16th Michigan Infantry

The monument to the 16th Michigan is located on a ledge of Little Round Top known as “Vincent’s Spur,”  below the monument to the 44th New York.

The 16th was recruited from the counties of Ionia, Ontonagon, Saginaw, and Wayne.  It numbered just over 350 at Gettysburg.  It was commanded by Lt. Col. Norval E. Welch (1835-1864).  Welch was the secretary to Senator Lewis Cass and was acting governor briefly for the Nebraska Territory.  He was killed leading the 16th at Peebles Farm.

16th Michigan Infantry

5th Corps, 1st Division, 3rd Brigade

Engaged: 356; 23 killed, 34 wounded, 3 missing

Monument: Little Round Top

General G.K. Warren

One of the most popular monuments for photographers on the battlefield is the bronze portrait statue to General Warren on Little Round Top. The monument was dedicated on August 8, 1888. It was erected at the cost of $5,000.00. The Warren statue has a height of 9′. It was sculpted by Karl Gerhardt. Gerhardt was a machinist who dabbled in sculpture. Interestingly, his education as an artist was paid for by Mark Twain. He executed Grant’s death mask.

Warren was the chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. He later commanded it’s Fifth Corps.

Members of Warren’s former command, the 5th New York Infantry, spearheaded the monument project. All of the money was privately raised. The boulder upon which the monument sits is all considered part of the memorial and visitors to the Park are forbidden to climb upon it (though many still do anyway).

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

9th Pennsylvania Reserves

The 9th Pennsylvania Reserves were officially known as the 38th Infantry. The regiment was recruited from the counties of Allegheny, Crawford, and Beaver and mustered in at Pittsburgh in July 1861.

Their commander at Gettysburg was Lt. Col. James Snodgrass (1806-1883), one of the oldest regimental officers on the field at Gettysburg.

The regimental monument is located on the slope of Little Round Top off of Warren Avenue. The large relief on the front, entitled “By a Comrade’s Grave,” depicts a tired soldier looking over the grave of a fallen comrade. ¹ The monument was dedicated on September 20, 1888 and cost $2,450.00. It consists of blue westerly granite.

9th Pennsylvania Reserves

5th Corps, 3rd Division, 3rd Brigade

377; 5 wounded

Monument: Warren Avenue

1. Interestingly, no members of this regiment were killed at Gettysburg. [↩]

91st Pennsylvania Infantry

The 91st Pennsylvania Infantry is represented by two monuments within feet of each other on Little Round Top.

The second of these monuments is the larger and more impressive, rising like a castle turret in a prominent location passed by nearly every visitor at Gettysburg.

The first monument, far simpler, is located among the guns of Hazlett’s battery (said to stand on the spot he and General Weed both fell) was the second monument placed on the battlefield to a regiment, dedicated a year after the 2nd Massachusetts monument on Culp’s Hill.

The regiment was raised from Philadelphia in December 1861.

The commander at Gettysburg was Lt. Col. Joseph H. Sinex (1819-1892), a Philadelphia carpenter.

The first monument, marking the location where Weed and Hazlett fell, used to have a cannon ball placed at the top. At some point this was removed from the monument as it has not been there for some time now.

A very faded carving noting this is the location where Weed and Hazlett fell can be found on the boulder beneath the monument.

91st Pennsylvania Infantry

5th Corps, 2nd Division, 3rd Brigade

Lt. Col. Joseph H. Sinex (1819-1892)

Engaged: 258; 3 killed, 16 wounded

Monument: Little Round Top

146th New York Infantry

The 146th New York was known as the 5th Oneida. It was also known as the Halleck Infantry.

Raised from Oneida County, the regiment mustered in at Rome on October 10, 1862.

The commander at Gettysburg was Col. Kenner Garrad (1827-1879). Garrad was born in Kentucky and was a member of the West Point class of 1850. He rose to the rank of general and succeeded Weed in command of the brigade.

At that point, Lt. Col. David T. Jenkins (1836-1864) took over the regiment. A lawyer from Vernon, Jenkins was killed at the battle of the Wilderness.

The relatively simple monument is located on Little Round Top where the regiment fought on July 2 and 3.

The most prominent feature is a bronze Fifth Corps maltese cross emblazoned on both sides of the monument.

