Anyone who was anyone at Gettysburg: Monuments to Individuals

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If you have ever gone to the Gettysburg battlefield, or seen photos from the battlefield--even historic photos from the past 100 years or so--you cannot miss the monuments to the men from both the Federal and the Confederate armies who fought there. While most of the monuments on the field are for particular states, or regiments, there are also monuments to individuals who fought there--and at least one individual who is honored but was not there at the battle. But more on that later.

While it is altogether fitting that regiments and the states they fought for should be represented with monuments both large and small, grandiose and dimple, it is something else for a particular individual to be monumented. There are, of course, the heavy-hitters: Lee, Meade, Longstreet, Hancock, and other not quite as well-known in pop culture officers like Sedgewick and Geary. But what about those men such as Sgt. Amos Humiston of the 154th NY, Major Joshua G.Palmer of the 66th Ohio, or Father William Corby of the 88th NY? They and other men who fought at the battle have their own individual markers, and a visitor to the battlefield may not even be aware of it.

I'd like to start a thread about some of these individuals and their monuments, as well as their achievements on the battlefield and maybe info about their regiment. It's a monumental task, however (yes, the pun was intended), and I'd love help. Maybe you can add info and a photo of your favorite individual who is honored with a monument on the Gettysburg battlefield (or the National Cemetery, or the town), or perhaps one you feel doesn't get the notice it should. And in the meantime, I'll add mine!
 
Father William Corby

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Father William Corby, CSC (October 2, 1833 – December 28, 1897) was an American priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and a Union Army chaplain in the American Civil War attached to the Irish Brigade. He later served twice as President of the University of Notre Dame.


More about Father Corby and his role at Gettysburg:

http://www.archives.nd.edu/about/news/index.php/2013/corby-gettysburg/#.VWZqEXD3aK0

http://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/monuments-to-individuals/father-william-corby/


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Union Brigadier General Samuel Crawford was born in 1846 in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1850 and its medical school in 1851, joining the army as an assistant surgeon.

He was serving at Fort Sumter as the Civil War began, and commanded several guns during the bombardment in spite of being medical staff. Combat command apparently appealed to him, for shortly afterwards he accepted a commission as a Major in the Infantry. By 1862 he became a Brigadier General, leading an attack at Cedar Mountain that routed the Confederate Stonewall Brigade but cost Crawford 50% casualties.

Crawford was wounded at Antietam after briefly commanding his division. He didn’t recover from the wound until May of 1863, when he was given command of the Pennsylvania Reserves, then recovering from hard campaigning by serving in the Washington defenses.

The Gettysburg crisis saw two brigades of the Reserves return to the Army of the Potomac. Crawford led them into the fighting around Little Round Top at the end of the day on July 2nd.

Crawford seizied the colors of the First Pennsylvania Reserves from a surprised Corporal Bertless Slot. After a brief struggle and with Corporal Slott running alongside his horse grasping his pant leg, Crawford led his division in a charge that cleared the Valley of Death and, in his estimation, saved Little Round Top.

Crawford remained in command of his division through the Overland campaign and the Siege of Petersburg and was again wounded at the Weldon Railroad. He was with the army at Appomattox, one of two men (the other General Truman Seymour) who could claim to be present at both the beginning of the war at Fort Sumter and its end at Appomattox.

After the war Crawford stayed on with the army until his retirement in 1873. He took a leading role in helping to develop Gettysburg as a memorial park. at one point purchasing land around Little Round Top to build a museum.

Crawford died in 1892 and he is buried in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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* Photo courtesy of William Bechmann (2014)
 
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Colonel George Lamb Willard of the 125th New York.


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The units of the “Harper’s Ferry Brigade” were joined the Army of the Potomac on June 28, 1863. They were assigned to II Corps, where they became the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division under General Hays. Maj. Gen. William H. French having been assigned to detached duty in the Middle Department, Hays became division commander in his place. Willard duly succeeded by seniority to command of the brigade. The veterans of II Corps did not greet the “Harpers Ferry Cowards”” kindly until they had proven their courage in combat.

The 3rd Brigade marched northward in heat and dust of the summer of 1863, halting at Uniontown, Maryland, on June 30. The grueling march had caused many to fall out of the ranks, joining only when the division encamped. On July 1, when the division crossed into Pennsylvania, the third brigade was at the rear of the column, guarding the wagon train. Reaching Gettysburg, Pennsylvania late on July 1, Willard’s command camped along the Taneytown Road behind the Round Tops. Early on July 2, the brigade moved up to Cemetery Ridge, taking a position near the Bryan farm.

