When the Monument Tells a Story
The 93rd Pennsylvania Volunteers
When you walk the battlefield alone or with family and friends, your meandering can bring you to stories that must be told. One August evening, I set out walking along Sedgwick Avenue after parking near the monument to the New Jersey Brigade. I was utterly alone, and suddenly a doe came bounding out of the forest. When she saw me, she stopped and simply stared, as if wondering whether I could be friend or foe. A passing car drove her back into the forest, and as I walked by I was able to catch a glimpse of her through the trees. From this part of Sedgwick Avenue, one can see Devil's Den and Little Round Top in the distance. Sedgwick Avenue is a one way road, and I was walking against the traffic. Of course while I was there, I only saw four or five cars pass by. On one side is the forest, and opposite, a meadow. After reading the markers by the forest, I crossed to a grass covered knoll. In the evening calm, the grasses were still, and I followed a mown path and was soon surrounded by grass that was almost as tall as I. It was in that sea of grass that I found a monument that fascinated me: the second monument to the
93rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment, composed of men from central Pennsylvania.
I was struck by the vivid blue tile, which I knew indicated members of the third division,
(see July 26 post) and the Greek cross, the insignia of the
Sixth Corps, commanded by
Major General John Sedgwick. This monument to the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, 93rd Infantry seems very personal to me. It was erected, according to the inscription, by the survivors of the regiment, on October 30, 1864. At about 6 and one half feet tall, this granite shaft is neither imposing nor, well, monumental. It seems heartfelt, and intended to commemorate the bravery of those who survived as well as those who died. I had to learn their story, and find out what brought these men to this place. What I found is that this regiment, like all the Union regiments who fought for union and freedom, had been challenged at Gettysburg, and had risen to meet that challenge. I was spell-bound by the first-person accounts in
Red, White, and Blue Badge, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, A History of the 93rd Regiment, written by Penrose G. Mark that tell the tale of all the battles of this regiment, and also of the installment of this monument. Like all first person accounts, they are at times hard to follow, with digressions, time-lapses, and anecdotal side-trips, but they capture the heart of this regiment.
July 1 found the Sixth Corps at Manchester Maryland, some 37 miles from Gettysburg. Oliver Howard rode in from Gettysburg, bringing orders to Sedgwick that the Sixth Corps was urgently needed at Gettysburg. The men were marching on foot, and were needed by the afternoon of July 2. Here, the account offers what transpired:
Col. McCarter, (who was a minister) though an invalid, the genius of eloquence had touched
his lips and bade them speak. His rostrum was a war steed ; the silence was
profound and painful, not a foot rose or fell, breathing seemed suspended,
and nature appeared as awe-struck at the sublimity of the scene, stood
silent, solemn, listening. He who was to interpret and give tongue to
this tremendous silence, began in tones low and tremulous, his voice ac-
quiring force and volume as he proceeded , rang out on the evening air solemn
and sepulchral as a trumpet from the skies, as if God had re-commissioned
the immortal Moses to re-inflame the serried hosts of the Lord God about
to march to the valley of decision for the dread battle of Armageddon.
"My countrymen, comrades in arms, Pennsylvanians; The destroyer has come;
fell treason's foul foot has polluted the soil dedicated forever sacred to freedom.
Northern hearthstones are threatened; the chains of slavery are clanking and they
are forging fetters to crush your patriotic spirit — the issue is joined, the stupendous
conflict has commenced. Interests vast as a world, termless as time, are at a venture.
Catch the spirit of Washington, emulate his illustrious
example; he never drew his sword but upon his country's enemy; he never
sheathed it while his country contained an enemy. Soldiers, we have met before
in the shock of battle, where destruction reveled and death danced at a festal scene.
Again we go! should you fall, the spot -will be forever sacred to freedom and a
monument immortal as the ages shall arise to your memory. A nation will be your
mourners, the liberty-loving tongue and tribe, class and kindred, will tender you
the tribute of a tear. "Let US forward then."
This speech heartened the men who then set off.
"That hot, dry, dusty, moonlit night of July 1 presented a scene of weird, almost
spectral Impressiveness. The roads to the south and southeast of the town flowed
with unceasing, unbroken rivers of armed men, marching swiftly, stolidly, silently.
Their garments were covered with dust, and their gun barrels gleamed with a fierce
brilliance in the bright moonlight. The striking silence of the march, the dust-gray
figures, the witchery of the moonbeams, made it seem spectral and awesome. No drum
beat, no trumpet blared, no harsh command broke the monotonous stillness of the
steady surge forward,
"That they were masses of men was lost sight of in the sensation of a mighty
force rolling forward with the resistless impulse of waves of the ocean.
"Two years of hard service and the hard pace of 200 miles from the Rappahannock
had fined the regiments down until they scarcely averaged 200 men apiece. But these
were the kernel of the 1,000 men first enrolled, and to follow their colors had become
their chief instinct, The regiment was all their being, and they merely parts of it.
