Civil War

Williamsburg, KY · est. 1964

Julia Marcum was a Tennessee teenager when the Civil War tore through the border country, and her family's home served as a way station for Southern Unionists heading north to join the Union army. Defending that home against marauders, she was badly wounded and lost an eye, and her Unionist father was killed in action before the family resettled in Kentucky. In 1884 a special Act of Congress granted her a pension as the only woman recognized as a combatant, and she was buried with military honors in 1936 at age 91.

San Antonio, TX

In the tense spring of 1861, six companies of the 8th U.S. Infantry marched east from far West Texas, the last federal troops in the state still armed after Twiggs's surrender of army property to Texas forces. Near San Lucas Spring, Confederate Colonel Earl Van Dorn massed 1,300 men and six cannon against Lt. Col. Reeve's footsore column of 270. After three flags of truce and no gunfire, Van Dorn persuaded the Union officers to inspect his strength and surrender peaceably, ending the encounter without a single shot.

Neylandville, TX

This marker honors Thomas N. Waul (1813–1903), a South Carolina–born Texas planter and lawyer who sat in the first Confederate Congress before taking the field. He raised and commanded Waul's Texas Legion, was captured at Vicksburg, and after exchange was made a brigadier general, leading his brigade at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins' Ferry, then serving in Texas's first Reconstruction convention. The State of Texas erected the memorial in 1963 to Texans who served the Confederacy.

Chesapeake, VA

These famous lines come from "Home, Sweet Home," written by the American actor and playwright John Howard Payne for the 1823 opera "Clari, or the Maid of Milan." Set to music by Henry Bishop, the sentimental ballad became one of the most beloved songs of the 19th century, sung in parlors across the country and especially cherished by soldiers on both sides during the Civil War. Payne himself, ironically, spent much of his life as a wandering expatriate and died abroad while serving as a U.S. consul. This marker enshrines the song's enduring message that no place rivals the comfort of home.

Logansport, IN

Placed in 1936 by the Mary E. Miller Tent No. 34, Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, this memorial honors the fathers who served the Union during the war of 1861–1865. Groups like the Daughters of Union Veterans kept the memory of that generation alive well into the twentieth century, raising monuments in courthouse squares and parks across the North. Logansport, in north-central Indiana, sent many of its men into Union ranks.

Towson, MD

This monument speaks in the quiet, elegiac language of American memorial tradition, dedicating itself "to our absent brothers" — the comrades who did not return. Such stones were raised across the country in the decades after the nation's wars, when veterans' groups and communities gathered to fix in granite the memory of men lost far from home. Standing in Towson, the Baltimore County seat, the marker turns a public square into a place of remembrance, where a passerby is asked to pause for the missing.

Comfort, TX

Erected in 1866, this German-language monument—"Loyalty to the Union"—honors 68 mostly German settlers of the Hill Country who remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War. Fleeing toward Mexico, many were killed by Confederates at the Battle of the Nueces in 1862 and a later fight; their remains were gathered and buried here in 1865.

Cumberland Township, PA

This granite monument stands on the fields south of Gettysburg, where in early July 1863 the Army of the Potomac's Second Corps held the long spine of Cemetery Ridge against Robert E. Lee's invading army. The 106th Pennsylvania Infantry served in the storied Philadelphia Brigade, one of the units that anchored the Union center during the three days of fighting that turned back the Confederacy's deepest thrust into the North. Decades later, Pennsylvania's surviving veterans returned to mark the exact ground their regiments had held, planting stone monuments like this one across the battlefield. The unit designations carved here — brigade, division, and corps — are the veterans' own shorthand for where they stood when the war reached its turning point.

Cumberland Township, PA

Dedicated by the surviving members of the regiment to their fallen comrades, this Ohio monument honors the 107th Ohio Infantry of the Second Brigade, First Division, Eleventh Corps at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the regiment — largely made up of German-American volunteers — fought on the northern edge of the battlefield, where the division under Barlow and Ames was overwhelmed and driven back into town. The inscription, "Ohio's Token of Gratitude," speaks in the voice of the veterans who returned to mark where their friends had died.

