8th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Gettysburg

The monument to the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry stands on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. The 8th was active in the campaign, but did not hold the ground where its marker is located near the center of action during the repulse of Pickett's Charge. (Click image for larger view).

Fight over the Angle - Gettysburg

The monument to the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry stands before of a lone weathered tree at the Angle at Gettysburg, scene of the repulse of Pickett's Charge. Placement of the monument only took place after a legal fight carried out by the survivors of the 72nd Pa., who wanted to place their monument at the stone wall they eventually regained from surging Confederates at the height of the fight. Park rules would have had the 72nd place its marker on its main battle line to the rear of this monument, not the more prestigious forward position. (Click image for larger view).

Meade and the Moon - Gettysburg

A full moon rises beyond the monument to Army of the Potomac leader Major General George G. Meade on Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. (Click image for larger view).

Hampton's Battery at the Peach Orchard - Gettysburg

The sun sets beyond the monument to Hampton's Battery at the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg. Because of earlier losses, Hampton's gunners were incorporated with another battery during the fight at Gettysburg, when they were placed at the center of the ferocious artillery fight at the Sickles salient. (Click image for larger view).

Reynolds in the Cemetery - Gettysburg

The Union's Major General John Reynolds, the highest ranking officer killed in the battle, is memorialized with a statue in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Reynolds is depicted in two other full size bronze statues elsewhere on the field. At right is the New York State Monument. (Click image for larger view).

'Don't give up your guns' - Rickett's Battery, Gettysburg

The monument to Rickett's Battery on East Cemetery Hill belies the chaos that swirled around his and other batteries on the hill at nightfall on the second day at Gettysburg. A Confederate attack briefly overran the hill, including a section of Rickett's guns. As his gunners fought off the attackers in hand-to-hand combat on his left, his right continued to fire cannister at other rebels less successful at gaining the crest. The order: "Die on the soil of your State, but don't give up your guns," was carried out to the extreme by three cannoneers among the battery's casualties that night. (Click image for larger view).

Gibbon at Gettysburg

The Pennsylvania Monument emerges from fog beyond the monument to Union Brigadier General John Gibbon, who commanded men in the Second Corps along Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. During the cannonade preceding Pickett's Charge Gibbon and his aide, Lt. Frank Haskell, found the fire less daunting in front of his lines because of the Confederate's high aim. Spending some time observing the scene from the front, they returned to the ridge's crest but not before coming across a soldier hugging the ground on his way back to the line, laden with freshly filled canteens. "Look out, my man, you might get hit!" Gibbon jokingly called out, having some fun with the fears of the soldier where he and Haskell stood the fire in relative safety. "At the sound of my voice, he turned his head, still keeping it as close to the ground as possible, to look at me and then, as if inspired by a new idea, rose to his feet and walked deliberately back to his regiment; no doubt arguing with himself that if two could walk erect there was little danger to a third." (Click image for larger view).

72nd Pa. at the Angle - Gettysburg

The moon rises beyond the 72nd Pa. Infantry monument at the Angle at Gettysburg. (Click image for larger view).

153rd Pa. at Barlow's Knoll - Gettysburg

As the 153rd Pennsylvania, nine month men from Bethlehem, Pa., got set to head into battle on the first day at Gettysburg, an officer addressed them, telling the men their enlistments had expired. "If there was a man in [the] ranks who did not wish to go into battle; he should step out, that it was no disgrace;" a soldier wrote, retelling the officer's words, "but that the enemy was in our native state, and that the people of Pennsylvania looked to us for relief, and that it was our duty to protect our homes... we gave three cheers and not a man stepped out of the ranks." Their officer must have been mistaken, misjudging the enlistment terms by a month. The regiment's survivors mustered out July 24, three weeks after the battle. (Click image for larger view).

A restored warrior - Gettysburg

The 74th Pa. monument on the first day's battlefield is in line with other markers for Union regiments on the 11th Corps position outside Gettysburg. Like the fallen color bearer it depicts, the monument was itself struck down - victim of an errant driver that left it in pieces in 2004. Careful restoration has returned it to its spot on the line, but not without scars. (Click image for larger view).