Late on July 2, when Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock had been placed in charge of the Army’s endangered left flank, he sent back to his II Corps for reinforcements. A courier found Hays and Willard together. Hays ordered Willard to take his brigade to the left and “knock the Hell” out of the Confederates.[5] Hancock appeared and led Willard’s brigade to the left himself. Forming a line of battle just north of Weikert’s Woods, the brigade had three regiments in line with a fourth in reserve. (That regiment participated in repulsing the Confederate brigade of Brig. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox.)[6]

Willard’s men stopped the victorious advance of Brig. Gen. William Barksdale, which had captured the Union position at the Peach Orchard and then pressed forward toward Cemetery Ridge. Willard ordered the two regiments on his right forward, pushing the Confederate back. Some of Willard’s men are reported to have yelled, as they charged, “Remember Harpers Ferry!” The New Yorkers recovered abandoned Union guns, but they came under heavy fire from Confederate artillery after crossing Plum Run. Willard had just ordered his men back to their start line when he was hit in the face by an artillery round.[7]Colonel Willard died on the spot, leaving command of the brigade to Col. Eliakim Sherrill. Lt. Col. James M. Bull, 126th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, who filed the brigade's report, gives a detailed account of this counterattack.[8]



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Located near Plum Run.​
 
Brigadier General Alexander Hays, Commander Third Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac and distant relative-in-law. Hays was an 1844 graduate of West Point (ranked 20 of 25) where he became a close personal friend of Ulysses S. Grant. His division held the northern end of the Second Corps lines along Cemetery Ridge facing the Pettigrew - Trimble advance. After the Confederates were repulsed Hays grabbed a captured Confederate flag and dragged it along the ground as he rode along the Federal lines exhorting his men to cheer. With the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac in early 1864 Hays reverted to command of a brigade at the head of which he was killed in action in the Wilderness on May 5. Hays was reportedly shot through the head while taking a swig from his whiskey flask.

From The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle website by Larry Tagg:
http://www.rocemabra.com/~roger/tagg/generals/general12.html
Alexander Hays at forty-four was a hot-headed, coarse-grained, hard-drinking Pennsylvanian who was most at home in a fight. He reviled "scientific leaders" and called strategy "a humbug. Next thing to cowardice." His appearance fitted his fiery personality: he was six feet tall and husky, with sandy red hair. As one of his soldiers admiringly described him, he was "a princely soldier; brave as a lion . . . one of those dashing, reckless, enthusiastic generals. . . . His old brigade, the Third of his division, idolized him, and we would have followed him to the death." Hays was never accused of bad judgment, but combat sent him into a showboating, extravagant boisterousness.
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Union Brigadier General Samuel Crawford was born in 1846 in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1850 and its medical school in 1851, joining the army as an assistant surgeon.

He was serving at Fort Sumter as the Civil War began, and commanded several guns during the bombardment in spite of being medical staff. Combat command apparently appealed to him, for shortly afterwards he accepted a commission as a Major in the Infantry. By 1862 he became a Brigadier General, leading an attack at Cedar Mountain that routed the Confederate Stonewall Brigade but cost Crawford 50% casualties.

Crawford was wounded at Antietam after briefly commanding his division. He didn’t recover from the wound until May of 1863, when he was given command of the Pennsylvania Reserves, then recovering from hard campaigning by serving in the Washington defenses.

The Gettysburg crisis saw two brigades of the Reserves return to the Army of the Potomac. Crawford led them into the fighting around Little Round Top at the end of the day on July 2nd.

Crawford seizied the colors of the First Pennsylvania Reserves from a surprised Corporal Bertless Slot. After a brief struggle and with Corporal Slott running alongside his horse grasping his pant leg, Crawford led his division in a charge that cleared the Valley of Death and, in his estimation, saved Little Round Top.

Crawford remained in command of his division through the Overland campaign and the Siege of Petersburg and was again wounded at the Weldon Railroad. He was with the army at Appomattox, one of two men (the other General Truman Seymour) who could claim to be present at both the beginning of the war at Fort Sumter and its end at Appomattox.

After the war Crawford stayed on with the army until his retirement in 1873. He took a leading role in helping to develop Gettysburg as a memorial park. at one point purchasing land around Little Round Top to build a museum.

