HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

20th IN Wheeler+ / Taylor(w) / Gilbreath

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

20th Regt. Indiana Volunteer Infantry July 2nd, 1863. —- Col. John Wheeler killed near by. 20th Ind.

The Story

This monument honors the 20th Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry and marks where its commander, Colonel John Wheeler, was killed on July 2, 1863. The regiment fought in the desperate struggle for Devil's Den and the Wheatfield on the second day of Gettysburg. Wheeler was cut down at the head of his men as the Confederate assault surged against the Union left.

Why it matters

It preserves the memory of a Midwestern regiment and its fallen colonel amid one of the bloodiest sectors of the battle.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the summer of 1863 the Civil War reached its northernmost tide. Robert E. Lee marched his Confederate army into Pennsylvania, and the Union's Army of the Potomac moved to intercept it. What began as a chance encounter at the town of Gettysburg on July 1 swelled within hours into the largest battle ever fought on American soil.

The men who did the fighting came from every corner of the country. Among them were regiments raised far from these Pennsylvania hills — volunteers from the farms and river towns of the Midwest, who had traveled hundreds of miles to reach this fight. The 20th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was one such regiment, its ranks filled with men from a state that had answered the Union's call in enormous numbers.

By the war's third year these were no longer green recruits. They were seasoned soldiers who had already seen hard service, and on the second day at Gettysburg they would be thrown into some of the most savage fighting of the entire battle, on the rocky, wooded ground of the Union left.

People & events

This monument honors the 20th Indiana and marks the spot where its commander, Colonel John Wheeler, was killed on July 2, 1863. He fell, as the inscription plainly records, near this very ground — cut down at the head of his regiment in the thick of the fighting.

That second day brought the Confederate assault crashing against the Union left in the late afternoon. The 20th Indiana found itself in the maelstrom around Devil's Den and the fields nearby, a place of tumbled boulders and close, confused combat where lines dissolved and men fought at terribly short range.

Colonel Wheeler was one of many officers who died leading from the front that day, a common and costly practice in an age when a commander's example steadied his men. His death, and the regiment's losses around it, are the reason this stone stands here — placed by comrades and a grateful state so that the price paid on this ground would not be forgotten.

Its place in the American story

Gettysburg turned the course of the war, and it did so because ordinary regiments held ground that could not be given up. The struggle for the Union left on July 2 was one of the hinges on which the whole battle swung; had that flank collapsed, the outcome might have been very different.

The presence of an Indiana regiment on this Pennsylvania hillside says something essential about the Civil War. This was a national war, fought by a national army. Men who had never seen the East before died defending a state that was not their own, because they believed the Union itself was worth their lives.

Monuments like this one, raised to a Midwestern regiment and its fallen colonel, remind us that the story of Gettysburg belongs to the whole country — carried here in the boots of volunteers from a thousand miles away.

If you visit

The ground on the Union left is unlike the open fields elsewhere on the battlefield — broken, rocky, and shadowed by trees. Stand near this monument and you can sense why the fighting here was so desperate and so disorienting, a place where a man could not always see the enemy until he was almost upon him.

Look for the marker's regimental details and the note of where Colonel Wheeler fell. It is one thing to read that an officer died in battle; it is another to stand on the actual spot where it happened, on the very afternoon the stone commemorates.

Give this place a few quiet minutes. It sits within one of the most fought-over sectors of the field, and it connects easily to the nearby landmarks of the second day's battle. Walk the ground slowly and let the terrain tell you why so many men fell to hold it.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Museums & culture

Attractions

Food & drink

Places to stay

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · John Wheeler

Related events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

Nearby & related markers

US Colonel Charles F. Taylor

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks where Colonel Charles Frederick Taylor, commander of the 'Bucktails' — the First Rifle Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps — fell on July 2, 1863, at the age of twenty-three. Erected by his comrades in 1905, it honors an officer killed leading his celebrated regiment during the Union counterattack near the Wheatfield. The Bucktails were known for the deer tails worn on their caps and their reputation as skilled riflemen.

Civil War

US Captain Jedediah Chapman

Cumberland Township, PA

This marker records where Captain Jedediah Chapman of Company H, 27th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, fell during the Battle of Gettysburg. The small 27th Connecticut was heavily engaged in the Wheatfield on July 2, 1863, suffering severe losses in the back-and-forth fighting there. Chapman was among the officers killed as the regiment held its ground on the second day.

Civil War

US HQ 3-1-2nd Brigade Hobart Ward(w) / Berdan

Cumberland Township, PA

This tablet marks the headquarters of the Second Brigade, First Division, Third Corps at Gettysburg, commanded by Brigadier General J. H. Hobart Ward with Colonel Hiram Berdan of the famed U.S. Sharpshooters. Its regiments — drawn from Indiana, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania — fought in the punishing action across the Wheatfield and Devil's Den on July 2, 1863. The sharpshooters listed here were among the war's most specialized marksmen.

Civil War

US Captain Henry Fuller

Cumberland Township, PA

This battlefield marker at Gettysburg remembers a young officer of a New York infantry regiment who was killed on July 2, 1863, the ferocious second day of the fight. That afternoon the Union line was battered across the Wheatfield and the rocky ground nearby, where regiments were fed piecemeal into some of the most confused and costly combat of the three-day battle. Small stones like this one are scattered wherever a soldier or unit fell, turning the whole field into a landscape of memory.

Civil War