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Civil War

US 2-3-3 Willard’s Brigade - Colonel George Willard KIA

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Colonel Eliakim Sherrill of the 126th New York Infantry took over the brigade until he, too, was killed the following day during Pickett’s Charge. In the words of their commander, General Hays, “The history of this brigade’s operations is written in blood… transcription continues on the marker

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The Story

On the fields south of Gettysburg in early July 1863, this brigade of New York infantry was fed into the fighting that decided the battle's second and third days. Its first commander, Colonel George Willard, was killed on July 2; command then passed to Colonel Eliakim Sherrill of the 126th New York, who fell the following day as Union lines held against Pickett's Charge. Their division commander, General Alexander Hays, summed up the unit's cost in a single grim line about a history 'written in blood.'

Why it matters

Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War, and markers like this trace its human cost one brigade and one fallen commander at a time.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the first days of July 1863, the fields and ridges south of Gettysburg became the meeting place of two great armies. After a year of fighting that had largely stayed farther south, a Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania forced a showdown here, and for three days the Union army fought to hold a line of high ground against repeated assaults.

Cumberland Township holds much of that ground. It was here, along the low ridges and open fields, that Union infantry brigades were fed into the fight at the moments of greatest crisis — first to blunt Confederate attacks on July 2, then to stand against the climactic assault on July 3.

The men remembered by this marker were New Yorkers, part of the volunteer regiments that made up the bulk of the Union army. They arrived at Gettysburg carrying a hard reputation, and they left it having paid one of the steepest prices on the field.

People & events

The brigade's first commander was Colonel George Willard, who led his New York regiments into the fighting on July 2 as Confederate attacks threatened to break the Union line. Willard was killed that day, at the head of his men.

Command then passed to Colonel Eliakim Sherrill of the 126th New York Infantry. A day later, on July 3, Sherrill's men stood in the path of the massive Confederate assault remembered as Pickett's Charge — and Sherrill, too, was killed as the Union line held.

Their division commander, General Alexander Hays, left the epitaph carved into memory here: that the history of this brigade's operations was "written in blood." Coming from the general who watched them fight and fall, it is less a boast than a plain accounting of what these regiments endured in two days — two commanders lost, one after the other, at the very center of the battle.

Its place in the American story

Gettysburg is often called the turning point of the Civil War, the place where the Confederate tide crested and began to recede. Pickett's Charge, which broke against the Union line on July 3, is the moment most associated with that turn.

This marker puts a human face on that abstraction. The repulse of the great assault was not achieved by a map or a strategy but by brigades like this one, holding their ground as their leaders fell around them. The cost of the "turning point" was counted in men like Willard and Sherrill.

That is why the Gettysburg fields are so thick with monuments and markers. Each one narrows the vast battle down to something a visitor can grasp: one brigade, one commander, one line that held — and the price it paid to hold it.

If you visit

The ground here rewards a walker's pace. Stand where these New York regiments stood and look out across the open fields toward the Confederate lines; the distance an attacking column had to cross, and the exposure of the men waiting to receive it, becomes vivid in a way no book conveys.

As you move through this part of the battlefield, notice how the monuments cluster along the ridges and low rises. Each marks where a specific unit fought, and this one asks you to remember a brigade that lost two commanders in as many days, at the hinge of the battle.

Give it a quiet moment before you drive on. Whether you have an afternoon or a full day at Gettysburg, a spot like this is a good place to trade the sweep of the battle for a single, human-sized story — and to let General Hays's grim line settle in as you look across the fields.

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

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Related people

  • · George Willard
  • · Eliakim Sherrill
  • · Alexander Hays

Related events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg
  • · Pickett's Charge

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

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