Cumberland Township, PA

The 108th New York Infantry, raised largely around Rochester and known as the 'Rochester Regiment,' held this ground on July 2 and 3, 1863, supporting Battery I of the 1st U.S. Artillery near the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. On the afternoon of July 3 the position endured the massive Confederate bombardment that preceded Pickett's Charge — one of the greatest artillery duels of the war — pinned down and unable to reply. Their steadiness under that fire helped hold the line at the battle's climax.

Straban Township, PA

East of Gettysburg this marker notes where the 10th New York Cavalry — nicknamed the "Porter Guard" — was engaged on the afternoon and evening of July 2nd, 1863. As part of the Cavalry Corps' Second Division, the regiment operated on the army's flank, the kind of screening and skirmishing that kept commanders informed and protected the infantry's vulnerable edges. The fighting around Gettysburg raged for three days before Lee's army withdrew back toward Virginia.

Frederick County, MD

In the summer heat of the Civil War, Confederate forces pushed north through Maryland in a bold drive aimed at the lightly defended Union capital. Along the Monocacy River outside Frederick, outnumbered Union troops—among them the 10th Vermont Infantry—made a hard stand to slow that advance. Though the defenders were eventually forced from the field, the day they bought gave Washington time to rush reinforcements into its fortifications. Vermont later raised this monument to mark exactly where its sons stood in the fighting.

Spotsylvania County, VA

This granite marker stands on the Chancellorsville battlefield in Spotsylvania County, where on May 3, 1863, Union and Confederate forces clashed in some of the fiercest fighting of the Civil War. The 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers — better known as Collis's Zouaves for their colorful French-inspired uniforms — held this line as the battle reached its bloody climax. The monument names the three officers and thirty-five enlisted men who fell here that single day, preserving their sacrifice on the very ground where they stood.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument honors the 119th New York Infantry, part of the Second Brigade, Third Division of the Eleventh Corps, at its position on July 1, 1863 — the opening day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The regiment was among the Union troops posted on the open plain north of town who met the Confederate advance head-on before being forced back through the streets to Cemetery Hill. The date carved here fixes the moment when the fighting on this ground was fiercest.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument traces the movements of the 147th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Battle of Gettysburg. On the night of July 1, 1863, the regiment lay on the northern slope of Little Round Top, holding the extreme left of the Union army; before dawn on July 2 it marched to Culp's Hill, waited in reserve, and then moved back toward the left with its brigade as the fighting spread. The marker records the regiment's shifting role across the battlefield's second day.

Cumberland Township, PA

During the second and third days at Gettysburg, the William Bliss farm sat in the deadly open ground between the two armies, its sturdy barn a nest for Confederate sharpshooters who harassed the Union line. On the morning of July 3, 1863, men of the 14th Connecticut Volunteers seized the buildings and, on orders from their division commander, burned both barn and house so they could no longer shelter enemy marksmen. The field was cleared only hours before Pickett's Charge swept toward the Union center nearby.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks the most advanced westward line held by the 150th Pennsylvania Infantry on July 1, 1863, near the unfinished railroad cut on the fields northwest of Gettysburg. As Confederate assaults came from both the north and the west, the regiment repeatedly changed front and its right wing charged toward the cut, fighting a series of stubborn stands even as it was slowly driven back toward town. It was combat of the most exhausting kind — men wheeling to face attacks from two directions at once.

Spotsylvania County, VA

On the evening of May 2, 1863, Stonewall Jackson's surprise flank attack rolled up the Union 11th Corps near Chancellorsville. The 154th New York — nicknamed "The Hardtack Regiment" — was among the units thrown into the breach, helping anchor the hastily formed Buschbeck Line near Dowdall's Tavern as the Confederate assault crashed through the Federal right. Their stand bought precious time even as the larger battle turned into one of Robert E. Lee's most celebrated victories. This monument honors the New Yorkers who held that fragile line in the gathering dusk.

