to admit I'm not fond of many of the newer monuments, from the Eternal Peace Memorial to the Florida monument to the Longstreet monument. That's just personal preference of the style of those monuments.
 
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Least favorite is the 20th Mass Infantry. The story behind it is great but the monument just looks like hunk of rock with stones in it.

I have many favorites but the one I really like is Hancock on Cemetery Hill
 
Least favorite-I havn't really seen enough of them in person yet. But the one in my avatar 1st Michigan could have been done alot better it's just so plain. The eternal peace monument shouldn't be here- not really connected to the civil war and really plain.
Favorite- Warren at Little Round Top, and the 44th NY/12th NY- nothing like a small castle.
 
My favorite monument is the 12th & 44th New York at the LRT.

f8098239-96a5-42b9-863f-f35d2d168aad_l.jpg


Really like the Irish Brigade monument, other than the dog. Why. And all those people taking pictures with the dog.

Irish_Brigade_Monument_at_Gettysburg.jpg


Least favorite monument? The biggest one:

a0cfff7b9676e578f6ae7aa82b5f98da.jpg


Other than being the State that hosted the battle, Pennsylvania troops did not have much to do with the outcome of the battle. And, gee, that huge eyesore over hallowed ground, sorry...
 
My favorite monument is the 12th & 44th New York at the LRT.

f8098239-96a5-42b9-863f-f35d2d168aad_l.jpg


Really like the Irish Brigade monument, other than the dog. Why. And all those people taking pictures with the dog.

Irish_Brigade_Monument_at_Gettysburg.jpg


Least favorite monument? The biggest one:

a0cfff7b9676e578f6ae7aa82b5f98da.jpg


Other than being the State that hosted the battle, Pennsylvania troops did not have much to do with the outcome of the battle. And, gee, that huge eyesore over hallowed ground, sorry...
I believe the dog represents a dog the Irish brigade actually had and it was killed in battle. The soldiers were heartbroken. If I am not mistaken, the dog was a female named Sallie.
 
My favourite is down along Plum Run. the first time I saw it, all I could see was a little head peaking up over the top of a boulder. and I could not figure out how to get to see it, as the grass and weeds were high and the ground was marshy. On another trip, I found a road from the Devil's Den parking area, where you could walk right up to it. Duh! I am trying to find it in my monument book, but it is a bit difficult.
I found it! 40th New York Regiment, the Mozart regiment.
4935.4938.jpg

Sorry about the dinky picture!
 
I believe the dog represents a dog the Irish brigade actually had and it was killed in battle. The soldiers were heartbroken. If I am not mistaken, the dog was a female named Sallie.

Not quite

"Sallie," a brindle Staffordshire Bull Terrier, was the regimental mascot for the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Given to 1st Lt William R. Terry as a four-week old puppy, Sallie grew up among the men of the regiment. Sallie followed the men on marches and to the battlefield. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the dog got separated from the unit. Unable to find her way, Sallie returned to the Union battle line at Oak Ridge, where she stood guard over the dead and wounded. The dog continued her faithful service through February, 1865, when she was struck by a bullet to her head in the battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. She was buried on the field of battle. For her devotion to the men, Sallie is memorialized at the 11th Pennsylvania monument erected at Gettysburg."


The dog in that monument is an Irish Wolfhound. Also little known (but totally cool) fact about that monument: it was sculpted by William Rudolf O’Donovan, a former Confederate soldier who fought at Gettysburg as a 19 year old...
 
Sallie belonged to the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers and she lays on the front of their monument. The dog at the Irish brigade monument is an Irish Wolfhound which is supposed to stand for honor.

I'm one of those silly people that pay their respects to those who fought for those regiments by leaving a dog biscuit for Sallie, at the 11th PVI on Oak Ridge, and the Irish Brigade on the Stony Hill. The Irish Wolfhound has no formal name that I'm aware of; I call her Fiona.:smile:
 
My favourite is down along Plum Run. the first time I saw it, all I could see was a little head peaking up over the top of a boulder. and I could not figure out how to get to see it, as the grass and weeds were high and the ground was marshy. On another trip, I found a road from the Devil's Den parking area, where you could walk right up to it. Duh! I am trying to find it in my monument book, but it is a bit difficult.
I found it! 40th New York Regiment, the Mozart regiment.
4935.4938.jpg

Sorry about the dinky picture!