Crawford died in 1892 and he is buried in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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* Photo courtesy of William Bechmann (2014)

http://gettysburgsculptures.com/brig_general_samuel_crawford_monument
 
Lt. Col. Henry C. Merlin, 27th Connecticut

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The monument to Lieutenant Colonel Henry C. Merwin is south of Gettysburg along Wheatfield Road on the north edge of the Wheatfield.

The monument was erected in 1880 at the location in the Wheatfield where Lieutenant Colonel Merwin was mortally wounded. In 1885 the regimental monument was placed at that location by the regimental association and Merwin’s memorial was relocated to nearby Wheatfield Road, with the additional inscription at the bottom of the monument added.


In Memory of
Lt. Col.
Henry C. Merwin
27th C.V.
who fell mortally
wounded where
the monument of his
regiment now stands.

Lt. Colonel Merwin led the 27th Connecticut Infantry Regiment through Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He fell leading his men in their charge acrosss the Wheatfield on July 2nd. His last words were, “My poor regiment is suffering fearfully.”

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More about Merwin:


http://www.fold3.com/page/634316718_henry_c_merwin/

http://www.civilwarintheeast.com/People/M/MerwinH.php
 
As twilight approached on July 2 the Confederates of McLaws' Division pushed through the Wheatfield, crossed Plum Rum and headed toward the northwest slopes of Little Round Top. The Confederate advance stalled at this point seemingly realizing they were no longer strong enough to carry the Union position and slowly began to fall back towards the Wheatfield. Shortly afterward units began to receive orders to withdraw. Along the crest of Cemetery Ridge at the northern edge of Little Round Top stood the five regiments of William McCandless' Fifth Corps Brigade, five more regiments of David Nevin's Sixth Corps Brigade and a battery of Ohio Artillery commanded by Captain Frank Gibbs. The senior officer present was BG Samuel Crawford, McCandless' immediate superior. 23 year old Colonel Charles Frederick Taylor commanded one of the regiments in McCandless' command, the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. The 42nd was more commonly known as the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles or the Pennsylvania Bucktails.

Sensing the time was right Crawford gave McCandless the order to advance. The Pennsylvanians fired two volleys and began to advance toward the Confederates; Nevin's command followed on their right. Any thoughts the Confederates might have had of continuing their advance evaporated and they began to withdraw back across the Wheatfield, standing briefly on Houck's Ridge to deter McCandless from pressing too far. McCandless halted behind a stone wall at the east edge of the Wheatfield. The 13th Reserves, on the far left of the line began to take enfilade fire from the Texan sharpshooters in the Devil's Den. Colonel Taylor was in the process of positioning his men to minimize the effect of that fire when he was killed. The following excerpts are taken from General Samuel Crawford's after action report.

HDQRS. PA. RESERVES THIRD DIV., FIFTH CORPS,
July 10, 1863.

Lieut. Col. FRED. T. LOCKE,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Fifth Army Corps.


COLONEL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this division in the recent battle near Gettysburg, Pa:

At daylight on the 2d instant, while resting my command near McSherrystown, having marched nearly all the previous night, I received an order from the major-general commanding the corps to march immediately toward Gettysburg. The column was put in motion at once, and by noon had arrived at the position occupied by the First and Second Divisions of the corps, near the Gettysburg and Hanover turnpike.

At 2 o'clock an order reached me to form my command at once, and proceed toward the left flank of our line, when my position would be indicated by a staff officer. The First Division of the corps, which I had been directed to follow, had taken a different road from that indicated to me. Under the guidance, however, of Captain Moore, an aide of the general commanding the army, who had come from the field for fresh troops, I pushed rapidly forward, and arrived in a short time upon the field, and reported to Major-General Sykes. I received orders at once to mass my troops upon the right of a road running through our line, near our left flank, and which, descending a rocky slope, crossed a low marshy ground in front to a wheat-field lying between two thick belts of woods beyond.

The position occupied by our troops on the left was naturally a strong one. A rocky ridge, wooded at the top, extended along the left of our position, ending in a high hill, called the Round Top, whose sides, covered with timber, terminated abruptly in the plain below, while the entire ridge sloped toward a small stream that traversed the marshy ground in front. Beyond this lay two thick masses of timber, separated by a large wheat-field, and skirting this timber a low stone wall ran from right to left.