Cumberland Township, PA

Erected by its own survivors, this monument remembers the men of the 157th New York Volunteers who fell at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. That day the regiment was thrown into the fighting north of town, where it was caught in a punishing crossfire and suffered severe losses in a matter of minutes before the Union line gave way. Veterans returning years later raised this stone to the comrades who did not come home.

Spotsylvania County, VA

This monument honors the 15th New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Regiment, a Union unit that fought in the dense, fire-swept woods of Spotsylvania County during the Civil War. Though the inscription marks action on May 3rd, the regiment became famous for the savage close-quarters fighting around the "Bloody Angle" at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House in May 1864, where Federal and Confederate troops grappled hand-to-hand for nearly a full day. Led for much of its service by Colonel William H. Penrose, the regiment suffered some of the heaviest losses of any New Jersey unit in the war.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks where the 15th New York Independent Battery of Light Artillery went into action on July 3, 1863, the climactic day at Gettysburg. Ordered early to the front and posted on the left of the 5th Massachusetts Battery, the New Yorkers were directed by Major General Winfield Scott Hancock to open on the Confederate guns with solid shot and shell. Their fire helped answer the great artillery bombardment that preceded Pickett's Charge.

Corsicana, TX

When the Civil War came, Navarro County raised its own fighting men, including Companies E and G of the 15th Texas Infantry, mustered in 1862 under Captains Joshua Long Halbert and Clinton Fouty. Assigned to the Trans-Mississippi theater, they fought across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Indian Territory, seeing hard combat at Bayou Bourbeau and through the Red River Campaign at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Mansura, and Yellow Bayou. The survivors began the long journey home in early 1865 and were discharged that spring.

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.

Houston, TX

In 1840 the young City of Houston bought five acres from the Allen brothers to create its first municipal cemetery, then divided it by ordinance into a potter's field, a segregated "negroes burying ground," a commons, and family plots sold to the highest bidder. For some forty years it was the city's only cemetery, receiving citizens of the Republic of Texas, Civil War veterans, and victims of Houston's recurring yellow fever epidemics. Later neglected and built over by Jefferson Davis Hospital in 1924, it still holds thousands of graves though almost nothing marks them above ground.

Somerville, TX

Hood's Texas Brigade was among the most celebrated Confederate commands, and after the Civil War its survivors kept a bond that outlasted the fighting. In June 1906 the little town of Somerville hosted the brigade association's annual reunion, honoring 74 aging veterans with speeches, a baseball game, and a grand ball across two summer days. Organized locally by R. A. Brantley, Sr. and his daughter, it was one link in a chain of reunions that continued until 1934.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks the ground held by the 1st Delaware Volunteer Infantry on July 2 and 3, 1863, as part of the Second Corps line along Cemetery Ridge. That ridge was the anchor of the Union defense and, on the battle's final day, the focus of the massive Confederate assault remembered as Pickett's Charge. Delaware, a small border state that remained loyal to the Union, sent this regiment into the very center of that stand.

Gettysburg, PA

This monument honors Battery I, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, famously led by Captain Hubert Dilger, a German-born professional gunner nicknamed "Leatherbreeches." As part of the Eleventh Corps' artillery, Dilger's guns were in action on all three days of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863, and won particular praise for their steady, accurate fire covering the Union retreat through the town on the first day. The State of Ohio erected the marker with the battery's motto, "Fidus et Audax" — faithful and bold.

Cumberland Township, PA

This tablet marks the position taken on July 3, 1863, by Battery K, 1st U.S. Artillery, on the southern end of the Gettysburg battlefield. Fighting alongside Union cavalry, the battery supported the attacks of the brigades of Brigadier Generals Elon J. Farnsworth and Wesley Merritt against the Confederate right flank in the closing hours of the battle.

Cumberland Township, PA

On the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, the regular-army horsemen of the 1st U.S. Cavalry rode up from Emmitsburg as part of Brigadier General Wesley Merritt's Reserve Brigade. On the fields south of town they pressed the Confederate right and rear for roughly four hours until a drenching summer downpour finally broke off the fighting. This tablet in Cumberland Township marks the regiment's share in the mounted action that helped guard the Union flank.