"From the fields along the road came the soughs and drones of full-fed cattle lying in
the rich pastures, the tinkle of a bell as a cow moved uneasily, the mournful call
of the whip-poor-will, the chirp of crickets, the buzz of night-flying insects. Thousands
of ears heard these sounds of the night that a few hours later would hear nothing more
until the Last Trump.
"Reaching their assigned places, the weary men stacked their guns, and with a
brief glance at the sanguinary field of the day's fight threw themselves upon the
hot ground and were soon asleep. Their minds were as weary as their bodies. Every
day since they had left the Rappahannock had been tense with expectations of battle.
They were ready for It whenever It should come, and they cared not how soon it
did come.
Sedgwick complained that his men were so dispersed that he had no one left to command. Various brigades and regiments of the Sixth Corps were pressed into service as reinforcements and replacements, and were in place all along the fishhook line of the Union troops. But they has arrived just in time to help repel a new attack by the
Army of Northern Virginia, according to some accounts.
Samuel Bates, who also wrote a history of the 93rd regiment, described the fighting on the afternoon of July 2.
At two P. M. the regiment arrived
at Rock Creek, by the Baltimore Pike, just in rear of the line of battle at the
Cemetery. At three, General Sedgwick was ordered to send a brigade to the
support of the Third and Fifth Corps, then hard
pressed on the left. Wheaton's
Brigade was ordered to the Ninety-third being in
advance, (the first regiment of the Sixth Corps to get into action,) Major Nevin in command. General Sedgwick in person led the
brigade, and formed it on the brow of a low, rocky knoll, covered with
scattering trees, just to the right of Little Round Top, the left of the
brigade joining with the Pennsylvania Reserves. It got into position just as
the troops which had been contesting the ground in the open fields along the Emittsburg Pike, broken, and almost annihilated, were
coming back in disorder, followed by the exultant enemy. The command was ordered to lie down, and to withhold its fire
until the enemy was close upon it. Had this command been heeded the whole rebel
line could easily have been captured. But impatience got the better of
obedience and discretion, and a premature fire was opened from a part of the
line, which checked his advance, and caused him to be wary. Further attempts at
concealment being useless, the whole brigade advanced, and after a short
contest the rebel line was driven in tumult. In this charge the Ninety-third
took twenty-five prisoners.
Just before nightfall the
Ninety-third was ordered forward in conjunction with a regiment of the Reserve
Corps, to re-take a battery which had been lost in the early part of the day.
But it was soon discovered that the guns had been removed, and it returned to its
place on the right of the brigade. At night the men slept for a few hours in
line of battle, but spent the greater part in removing the wounded who strewed
the fields in front. Since eight pm. of the evening previous it had marched thirty-nine miles,
had fought three hours, and passed an almost sleepless night without food.
The 4th of July was celebrated at
the front, the regiment being ordered upon the skirmish line on the extreme
left, where it suffered some loss. At two in the afternoon it was relieved, and
thus ended its part in the battle. The loss was eight killed and twenty-one
wounded.
So this modest monument, blazing the blue cross of the Third Division, Sixth
Corps, reminds us of their role in the battle. Writing about Gettysburg, Penrose Marks stated:
Centuries may pass and new generations populate our land ; yet the name
of Gettysburg will not fail to call before memory the heroic deeds enacted
there. Its deeds of valor are not chanted in undying epic or immortal
poems, yet beside Thermopylae and Marathon, Waterloo and Balaclava,
stands the name of Gettysburg.
And I tell myself that it is the vibrant simplicity of the monument that
compelled me to research the story of the Pennsylvania 93rd. It was. It was that alone, and not the
inexplicable rustling behind me in that sea of grass. That rustling that made
me turn to comment to someone, a person just behind me, moving in the grass,
only to find that there was no one there.
If you go:
Sedgwick Avenue is located in the same section of the battlefield as
Devil's Den and
Little Round Top, an area south of Gettysburg which can be accessed from the Emittsburg Road or the Baltimore Pike. If you are driving in on
Wheatfield Road from the
Emittsburg Road (Steinwehr Avenue in town), turn left onto Sedgwick Avenue, which is a one way road. However, if you are also visiting Little Round Top, then follow Sykes Avenue which becomes Sedgwick Avenue. Along the avenue, you will also find Sedgwick's statue, monuments to the Fifth Maine Infantry, the First New York Light Artillery, the 37th Massachusetts Infantry, and the New Jersey Brigade. The
George Weikert Farm is at the point where Sedgwick Avenue meets United States Avenue and Slocum Avenue. This farm, which was used as a field hospital during the battle, lies at the end of the rocky meadow in which the monument to the 93rd Pennsylvania is located.