The movement indicated had not been completed when I received a subsequent order to cross the road to the slope of the rocky ridge opposite the woods, and to cover the troops then engaged in front, should it become necessary for them to fall back. In carrying out this order, I received instructions to detach one brigade of my command, to go to the left of Barnes' division, on the crest of the ridge. The Third Brigade, under Col. J. W. Fisher, was detailed, and moved at once. The firing in front was heavy and incessant. The enemy, concentrating his forces opposite the left of our line, was throwing them in heavy masses upon our troops, and was steadily advancing.

Our troops in front, after a determined resistance, unable to withstand the force of the enemy, fell back, and some finally gave way. The plain to my front was covered with fugitives from all divisions, who rushed through my lines and along the road to the rear. Fragments of regiments came back in disorder, and without their arms, and for a moment all seemed lost. The enemy's skirmishers had reached the foot of the rocky ridge; his columns were following rapidly.

My command was formed in two lines, the second massed on the first. The Sixth Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Ent, on the right, the First Regiment, Colonel Talley, on the left, and the Eleventh Regiment, of Fisher's brigade, under Colonel Jackson, in the center. The second line consisted of the First Rifles (Bucktails), Colonel Taylor, and the Second Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Woodward. Colonel McCandless, the brigade commander, commanded the whole.

Not a moment was to be lost. Uncovering our front, I ordered an immediate advance. The command advanced gallantly with loud cheers. Two well-directed volleys were delivered upon the advancing masses of the enemy, when the whole column charged at a run down the slope, driving the enemy back across the space beyond and across the stone wall, for the possession of which there was a short but determined struggle. The enemy retired to the wheat-field and the woods.

The second line was immediately deployed to the left, the First Rifles (Bucktails), under their gallant leader, Colonel Taylor, gaining the flank and dashing upon the enemy, who, endeavoring for a moment to make a stand, finally broke and fled in disorder across the field, leaving his dead and wounded in our hands. As night was approaching, and my flanks were unprotected, I directed Colonel McCandless to hold the line of the stone wall and the woods on the right. Heavy lines of skirmishers were thrown out, and the ground firmly and permanently held.
********
Col. Charles Fred. Taylor, the gallant and brave leader of the Bucktail Regiment, fell while leading his regiment to the charge. No braver soldier and patriot has given his life to the cause.
********
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. W. CRAWFORD,
Brigadier-General, Comdg. Third Division.
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Monument General George Sears Greene, Culp's Hill.

The Battle of Gettysburg was the highlight of Greene's military career. On July 2, 1863, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade shifted almost the entire XII Corps from the Union right to strengthen the left flank, which was under heavy attack. Greene's lone brigade of 1,350 New Yorkers (five regiments) was left to defend a one-half-mile line on Culp's Hill when an entire Confederate division attacked.[14]Fortunately, Greene had previously demonstrated good sense (as befits a civil engineer) by insisting that his troops construct strong field fortifications, despite a lack of interest in doing so from his division commander, Geary, and corps commander, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum. In Greene's finest moment of the war, his preparations proved decisive and his brigade held off multiple attacks for hours. He was active the entire engagement rallying his men to defend their positions in the darkness. Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams, acting corps commander on July 2, commended Greene for his "skill and judgment" in this defense, especially in his using the "advantages" of his position.[15] Late at night, the rest of the XII Corps returned to Culp's Hill. The fighting resumed the next morning and raged for over seven hours, but the Union troops held Culp's Hill. They regained some of the lost ground and thwarted renewed Confederate attacks.[3] The battle for Culp's Hill included the two oldest generals in each army, Greene at 62 and Brig. Gen. William "Extra Billy" Smith at 65.

The desperate fighting on the Union right flank was as important as the more famous defense of the Union left flank on July 2, by Col. Strong Vincent's brigade on Little Round Top. In fact, given that the Union line was only 400 yards (370 m) from the vital Union supply line on the Baltimore Pike, it can be argued that it was more important. However, Greene's contribution to this critical battle have never been widely heralded, principally because of a dispute between Meade and Slocum over the filing of their official reports. But a member of Greene's brigade wrote:[16]

"Had the breastworks not been built, and had there only been the thin line of our unprotected brigade, that line must have been swept away like leaves before the wind, by the oncoming of so heavy a mass of troops, and the [Baltimore] pike would have been reached by the enemy."