I like this one, too. I use it as a way to find one of the Tipton Park markers, which is not too far away, back toward the base of LRT.
 
Not quite

"Sallie," a brindle Staffordshire Bull Terrier, was the regimental mascot for the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Given to 1st Lt William R. Terry as a four-week old puppy, Sallie grew up among the men of the regiment. Sallie followed the men on marches and to the battlefield. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the dog got separated from the unit. Unable to find her way, Sallie returned to the Union battle line at Oak Ridge, where she stood guard over the dead and wounded. The dog continued her faithful service through February, 1865, when she was struck by a bullet to her head in the battle of Hatcher's Run, Virginia. She was buried on the field of battle. For her devotion to the men, Sallie is memorialized at the 11th Pennsylvania monument erected at Gettysburg."


The dog in that monument is an Irish Wolfhound. Also little known (but totally cool) fact about that monument: it was sculpted by William Rudolf O’Donovan, a former Confederate soldier who fought at Gettysburg as a 19 year old...
I knew it was something like that. Thanks for sharing. That is pretty amazing about a former Rebel soldier sculpting the memorial.
 
My favorite monument is the 12th & 44th New York at the LRT.

f8098239-96a5-42b9-863f-f35d2d168aad_l.jpg


Really like the Irish Brigade monument, other than the dog. Why. And all those people taking pictures with the dog.

Irish_Brigade_Monument_at_Gettysburg.jpg


Least favorite monument? The biggest one:

a0cfff7b9676e578f6ae7aa82b5f98da.jpg


Other than being the State that hosted the battle, Pennsylvania troops did not have much to do with the outcome of the battle. And, gee, that huge eyesore over hallowed ground, sorry...

It's really hard to get the 12th and 44th NY monument without people on it--I can usually only do that in the dead of winter, when no one in their right mind would be up on LRT (uh, well, and me:smile:). I like the perspective your pic has from below it.

And I do agree with you about the PA monument, although it was there that I saw the first "Rothrock" listed on a tablet, and that sent me off on my Civil War obsession that I'm still on, today.
 
It's really hard to get the 12th and 44th NY monument without people on it--I can usually only do that in the dead of winter, when no one in their right mind would be up on LRT (uh, well, and me:smile:). I like the perspective your pic has from below it.

And I do agree with you about the PA monument, although it was there that I saw the first "Rothrock" listed on a tablet, and that sent me off on my Civil War obsession that I'm still on, today.

Love being there in the dead of winter too. Lots of peace and quietness, and ability to just be and feel.

That 12th and 44th NY monument will be featured in a book (novel - fiction) to hit the bookstores about a year or so (I hope.) Maltese cross, among other things, too good to pass on.

My kids loved the PA monument. When they were little they did up and down races and then I had to give an explanation why that might not be appropriate at that spot and I was unarmed other than saying "hey". Good thing they never asked why...
 
I knew it was something like that. Thanks for sharing. That is pretty amazing about a former Rebel soldier sculpting the memorial.
Interestingly similar, a lot of the Canadian Great War Memorials were designed by a German immigrant, who had fought for Germany in that war. He had to use another name because people did not want to hire a German to make their memorials.
 
I always think it's interesting how everyone (the bus tours and the guided tour) always stop at the newer Confederate monuments on Seminary Ridge (North Carolina, Mississippi, and Lousiana), and yet these are some of my least favorite monuments. I guess I'm just not big on dramatic sculpture. Give me a solid slab of granite, anyday.:smile:
 
Favorites are the Texas state monument and Texas Brigade monument. They may not be as impressive in comparison to others, but at least the state monument keeps with the traditional Texas slab of red granite!

Also like the "Double Canister at Ten Yards" monument for Cowan's Battery at the High Water Mark, as well as the Tennessee state monument on Seminary Ridge. Can't think of a least favorite.
 
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