Cumberland Township, PA

In the sprawling cavalry fighting of the Gettysburg campaign, the 1st Vermont Cavalry skirmished with Confederate horsemen at Hanover and Hunterstown before the climactic third day. On July 3, 1863, led by the young Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth, the regiment charged across broken, rocky ground on the Union left — where Farnsworth was killed. The action is remembered as one of the war's costly and much-debated mounted charges.

Cumberland Township, PA

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.

Cumberland Township, PA

On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the 20th Maine held the far left flank of the entire Union line on the rocky slope of Little Round Top. Running low on ammunition against repeated assaults from Longstreet's Confederates, the regiment's commander ordered a downhill bayonet charge that swept the attackers back and took hundreds of prisoners. This monument marks the ground where that stand unfolded, at the very hinge of the Federal position.

Cumberland Township, PA

On the evening of July 2, 1863, the far left of the Union line at Gettysburg rested on the 20th Maine and its former-college-professor colonel, Joshua L. Chamberlain. Ordered to hold the ground at any cost, the regiment beat back repeated assaults and, with ammunition nearly gone, swept forward to clear its front. The stand on the rocky slope became one of the most storied small-unit actions of the Civil War.

Spotsylvania County, VA

In the spring of 1863, the Army of the Potomac's Chancellorsville Campaign spilled across the wooded country of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. On May 3rd, Union troops attempting to push west from Fredericksburg ran into stiff Confederate resistance at Salem Church, where the fighting was close and costly. The 23rd New Jersey Volunteer Infantry — a nine-month regiment mustered for short-term service — was among the Federal units thrown into that bloody engagement, and this monument honors the men who fought and fell there.

Gettysburg, PA

This monument commemorates the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment, which reached Gettysburg on June 25, 1863, ahead of the Army of the Potomac. On the morning of June 26 it marched out the Chambersburg Pike and met the Confederate column at Marsh Creek, only to be overwhelmed and forced to withdraw that afternoon. These green emergency troops were among the first to oppose the Confederate advance into the town.

Cumberland Township, PA

This marker recalls where the newly raised 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment briefly camped and skirmished with Confederate forces on June 26, 1863, days before the Battle of Gettysburg. Made up largely of untested emergency volunteers, the regiment encountered General John B. Gordon's advancing brigade and was quickly pushed aside. It captures the anxious opening moments of the Gettysburg Campaign, when Pennsylvania scrambled to meet the invading army.

Cumberland Township, PA

This battlefield monument traces the movements of a Pennsylvania regiment through the second day at Gettysburg, from a position near the ridges to the wooded heights of Culp's Hill and the banks of Rock Creek. Culp's Hill anchored the right of the Union 'fishhook' line, and the fighting there — often overshadowed by Little Round Top and Pickett's Charge — was ferocious and essential. Markers like this, placed by veterans decades later, recorded exactly where men stood, hour by hour.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks the ground held by the 29th Ohio Infantry, commanded at Gettysburg by Captain Edward Hayes with J. B. Storer as adjutant. Part of the Twelfth Corps on the Union right, the regiment shifted among several positions in this vicinity on July 2 and 3, 1863 — at times in the entrenchments and at times held in reserve — during the struggle around Culp's Hill. Ohio placed the marker to record exactly where its soldiers served.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument records the position of the 29th Pennsylvania Infantry on July 2, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg. Withdrawn with its brigade at 7 p.m., the regiment returned in the night to find Confederate troops had seized the works it had left, and it took up a new line to the rear — part of the seesaw struggle for the Union entrenchments on Culp's Hill. The tablet's reference to a nearby marker shows how precisely Gettysburg's monuments map each unit's ground.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks the position of Batteries B and L of the 2nd United States Artillery, horse artillery attached to the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Gettysburg. Armed with six 3-inch ordnance rifles under Lieutenant Edward Heaton, the combined battery provided the mobile firepower that supported Union cavalry operations in July 1863. Horse artillery like this could gallop into position and unlimber alongside fast-moving mounted troops.

