The Pennsylvania Memorial:
"A Most Imposing Monument"
by Diana Loski
(Author Photo)
September 27, 1910 was a blistering day in Gettysburg. The weather assumed an appearance more like mid-July than early autumn, but the crowds came, disregarding the elements. Thousands of Pennsylvania veterans who had fought in the war, and particularly in the Battle of Gettysburg, had waited for years for this moment.
Over twenty thousand attended the dedication of the Pennsylvania Memorial, which remains the largest monument on the battlefield. “To the veterans the event was the treat of their lives, a day to which they had looked forward for two score years.” The citizens of New York had already dedicated a state memorial in 1893, and before them, Vermont was the first to receive a state memorial at Gettysburg in 1889. Since Pennsylvania soldiers constituted one third of the Union army at Gettysburg, the veterans of the Keystone State had anxiously anticipated their own state monument. And the Pennsylvania State Memorial did not disappoint them.1
The memorial was not finished at the time of the dedication. Due to a shortage of funds at the time, eight bronze statues were added later. The sculptures of eight men: President Lincoln, Governor Curtin and six Union generals were placed nearly three years later, in time for another dedication during the 50th Reunion on July 4, 1913.2
While Abraham Lincoln was not a native of Pennsylvania, nor did he ever live here, his visit in November 1863 was enough to keep Gettysburg forever in remembrance of the pivotal battle. Andrew Curtin served as governor of the state during the war, and was a native of Bellefonte, near State College. The six generals who grace three of the four sides of the memorial are George Meade, the Union army commander at Gettysburg; John Reynolds, who commanded the Union First Corps of Infantry (and served as a wing commander on the first day’s fight); Winfield Scott Hancock, the commander of the Union Second Corps, who commanded the center of the Union line; David Birney, who commanded a division of the Third Corps at Gettysburg, then took over the corps at the wounding of Dan Sickles; David McMurtry Gregg, who commanded a division of cavalry at Gettysburg, and Alfred Pleasonton, who commanded the Union Cavalry Corps at Gettysburg.
Of the eight men whose statues grace the Pennsylvania Memorial, only David McMurtry Gregg was alive and in attendance at the dedication. The war had caused or led to the deaths of many of the others: Lincoln had been assassinated in the closing days of the war, Curtin had died in 1894 – and spent the last decades of his life in poor health due to the stress he endured during the war years. General Reynolds had been killed at Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, 1863. General Meade died in 1872 from pneumonia – an illness that plagued him often after a serious wound in the back that grazed his spine, causing him health problems long after the war had ended. David Birney died from malaria – an illness he contracted while fighting in Virginia, in 1864. General Hancock died in 1886, from diabetes and other complications brought on by immobility issues that resulted from his disastrous wound preceding Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg. Alfred Pleasonton died in 1897, his death not caused by any Civil War wound – although he had been wounded in 1862. He was, nevertheless, a broken man who felt underappreciated after serving his country for decades.3
The names of thirty-four Pennsylvania commanders are etched in the granite around the immense memorial. At the top of each arch are four bas-relief depictions representing the infantry, the artillery, the cavalry, and the signal corps – all areas where Pennsylvania men served during the battle. Along the bottom of each of the four walls are bronze plaques which name all of the men from Pennsylvania who fought at Gettysburg. At the time of the dedication in 1910, not all of the names were correctly placed.
The impressive Goddess of Victory and Peace stands atop the grand monument, perched above the massive dome. She carries a sword in her right hand and a palm frond in her left hand as symbols of her title – and Pennsylvania’s.4
For months, preparations were made for the dedication ceremony. All Pennsylvania veterans still living, who had fought in the Battle of Gettysburg, were given transportation to Gettysburg, and accommodations were made for them and their accompanying family members. A grandstand was built near the monument on Cemetery Ridge for five thousand spectators. William Howard Taft, the President of the United States, was invited to attend the event, but declined. Edwin Stuart, the current governor of Pennsylvania, General David McMurtry Gregg, and Daniel Sickles – the fiery former Third Corps commander at Gettysburg and friend of the late David Birney – were all in attendance. Sickles did not address the crowd, but came as the guest of honor. General Henry Huidekoper, who was the master of ceremonies, also attended. Huidekoper, who served as colonel of the 150th Pennsylvania Infantry on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for gallantry on that day in 1863. General Huidekoper, Governor Stuart, and General Gregg gave keynote speeches.5
“With solemn pomp and impressive ceremony, the officials of the state and veterans of the Civil War…dedicated the Pennsylvania Memorial,” wrote one in attendance. “Standing in a blistering summer sun during the early part of the ceremonies and through a drenching rain toward the end” the audience listened to the dedicatory speakers. The storm erupted during General Gregg’s address, and he offered to stop, but the veterans urged him, “Go on, go on.” They had endured far worse in 1863. And continue he did.6
The ceremony ended as abruptly as it had begun, without any parade or fanfare. The veterans, statesmen, and their families simply walked to, and later away from, Cemetery Ridge, proudly viewing “the handsomest and most imposing monument on the battlefield of Gettysburg.”7
Governor Stuart called the memorial “enduring evidence of a people’s regard…in honor of the soldiers of Pennsylvania…it will always remain an inspiration to the succeeding generations.”8
The Pennsylvania Memorial is easily seen from most parts of the battlefield. It is large enough for many to enter at the same time, and stairs continue upward toward the dome. Visitors are able to look over the field of battle from its balcony.
It remains a most impressive and inspiring site, just as Governor Stuart anticipated.
Sources: Hawthorne, Frederick W. Gettysburg: Stories of Men and Monuments. Hanover, PA: The Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides, 1988. The Gettysburg Times, September 15, 1910. The Gettysburg Times, September 28, 1910. The National Tribune, February 25, 1897. The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 28, 1910. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge & London: The Louisiana State University Press, 1964. Historical newspapers accessed through newspapers.com.
End Notes:
1. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 28, 1910.
2. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 28, 1910. Hawthorne, p. 82.
3. Warner, pp. 34, 188, 204, 317, 397. National Tribune, Feb. 25, 1897. Pleasonton was not a Pennsylvania native but during the war, and especially while convalescing from his severe wound in 1862, he lived with his brother and his family in Philadelphia.
4. Hawthorne, p. 82.
5. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 15, 1910. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 28, 1910.
6. The Pennsylvania Inquirer, Sept. 28, 1910.
The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 28, 1910.
7. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 28, 1910.
8. The Gettysburg Times, Sept. 28, 1910.
