HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

76th NY “Courtland County Regiment” Glover+ / Cook

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

76th New York Infantry, 2d Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps Fire opened here, July 1st, 1863, at 10 a.m. —- Second stand at R.R. cut. —- Third at Culp’s Hill July 2nd and 3rd.

The Story

This monument to the 76th New York Infantry, raised largely in Cortland County, marks where the regiment helped open the infantry fighting at Gettysburg on the morning of July 1, 1863. It records the unit's day-long ordeal — its first stand here, a second at the railroad cut, and a third on Culp's Hill over the following days. As one of the first Union regiments engaged, it paid a steep price to slow the Confederate advance until reinforcements could arrive.

Why it matters

The opening hours of July 1 decided that the great battle would be fought at Gettysburg at all, and regiments like this one absorbed the first blows so the Union army could seize the commanding ground.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the summer of 1863 the Civil War arrived in southern Pennsylvania. Robert E. Lee's Confederate army had marched north, and the Union Army of the Potomac hurried to meet it. On the first morning of July, the two forces collided at Gettysburg, a market town laced with roads — and roads were what drew the armies together, funneling regiments toward a fight that would grow into the largest battle of the war.

This monument marks a spot on the fields west of town where the infantry fighting opened. It commemorates a single regiment, and regiments were the beating heart of a Civil War army: bodies of a few hundred men, usually raised from the same corner of a state, who marched, fought, and often died together.

The men honored here came from central New York, and like so many communities North and South, their home county sent its sons off to war and then waited on the news. On July 1, 1863, that news would be very hard.

People & events

This is the monument to the 76th New York Infantry, a regiment drawn largely from Cortland County and known for its home-county roots. It fought as part of the Second Brigade, First Division, First Corps — and the stone records, with almost clock-like precision, where its war on this field began: here, at ten o'clock in the morning on July 1, 1863.

Being among the first infantry engaged is a grim distinction. It meant standing in the open against an advancing enemy while the rest of the army was still hours away on the roads. The regiment opened fire on this ground and then, as the fighting surged, made a second stand near the railroad cut — a raw gash in the landscape that became one of the deadliest features of the first day's battle.

The marker follows the regiment forward in time as well as space. After the fighting west of town, the survivors took up a third position on Culp's Hill, the wooded height on the Union right, where the struggle continued through July 2 and 3. In three days, a regiment could pass from the first shots of a battle to its final defensive lines — and pay for every hour of it.

Its place in the American story

The opening hours of July 1 decided one of the most important questions of the entire battle: whether it would be fought at Gettysburg at all. By meeting the Confederate advance early and refusing to break, the first Union regiments on the field bought the time their army needed to reach and hold the high ground south of town — the ground that made the Union victory possible.

Regiments like the 76th New York absorbed the first blows so that later arrivals could form a line. That is the unglamorous arithmetic of a great battle: someone has to be first, and being first is often fatal. The precise hour cut into this stone — ten in the morning — is a reminder that the whole three-day struggle grew out of a fight that a few hundred men started before most of the armies had even arrived.

Gettysburg became a symbol of the Union's endurance, and monuments like this one make that abstraction concrete. They tie the sweep of national history to a specific field, a specific regiment, and a specific minute on the clock.

If you visit

Stand at this monument and look for the lay of the land — the ridges, the open fields, and especially the line of the railroad, whose cut nearby became a landmark of the first day's fighting. The marker names three places the regiment fought; if you have time, seek out the railroad cut and, later, Culp's Hill, and you can trace the regiment's ordeal across the battlefield in the order it happened.

The fields here are quiet now, kept much as they were, and that quiet is part of what makes them moving. It takes an act of imagination to fill them with smoke and noise and the shouted orders of a July morning — but the open ground makes that imagining easier than you might expect.

This is a good place to begin thinking about the battle from the ground up, one regiment at a time, before the eye is drawn to the grander monuments elsewhere on the field. On a road trip through the region, let the first-day battlefield set the scene; it's where the story of Gettysburg opens.

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 events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

Nearby & related markers

US General James Wadsworth

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument honors Brevet Major General James S. Wadsworth, who commanded the First Division of the First Corps at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, his troops — including the famous Iron Brigade — were among the first Union infantry to meet the Confederate advance west of town, buying precious hours with heavy losses before falling back through Gettysburg to the high ground beyond. A wealthy New Yorker who served without pay, Wadsworth was mortally wounded in Virginia the following year.

Civil War

16th ME Tilden(c) / Marston

Cumberland Township, PA

This marker tells the hard story of the 16th Maine Infantry on July 1, 1863. Ordered to hold a position at all costs to cover the retreat of the rest of the First Corps, the small regiment was overwhelmed and its commander, Colonel Charles W. Tilden, was captured along with most of the survivors; command of what remained passed to a captain. The 16th Maine's sacrifice is one of the battle's most poignant examples of a unit spent almost to nothing so that a larger force could escape.

Civil War

US HQ 1-2nd Division Robinson

Cumberland Township, PA

This tablet marks the headquarters of the Second Division, First Corps, Army of the Potomac, under Brigadier General John C. Robinson, and lists the brigade commanders — including Gabriel Paul and Henry Baxter — who led its regiments at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, this division anchored the Union defense north and west of town, and several of the officers named here were wounded in the desperate fighting. The rapid succession of names on the stone hints at how heavily the leadership was thinned that day.

Civil War

US General John C. Robinson

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument honors Brevet Major General John C. Robinson, who commanded the Second Division of the First Corps at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, his division held the Union right north and west of town against mounting Confederate pressure, staging a stubborn defense — and a costly fighting withdrawal — that helped keep the army intact for the days ahead. A career soldier, Robinson later lost a leg in Virginia and received the Medal of Honor.

Civil War