Cumberland Township, PA

This marker stands on the Gettysburg battlefield, where in July 1863 the Army of the Potomac turned back Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North in the bloodiest battle ever fought in America. It records the position of Batteries B and L of the 2nd United States Artillery — horse artillery attached to the Cavalry Corps, armed with six 3-inch ordnance rifles under Lieutenant Edward Heaton. Mobile guns like these rode with the cavalry, unlimbering quickly to support fast-moving mounted operations on the army's flanks.

Cumberland Township, PA

On the Gettysburg battlefield, this marker notes the July 3rd, 1863 position of Battery D, 2nd United States Artillery, which arrived with its corps and took post along the Taneytown Road. That road was a vital artery running behind the Union line, and the batteries posted along it anchored the army's reserve artillery on the final, decisive day of the battle. It was on July 3rd that Lee launched Pickett's Charge and saw his invasion of the North broken.

Mount Pleasant Township, PA

This marker records the Gettysburg position of Battery M, 2nd United States Artillery — horse artillery of the Cavalry Corps' First Brigade, fielding six 3-inch rifles under Lieutenant A.C.M. Pennington. In July 1863 these fast, mobile guns rode with Union cavalry on the flanks of the battlefield, screening the army and dueling Confederate horsemen far from the main infantry lines. Pennington's battery became one of the better-known horse-artillery commands of the war.

Temple, TX

In the decades after Appomattox, Confederate veterans gathered to keep the memory of their service alive, and in 1906 the survivors of Hood's Texas Brigade held their 42nd reunion in Temple. The men met at the First Baptist Church, rode in one of Temple's first automobile parades, heard a memorial ceremony led by the brigade's original chaplain, and closed with a rousing chorus of 'Dixie.' Founded in 1872, the veterans' association held reunions until 1934.

Cumberland Township, PA

This granite monument stands on the Gettysburg battlefield, where in early July 1863 a North Carolina infantry regiment took its place in the largest battle ever fought on American soil. Its surviving inscription names two of the unit's commanders, Kenan and Lewis, and records that one of them fell wounded in the fighting—the notation marking the human cost behind a single regiment's action over three days. North Carolina erected the marker in 1988 as part of the state's effort to identify where its own units stood and bled during the campaign. The closing line, a tribute to men who gave everything the situation allowed, speaks to how later generations chose to remember them.

Hallettsville, TX

On New Year's Day 1863, Confederate forces under Gen. John B. Magruder retook the port of Galveston from Union occupiers in a combined land-and-water assault. Fifty years later, in 1914, the veterans and families of Lavaca County raised this monument to the local men who fought there and elsewhere in the Civil War. Its roll of names, from privates to generals, preserves the memory of a community's wartime service.

Mercersburg, PA · est. 2009

When the 54th Massachusetts formed in 1863 as one of the first Civil War combat units open to African American men, its ranks drew heavily on Pennsylvania — more than a fifth of the regiment, with Mercersburg sending more volunteers than any Commonwealth town but Philadelphia. The unit's courage under fire won grudging respect and helped open the door to broader Black enlistment. Of the 38 U.S. Colored Troops veterans buried in this community, 13 wore the 54th's uniform.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument honors the 54th New York Infantry, the "Hiram Barney Rifles," of the First Brigade, First Division, Eleventh Corps at Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, the regiment fought on the northern field as part of the division holding the Union right, taking part in the hard combat that ended in a fighting retreat through the town to Cemetery Hill. Like many Eleventh Corps regiments, it was raised in New York with a strongly German-immigrant character.