'Cross I must' - Gettysburg

The monument to the 118th Pennsylvania, the Corn Exchange Regiment, looks over the Rose Farm and its grazing cattle from the Stony Hill at Gettysburg. Cattle were not an uncommon sight among the livestock and farm fields, but Union artillery chief Henry Hunt was nearly a casualty of one panicked cluster after he inspected a battery position at Devil's Den as fighting began on the second day, he reported:

"A herd of horned cattle had been driven into the valley between Devil's Den and Round Top, from which they could not escape. A shell had exploded in the body of one of them, tearing it to pieces; others were torn and wounded. All were stampeded, bellowing and rushing in their terror first to one side, then to the other, to escape the shells that were bursting over and amongst them. Cross I must, and in doing so I had my most trying experience of the battle of Gettysburg. Luckily the poor beasts were as much frightened as I was, but their rage was subdued by terror, and they were good enough to let me pass through scot-free, but 'badly demoralized.' However, my horse was safe, I mounted, and in the busy excitement that followed almost forgot my scare." (Click image for larger view).

Opposing Armies - Gettysburg

The monument to the 72nd Pa. Infantry stands on Cemetery Ridge at the Angle, facing the Virginia State Memorial (left background) and the Confederate lines on Seminary Ridge at Gettysburg. Confederates in Pickett's Charge crossed this open ground (lined by the shadow of the Copse of Trees) before briefly piercing the Union line here. (Click image for larger view).

69th Pa. at the Angle - Gettysburg

The low stone wall occupied by Union troops at the Angle at Gettysburg is marked by monuments all along the line, but only one unit, the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry, has separate markers representing each of its companies positions (partially shown at right). Many Union troops fought off Pickett's Charge but few were in as hot a position as the 69th, which found itself at the point of the only Confederate breakthrough. (Click image for larger view).

116th Pennsylvania of the Irish Brigade - Gettysburg

The monument to the 116th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry stands on the Loop at the Stony Hill at Gettysburg, where it had been sent into action at the Wheatfield on the second day at Gettysburg. The monument depicts a Irish Brigade member at rest along a stone fence, exactly as described by the unit's commander, Major St. Clair A. Mulholland, who came upon the young faced-casualty and remembered the scene vividly despite the roar and confusion of the fighting. He described the dead man as laying at peace, face turned to the sun, appearing relaxed with only a small bullet wound to the head to give evidence of his fate. (Click image for larger view).

A fallen comrade on Little Round Top - Gettysburg

The monument to the 9th Pa. Reserves stands on the rocky ground of Little Round Top where it secured the line between the Round Tops as fighting settled down on the second day of battle at Gettysburg. The marker depicts a soldier standing over the fresh grave of a comrade, hat in hand, head down. (Click image for larger view).

Pennsylvania Monument - Gettysburg

The Pennsylvania Monument stands on Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg. The massive monument, the largest on the field, memorializes the Keystone State soldiers who fought in the battle - and lists the names of more than 34,000 present at the battle. 

'You all remember that afternoon' - Gettysburg

The 68th Pennsylvania Infantry monument stands in the last light at the Peach Orchard, scene of fighting on the second day at Gettysburg. The 68th was one of many Union regiments and artillery units forced back under heavy attacks at the salient. "You all remember that afternoon," one speaker commented at the monument dedication exactly 25 years later, "and out of the small band of us that went into that orchard few of us came safely out, but you did your duty bravely while there." (Click image for larger view).

The "Fiery Inferno" - Gettysburg

The monument to the 2nd Pa. Cavalry stands on the back side of Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg near the headquarters to Union Major General George Meade - and his equestrian monument at the crest. The 2nd Pa. was assigned to his headquarters, a place that suddenly became one of the most dangerous on the field during the cannonade preceding Pickett's Charge as artillery rounds intended for the main Union line found the immediate rear instead. Meade was forced from his location as his headquarters "seemed to be the point of all others where the rebels' fire converged all around us." (Click image for larger view).

Artillery at the Peach Orchard - Gettysburg

The monument to Hampton's Battery, 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, stands over the Peach Orchard in one of the more prominent monuments in that sector, where fighting raged on the second day. The unit was actually combined with cannoneers and guns from Thompson's Battery, both having been depleted in earlier campaigns, and operating at Gettysburg under the command of Captain James Thompson. Both Pittsburgh-based units placed monuments at the Peach Orchard despite their combined arrangement. (Click image for larger view).

Pennsylvania Monument - Gettysburg

Names of high-ranking Pennsylvanians are carved into arches of the Keystone state's massive monument on Cemetery Ridge. Ten of thousands of soldiers fought for the Union on their home state's soil. Decades before the completion of this monument, a speaker at Gettysburg's "Pennsylvania Day" ceremonies praised the men who fought for the Commonwealth. "Soldiers of Pennsylvania, your valor has been seen in many battle fields, but on none has it been greater or grander, nobler or more heroic than on the July days of 1863." (Click image for larger view).