a proverbial forest of stone

There are so many monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield that the park is like one giant proverbial forest of bronze, granite, and stone. It has even been said that Gettysburg has the world’s largest collection of outdoor sculpture.

The monuments at Gettysburg range from the beautiful to the ordinary to the downright strange. Because there are so many of them, even the seriously interested cannot take in all of them and appreciate them. The positions of these monuments, the heraldry upon them, the descriptions … all of these things were meaningful to the veterans. Court battles were even fought over where monuments were placed. Yet, there are just so many monuments that all but the biggest, the strangest, the most beautiful all begin to run together.

The phenomenon of Gettysburg being raised to a level of utmost importance over and at the expense of other Civil War battles did not begin with modern historians or the relatively recent movie; it seems to have begun with the veterans themselves. For whatever reason, Gettysburg became the most important place, the place where the Union was saved. And as such if a regiment was at Gettysburg, no matter how minor its role may have been, this was the place that the funds of the regiment went to erect a monument to their service. Some states went so far as to have appropriations to each regiment to erect a suitable monument on the battlefield.

This continues even today; the memorization of the battlefield has slown to a crawl compared to the 1880s and 1890s, but it continues. Recent monuments include an equestrian to Longstreet, the Delaware state monument, the Women’s monument, and the 11th Mississippi monument and markers, among others.

The monument fervor was fueled by the veterans desire to be remembered. They desperately wanted their contributions to history to matter. It is ironic that this desire has led to many monuments at Gettysburg falling into relative obscurity and becoming just a part of the background and the landscape.

I’ve always been interested in Gettysburg, although I do not believe the battle deserves all the importance it has been given. In fact, I find it all a little amusing. But for better or for worse, if the common American without an interest in 1861 - 1865 is going to go to a battlefield, it seems to be Gettysburg. In part that is because it is probably the planet’s best interpreted, most memorialized field. You can visit Gettysburg and not know anything of the battle itself and still find the monuments themselves entertaining and interesting as an artistic matter.

The reason for the Monument Project is partly personal — I thought it would be neat to collect a picture of each monument and write up a history. Some require some hunting to “get” so to speak. But an even bigger part of the reason why I am doing the Monument Project is because otherwise the monuments at Gettysburg would run altogether. By featuring a monument or two a day, each gets a little “time in the sun.”

Each regiment and state at Gettysburg deserves to be remembered, no matter how simple or ordinary or how strange and sublime the monument to it may be. They all have an interesting story behind them. Sometimes the monuments themselves are the story. Sometimes the monuments are ordinary and hide extraordinary deeds or massive sacrifice; some regiments with seemingly simple monuments were slaughtered at Gettysburg. I hope you enjoy this feature and learning a little about the monuments and the Gettysburg battlefield, even if you aren’t a Civil War buff.

Tags: Gettysburg, Monument Project