Shenandoah County, VA

This monument honors the soldiers of the 54th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry who died during the Civil War. Raised largely from the coal and mountain counties of central Pennsylvania, the regiment spent much of its service guarding the strategic Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and saw hard fighting in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, including the desperate engagement at New Market in May 1864. The Valley was a vital breadbasket and corridor of war, and its battles cost many such Pennsylvania volunteers their lives.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument tells the story of the 58th New York Infantry — the "Polish Legion" — whose two companies held this position north of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, before being ordered back to Cemetery Hill to rejoin the rest of the regiment. From that stronghold the reunited unit fought on through July 2 and 3, and after Pickett's Charge was repulsed it advanced as skirmishers back into the town. Raised in New York with a strongly immigrant, Central-European character, the regiment was part of Krzyzanowski's brigade in the Eleventh Corps.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks where four companies of the 59th New York Infantry held their ground at Gettysburg on July 2 and 3, 1863, amid the ferocious fighting along Cemetery Ridge. Their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Max A. Thoman, fell mortally wounded at the head of his men as the Union line absorbed and finally broke the Confederate assaults. The regiment's losses — six killed and twenty-eight wounded — are cut into the stone.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument honors the 5th Maine Battery — "Stevens' Battery" — of the First Corps, which fought here on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, and was also engaged north of the Seminary on the battle's opening day. Commanded by Captain Greenleaf T. Stevens until he was wounded, the battery is best remembered for its punishing fire from this knoll against Confederate attacks between Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Lieutenant Edward N. Whittier took command when Stevens fell.

Cumberland Township, PA

Battery F of the 5th U.S. Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant Leonard Martin, reached Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, and was first held in reserve. The next day it was brought forward to Ziegler's Grove, just behind the Union Second Corps line, as Longstreet's assault — Pickett's Charge — broke against Cemetery Ridge and was repulsed. Regular-army batteries like Martin's supplied the disciplined firepower that anchored the Union defense.

Cumberland Township, PA

This monument marks the movements of Battery I, 5th U.S. Artillery — Watson's Battery — on July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg. Arriving near Little Round Top in late afternoon, the battery advanced to the Peach Orchard and, as Confederate troops drove back the Union infantry, was forced to retire across Plum Run near the Trostle House while still firing. It records a Regular Army battery caught in the swirling fight for the Union left.

Cumberland Township, PA

On July 3, 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the regular-army troopers of the 5th U.S. Cavalry moved north from Emmitsburg with Brigadier General Wesley Merritt's Reserve Brigade and struck at the Confederate right and rear. The fighting rolled on for about four hours across the fields south of town until a heavy rain brought it to a close. This tablet in Cumberland Township records the regiment's role in that mounted engagement.

Cumberland Township, PA

On July 3, 1863, the 5th Wisconsin Infantry shifted to this point to meet a threatened attack on the Union flank, then hurried back in the afternoon to help repel the assault on the center before taking position on the crest of Big Round Top. The regiment's crisscrossing marches reflect the fluid, desperate maneuvering of Gettysburg's third day, as commanders shuttled units to wherever the line was most in danger. Big Round Top, the higher of the two rocky hills anchoring the Union left, loomed over the southern end of the battlefield.

Gettysburg, PA

Erected by the State of Ohio, this monument honors the 61st Ohio Infantry, which served in the Third Division of the Eleventh Corps during the three days of Gettysburg, July 1–3, 1863. The regiment took its place in the hard-pressed Union line north of town on the first day, part of the force that absorbed the Confederate assault before falling back to Cemetery Hill. Ohio placed monuments like this one across the battlefield to mark where its sons stood and fell.

Mount Joy Township, PA

This tablet marks where the 61st Pennsylvania Infantry stood at Gettysburg, the July 1863 clash that halted Lee's invasion of the North. After a grueling 37-mile forced march, the regiment reached the field late on July 2nd as part of the 6th Corps — the army's largest reserve — and held this position through the close of battle on July 3rd. Such rapid marches by fresh troops were exactly what let the Union army mass overwhelming strength at the decisive moment.

Cumberland Township, PA

This stone marks the position of the 69th Pennsylvania Volunteers on July 2 and 3, 1863, at the very center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. On the afternoon of the 2nd they helped repulse a determined assault by Wright's Georgia Brigade, and the next day they stood at the stone wall that became the focal point of Pickett's Charge. The regiment held ground that helped decide the battle.

Cumberland Township, PA

Companies E and I of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry — famous as "Rush's Lancers," the Union army's lance-carrying troopers — served in the Reserve Brigade of the Cavalry Corps at Gettysburg. Rather than charging in the fighting, these companies were detailed as the personal escort to Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac. Survivors of the regiment later raised this monument to mark their place at the great battle.