12th & 44th New York Infantry
The monument to the 12th and 44th New York Regiments on Little Round Top is the largest regimental monument on the battlefield. It cost $10,965.00 (including the $3,000.00 from both regiments New York appropriation) and was dedicated on July 3, 1893. Most visitors to Gettysburg do not know that it was designed by Meade’s chief of staff at Gettysburg, Daniel Butterfield. Butterfield originally commanded the 12th New York.
Designed to look like a castle, the monument is filled with symbolism, including the interior chamber being 12 feet square to honor the 12th Infantry and the tower’s height of 44 feet to honor the 44th Infantry. Visitors can walk up the narrow staircase inside the tower to an observation deck.
Inside, bas reliefs honor Francis Barlow (another former commander) and Butterfield; also included are bronze plaques containing each company’s muster rolls. The monument is made of Maine and Prospect Hill Granite.
At Gettysburg, the 12th New York was represented by two companies (D&E) attached to Fifth Corps headquarters. Recruited from New York City, it was commanded by Capt. Henry W. Ryder (1833-1910).
The 44th New York was known as the Ellsworth’s Avengers; it was recruited after the death of Elmer Ellsworth, a famous Zouave officer shot down after tearing a Confederate flag from the roof of a hotel at the beginning of the War. The men of the 44th were supposed to be at least 5′8″ tall, moral, unmarried, no older than thirty, and temperate. The aim was to recruit men from all parts of the state (although the majority came from Erie, Albany, and Oneida counties). Their commander at Gettysburg was Col. James C. Rice (1829-1864), a Yale-educated lawyer killed as a general at Spotsylvania. When Rice took over brigade command from the mortally wounded Strong Vincent, Lt. Col. Freeman Conner (1836-1906) took command of the 44th New York.
12th & 44th New York Infantry
5th Corps, 1st Division, 3rd Brigade
Capt. Henry W. Ryder and Col. James C. Rice (respectively)
Engaged: 12th, 117 (no loss); 44th, 460; 26 killed, 82 wounded, 3 missing
Monument: Little Round Top
Tags: Gettysburg, Little Round Top, Monument Project, New York, V Corps
This is one of my favorite monuments, probably because my GGG Grandfather was a member of Co. E, 12th NYVI. I feel pretty fortunate that one GGG G’father was shot in the head at Chancellorsville and missed Gettysburg (He had a thick skull, even if it did break a little he suffered no long lasting effects), and my other was in the 5th AC provost guard with the 12th NYVI. Glad they both made it through the war so I could sit here and post!
Both my great-grandfather, Elias Leavitt Bissell, and my great-granmother, Amanda Lora Hudson, were connected with the 44th and are on the roster in the monument. He was assistant regimental surgeom and became regimental surgeon of the 12th NY then brigade surgeon of the “Iron Brigade,” though both missed the battle at Gettysburg. I have his “SNY” belt buckle. She was regimental nurse and “the daughter of the regiment.” They met in the war and married before it was over. They practiced surgery together in Buffalo after the war, and he lived to deliver my father Hudson Bissell Phillips, in 1901. The two of us visited the monment in 1986 and, as you can imagine, it was quite an emotional moment.