Also:

http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/george-sears-greene/
 
Major Joshua G. Palmer, 66th Ohio...mortally wounded on July 3rd, on Culp's Hill, taken to XII Corps field hospital, died of wounds (shot in the left lung) on July 10th. Palmer was originally from NY and moved to Urbana, Ohio as a practicing dentist. When he was shot leading the men of the 66th down the slope, several memyers of his former company (as the lateam Captain of Co. B) rushed to his aide. They could see breathing through the wound so one of the men took a silk hankerchief wetted from his canteen and covered the wound. Palmer responded, "Oh, that did me so much good." As he were carried back up the slope and to the summit of Culp's Hill, he shouted to the men, "Stay with them boy's, I will be back with you soon." His ID'd saber belt and Model 1850 Field and Staff Officer's sword resides in a private collection.
 

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Major Joshua G. Palmer, 66th Ohio...mortally wounded on July 3rd, on Culp's Hill, taken to XII Corps field hospital, died of wounds (shot in the left lung) on July 10th.

I just saw his monument for the first time last week. Probably few see it because you have to descend a distance down a steep slope from the crest of Culps Hill. Most people probably stop at the monument of the 66th Ohio, which itself is down the slope and don't bother to continue the descent to Palmer's marker.
 
I just saw his monument for the first time last week. Probably few see it because you have to descend a distance down a steep slope from the crest of Culps Hill. Most people probably stop at the monument of the 66th Ohio, which itself is down the slope and don't bother to continue the descent to Palmer's marker.
Culp's Hill - 66th Ohio Infantry Dedicated in 1887 (3).JPG
 
Union Brigadier General Samuel Crawford was born in 1846 in Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1850 and its medical school in 1851, joining the army as an assistant surgeon.

He was serving at Fort Sumter as the Civil War began, and commanded several guns during the bombardment in spite of being medical staff. Combat command apparently appealed to him, for shortly afterwards he accepted a commission as a Major in the Infantry. By 1862 he became a Brigadier General, leading an attack at Cedar Mountain that routed the Confederate Stonewall Brigade but cost Crawford 50% casualties.

Crawford was wounded at Antietam after briefly commanding his division. He didn’t recover from the wound until May of 1863, when he was given command of the Pennsylvania Reserves, then recovering from hard campaigning by serving in the Washington defenses.

The Gettysburg crisis saw two brigades of the Reserves return to the Army of the Potomac. Crawford led them into the fighting around Little Round Top at the end of the day on July 2nd.

Crawford seizied the colors of the First Pennsylvania Reserves from a surprised Corporal Bertless Slot. After a brief struggle and with Corporal Slott running alongside his horse grasping his pant leg, Crawford led his division in a charge that cleared the Valley of Death and, in his estimation, saved Little Round Top.

Crawford remained in command of his division through the Overland campaign and the Siege of Petersburg and was again wounded at the Weldon Railroad. He was with the army at Appomattox, one of two men (the other General Truman Seymour) who could claim to be present at both the beginning of the war at Fort Sumter and its end at Appomattox.

After the war Crawford stayed on with the army until his retirement in 1873. He took a leading role in helping to develop Gettysburg as a memorial park. at one point purchasing land around Little Round Top to build a museum.

Crawford died in 1892 and he is buried in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

View attachment 69088

* Photo courtesy of William Bechmann (2014)

Great Photo...it even shows the the flag with the shot holes....:thumbsup:
 
My serenity now spot at Gettysburg.

Henry Van Aerna Fuller was commander of Company F of the 64th New York Infantry Regiment. He was killed on July 2, 1863 as the 64th New York, of Brooke’s Brigade, was retreating through Rose’s Woods towards the Wheatfield.


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My serenity now spot at Gettysburg.

Henry Van Aerna Fuller was commander of Company F of the 64th New York Infantry Regiment. He was killed on July 2, 1863 as the 64th New York, of Brooke’s Brigade, was retreating through Rose’s Woods towards the Wheatfield.


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I have'nt been here yet. When you're walking the trolley path, is there an obvious trail to this marker?
 
I have'nt been here yet. When you're walking the trolley path, is there an obvious trail to this marker?


Unfortunately there is no clear path back to the Fuller marker. I usually park near the old south trolley path on Cross Avenue. Walk up the old trolley line and enjoy your walk UNTIL you get to the southern most small bridge. Once I clear the bridge, I start counting to 200 steps. You get to an area that looks like the first place you can walk east (turn right from the path) and you will eventually hit the small creek. His marker sits just before the stream (Rose Run).

I have been there in the summer and the short weeds were pristine (nobody walked back recently). Once you start walking back the underbrush opens up and you will see the marker. Again use the south old trolley line as the anchor.
 
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