4th New York Light Artillery

The monument to the 4th New York Independent Artillery (Smith’s Battery) was damaged on the night of February 16, 2006. Vandals pulled the statue of an artilleryman down from the pedestal pictured here. The bronze artilleryman was then dragged the monument 162 feet, badly gouging it. The head and the rammer portions of the memorial were cut off and removed.

To repair this monument, the Park Service will likely use casts from an identical artilleryman created by the sculptor, Casper Buberl, that stands in Manchester, New Hampshire. The stolen pieces have never turned up so the monument cannot be fully restored without the casts.
(I believe that the Park Service is looking for the fiends who defaced the Park back in the winter of 2006, so if you have information, please contact them.)

Image of the damage at Devil’s Den from the National Park Service website.

The 4th New York Independent’s defaced monument stands along Sickles Avenue at Devil’s Den. The unit was made up of 6 Parrotts and 135 men.

Their commander was Capt. James E. Smith (1832-1893), a livestock commission merchant in New York City.

The battery was recruited from New York City, originally as part of Serrell’s 1st New York Engineers, in the fall of 1861.

4th New York Light Artillery

3d Corps Artillery Brigade

Engaged: 6 Parrotts, 135 men; 2 killed, 10 wounded, 1 missing

Monument: Devil’s Den

Tags: Devils Den, Gettysburg, III Corps, Monument Project, New York