124th New York Regiment
Posted to the Project on 25 Jun 07
Today’s Gettysburg monument is one of my personal favorites on the battlefield: the monument to the 124th New York Infantry.
Located along Sickles Avenue near the “Triangular Field” at the upper part of Devil’s Den, this monument protrays the unit’s commanding officer, Colonel Augustus van Horne Ellis (1827-July 2, 1863). A sea captain with an interesting and varied past, Ellis was killed near where the staute now stands when a bullet slammed into his forehead.
The regiment itself was nicknamed “The Orange Blossoms” because they were recruited in Orange County. There were 279 men in the regiment at Gettysburg.
Interestingly, the full-length portrait staute of Colonel Ellis is the only such staute of a regimental commander at Gettysburg. This also was the first New York regimental monument on the battlefield.
Grateful citizens of Orange County raised most of the funds to erect the monument. Consisting of granite and bronze, it was dedicated on July 2, 1884. According to Frederick Hawthorne’s book on Gettysburg monuments, the memorial cost $2,714.00.
The monument has a total height of just over 16′ with Ellis standing at a larger-than-life height of 7.’ The staute depicts the colonel with his arms folded, cool and calm in the face of a hail of bullets.
The unit also has a marker located on Cemetery Ridge along Pleasanton Avenue.
124th New York Infantry “Orange Blossoms”
Members of the 3rd Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade
Commanded by Colonel A.V.H. Ellis (1827-1863)
Engaged 279; 28 killed, 57 wounded, 5 missing
Monument: Sickles Avenue, above the Devil’s Den. Marker on Pleasanton Avenue.