146th New York Infantry

5th Corps, 2nd Division, 3rd Brigade

Col. Kenner Garrad (1827-1879)

Engaged: 534; 4 killed, 24 wounded

Monument: Little Round Top

121st New York Infantry

The 121st New York Infantry was raised from the counties of Herkimer and Ostego in August 1862.

The regiment’s commander was Col. Emory Upton (1839-1881). Upton would rise to the rank of general and was intergal in the post-war Army. He was a native of Batavia, New York and a 1861 graduate of West Point.  He was promoted to general to rank from the battle of Spotsylvania in May 1864.

The monument to the 121st is located along Sykes Avenue on the slope of Little Round Top nearest to the Wheatfield Road.  The monument’s back is to the road.

This was the regiment’s position from the evening of July 2 until the close of the battle.

On the side facing the road is a bronze relief of the regiment’s commander, Emory Upton.

The monument’s main feature, however, is a bronze staute of a soldier.  He stands resting on his musket, gazing out towards the Valley of Death.

 121st New York Infantry

6th Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Col. Emory Upton (1839-1881)

Engaged: 470; 2 wounded

Monument: Little Round Top

5th United States Artillery Battery D

Known as “Griffin’s” or “The West Point Battery,” 5th U.S. Battery D was commanded at Gettysburg by Lt. Charles E. Hazlett (1838-1863), a native of Zanesville, Ohio. Hazlett was a graduate of the West Point class of 1859. Hazlett was killed as the fighting closed on Little Round Top on the afternoon of July 2.

Lt. Benjamin F. Rittenhouse (1839-1915), a clerk from Washington, took command from Hazlett.

Enlisted from New York City and Suffolk County, Massachusetts, the battery was raised in January 1861 by then Lt. Charles Griffin (future commander of the Fifth Corps) at West Point. The marker is located where Hazlett fell; the 91st Pennsylvania monument a few feet away also is reputed to be that spot.

5th United States Artillery Battery D

5th Corps Artillery Brigade

Lt. Charles E. Hazlett (1838-1863)

Engaged: 6 Parrotts and 124 men; 7 killed, 6 wounded

Monument: Little Round Top

10th Pennsylvania Reserves (39th Infantry)

  One of two Pennsylvania regimentals cast entirely of bronze (the other belongs to the 56th Pennsylvania), the 10th Reserve monument stands along South Confederate Avenue in the area between Big and Little Round Top.  The staute depicts a soldier at the position “trail arms” advancing up the slope of the hill.  The monument cost $3,000.00 and was dedicated in September 1890.  The soldier is larger than life at seven feet tall.

Raised from the counties of Beaver, Crawford, Clarion, Mercer, Washington, Warren, and Venango, the regiment was commanded at Gettysburg by Col. Adroniram J. Warner (1834-1910), the head of the Union school in Mercer.  He later served in the U.S. Congress.

10th Pennsylvania Reserves (39th Regiment)

5th Corps, 3rd Division, 3rd Brigade

Col. Adroniram J. Warner (1834-1910)

Engaged: 420; 2 killed, 3 wounded

Monument: South Confederate Avenue, base of Big Round Top

9th Massachusetts Infantry

Located in the woods along Sykes Avenue in the “saddle” between Little and Big Round Top, the 9th Massachusetts monument’s major feature is the capstone which is carved into the shape of the Fifth Corps Maltese Cross with the state seal carved within the larger Cross.

The commander at Gettysburg was Col. Patrick R. Guiney (1835-1877), a native of Ireland and a lawyer from Roxbury.  He lost an eye at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.

The regiment was raised from the counties of Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcester.

There were almost 475 men at Gettysburg.

While the rest of the brigade fought in the Wheatfield, the 9th Massachusetts was detached.

This monument marks the position held by the regiment during the battle between Big and Little Round Tops.

(This monument is one of the many at Gettysburg badly in need of refurbishment.  As you can see, there are actually cobwebs on the capstone.  Much of the lettering on the monument has also faded with the passage of time.)

9th Massachusetts Infantry

5th Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade

Col. Patrick R. Guiney (1835-1877)

Engaged: 474; 1 killed, 6 wounded

Monument: Sykes Avenue