American Civil War Monuments: 

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Brunswick, Maine

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Brevet Major General, 20^th Maine, four time Governor of Maine and President of Bowdoin College. Buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Brunswick, Maine. Participated in the Battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Five Forks. Wounded 6 times, Chamberlain had as many as 6 horses shot out from under him and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg. 

Photos courtesy of LCWRT member Monty Evans

American Civil War Monuments: 

James Longstreet Equestrian Statue

West Confederate Avenue, Pitzer’s Woods

Gettysburg National Military Park

 

Photo and text by LCWRT Member Charles Moore

The monument was commissioned by the North Carolina Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and sculpted by Gary Casteel.  It was dedicated on July 3, 1998.

It is a bronze sculpture of Gen. James Longstreet astride his horse Hero.  This is the only equestrian monument at Gettysburg which does not have a pedestal.  The sculptor, Gary Casteel, states on his web site, “The monument was erected without a pedestal to become not less heroic, but more approachable by those who visit Lee’s lieutenant.”  The tablet beside the monument reads: “Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Commanding First Corps Army of Northern Virginia. Soldiers of Gen. Longstreet’s command held and protected the right wing of the army July 2-4, 1863.  His First Corps attacked and dislodged Union forces at the Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard, on July 2.  As a portion of his infantry secured the Peach Orchard, Gen. Longstreet advanced on horseback with them.  The following day Gen. Longstreet was ordered by Gen. Robert E. Lee to coordinate an attack on the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. On July 3, “Longstreet’s Assault” was repulsed with great loss after penetrating the enemy’s battle line on Cemetery Ridge.  During the march back to Virginia, Gen. Longstreet and his First Corps played a prominent role in protecting the retreating army.

American Civil War Battlefields: 
Bolivar Heights
Harpers Ferry, W VA

                                   Photo Courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell 

Bolivar Heights, where fighting occurred throughout the Civil War, was the site of 5 battles:  
Oct 16, 1861, Thomas Ashby vs.  John Geary, May 30, 1862, Stonewall Jackson  vs.  Rufus Saxton, September 12 - 15, when  Jackson ‘s men forced the surrender of 12,700 Union troops, June of 1863,  Lee’s advance toward Gettysburg, and last in July 1864 when Jubal Early  invaded the North.  

Photo Courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell 

Bolivar Heights was also used as an encampment by the CSA in 1861,  US forces in 1862 after Antietam and in 1864 by Phil Sheridan as a huge temporary corral for mules and wagons during his Shenandoah Campaign. 

American Civil War Monuments: 
54th Massachusetts Monument
Boston Commons

Photo and text Ccourtesy of LCWRT Member Charles Moore Jr.

The Monument to the 54th Massachusetts Regiment was designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and was unveiled on Memorial Day 1897.  The monument  honors Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and members of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment who died in the assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, July 18th, 1863.  The 54th was the first regiment of black volunteers from the North to fight in the Civil War.  On the back of the monument are inscribed the names of the members of the 54th who died with Colonel Shaw at Fort Wagner.  The 54th suffered 45% casualties in the assault of which 54 were killed, 179 wounded and 48 unaccounted for. The 54th has been immortalized in the 1989 movie “Glory” for which Denzel Washington won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

American Civil War Monuments:

Antietam National Battlefield Park

New York State

Photo courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell

Constructed at a coat of $30,000 and dedicated in 1919, it is 58’ high. The New York State Monument honors the 67 Regiments of Infantry, 5 of Cavalry, 14 Artillery Batteries and 2 Regiments of Engineers from New York that fought on this ground.   NY casualties at Antietam were 3765, with 689 killed or mortally wounded, 2797 wounded, and 279 captured or missing.  New York provided approximately one quarter of the Union Army at Antietam. In this view, the Maryland State Monument is to the left. 

Part 8 of a Series: Our Civil War Ancestors

Thomas Ignatius Hite 
Pvt. 4th KY Infantry ( CSA)

Photo and text courtesy of LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans

Hite was born  Jan. 30,1841, in Union County, Kentucky. He enlisted in 1861 in Col. Trabue’s Regiment, the 4th Kentucky Infantry CSA, as a  private in Co. C commanded by Capt. Miles Fitz Henry. Later he was enrolled in the 1st KY Cavalry under Capt. Bennett. He was honorably discharged in Feb.1862 due to deafness from typhoid fever.  He married Margaret (Maggie) Millet on Nov. 3, 1863 at St. Louis Catholic Church in Henderson, Kentucky and they had 10 children. Hite received a pension from the State of Kentucky in Dec. of 1912. T.I. Hite died on Nov. 27, 1913 in Morganfield,  Kentucky and is buried at St. Ann’s Cemetery, Morganfield.  

American Civil War Monuments: 

9th Army Corps
September 14, 1862
Reno
Fox’s Gap, South Mountain Battlefield
Boonsboro MD.

“This monument marks the spot where Maj. General Jesse Lee Reno commanding the 9th Army Corps U.S. Vols. was killed in battle Sept. 14, 1862"
Erected by veterans of the 9th Army Corps, Sept 14, 1889

both photos courtesy of LCWRT Member Paul Fridell

Coming Oct. 8, 2016: 

Dr. Ethan Rafuse will present:

 "A Sucking Dove, the Snapping Turtle, and a Deep Game: George Gordon Meade and the Fall 1863 Campaigns in Virginia"

Ethan S. Rafuse is a professor at the U.S. Army Command General Staff College. He grew up in northern Virginia, received his BA and MA degrees in history at George Mason University, and received his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Since 2004 he has been a member of the faculty at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, where he is a professor of history. He has published over 300 articles, essays, and reviews, and is the author, editor, or co-editor of eleven books, including George Gordon Meade and the War in the East, Robert E. Lee and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1863-1865, and the Guide to the Richmond and Petersburg Campaigns of 1864-65. He taught Civil War and military history at the U.S. Military Academy in 2001-2003. He lives with his wife and daughter in Platte City, Missouri. 

George Gordon Meade and the Fall of 1863 Campaigns in Virginia 

In the aftermath of his failed 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania, Robert E. Lee was convinced it would have at least one major benefit for his army. The damage the fighting at Gettysburg had inflicted on George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac, he believed, would render that force "quiet as a sucking dove" for at least six months. Lee was wrong. The "snapping turtle" and he would conduct a robust series of operations during the months that followed the armies' return to the Rappahannock-Rapidan line after Gettysburg. The subject of this talk will be Meade and what he labeled the "deep game" his Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia played during the fall of 1863 and the engagements they produced at Bristoe Station and Mine Run. While none of these matched the scale or deadly grandeur of Antietam, Gettysburg, or the Wilderness, they did offered compelling illustrations of the larger dynamics that shaped the course and outcome of the war in the East. Indeed, it was testimony to what the Union commander achieved in those operations that by the end of 1863 Lee was openly wondering if he had become "too old to command this army."