Mike Serpa
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2013
Note: John P. Murphy (5th from right) was presented the Medal of Honor for capturing the flag of 13th Alabama Infantry at the Battle of Antietam.
On the afternoon of July 1, 1863, under orders from General Hancock, the First and Third Brigades of Geary's division of the Twelfth Corps went into position to the right of and near Little Round Top, and that night the Fifth Ohio and One Hundred and Forty-seventh Pennsylvania Infantry occupied Little Round Top and picketed to the left and front.
In later years, while visiting the battlefield of Gettysburg, Lawrence Wilson, seeing markers in that section accounting for these two regiments upon that very important occasion, became imbued with a desire that the other regiments of Candy's brigade should also have a distinguishing mark of some character indicating they were also then on that part of the field.
With this end in view he issued a call for a meeting of the members of the old brigade, during the National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic in Cleveland on the 19th of September, 1901, for the purpose of considering this important matter, when a brigade organization was formed by the election of Judge John P. Murphy of the Fifth Ohio, residing in Cincinnati, as president, and W. P. Ouayle of the Sixty-sixth Ohio, residing at Rock Island, secretary. A resolution was then passed in favor of marking the position occupied by Candy's brigade on the night of July 1, 1863, and providing for the appointment of a committee, consisting of one comrade from each of the six regiments in said brigade, to take charge of the project and push it to a successful termination.
The president appointed the following committee: Maj. Krewson Yerkes, Fifth Ohio; Sergt. Lawrence Wilson, Seventh Ohio; Col. D. W. Thomas, Twenty-ninth Ohio; Maj. Thos. McConnell, Sixty-sixth Ohio; Capt. John O. Foering, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, and Maj. J. A. Moore of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Pennsylvania, with Lawrence Wilson as chairman. As Colonel Thomas neglected to serve and Major McConnell soon died very unexpectedly, Capt. Charles W. Kellogg of the Twenty-ninth and Col. Charles Candy of the Sixty-sixth were appointed to act in their stead, and the committee thus kept intact. This committee visited the battlefield in October, 1901, selected a site for a marker on Sedgwick Avenue near Little Round Top, and adopted a design for the same, such as is shown in cut, consisting of a bronze tablet bearing an
inscription and legend, sunk in the face of a granite die resting upon a substantial granite base suitably marked as is herein plainly delineated.
All arrangements having been successfully carried out and the marker being in position, this modest little tribute to the gallant officers whose names appear thereon and to the soldiers true who followed them where they led was dedicated on Thursday, September 18, 1902, in the presence of the president, Judge Murphy, who came all the way from Cincinnati and made a brief address ; Col. John P. Nicholson and Major Robbins of the battlefield commission; members of the brigade committee, comrades, ladies and gentlemen, when this token of love, pride, and patriotism was formally turned over to Colonel Nicholson for safe keeping. The dedicatory services consisted mainly of a statement by the
chairman of the committee explaining how this marker came into existence ; a brief address by Judge Murphy as presiding officer; an invocation by Rev. Owen Hicks; the reading of the military records of all the officers named on the marker by Captains Howe and Foering and Sergeant Wilson; and addresses by Colonel Candy, Colonel Nicholson and Major Robbins — the latter of the C. S. A., who fought there under General Longstreet. A large photograph of marker and group was taken.
Source - Itinerary of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1864, with Roster, Portraits and Biographies, 1907
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