1st Massachusetts (A) Artillery

1st Massachusetts (Battery A) Artillery has a simple monument in the National Cemetery that denotes it’s July 3d position. The Battery consisted of 6 Napoleons and 145 men who served as part of the Sixth Corps Artillery Brigade. They suffered no losses.

The unit mainly came from Suffolk County and mustered in at North Cambridge on August 28, 1861. It was commanded at Gettysburg by Capt. William H. McCartney (1834-1894), a Boston lawyer.

1st Massachusetts (A) Artillery

6th Corps Artillery Brigade

Engaged: 6 Napoleons and 145 men; no losses

Monument: National Cemetery

1st U.S. Artillery Battery H

1st United States Artillery Battery H was known as “Randol’s.” It was enlisted at New York City and contained men from there as well as Suffolk County in Massachusetts and Hamilton County in Ohio. Organized in 1821, the unit was stationed at Fort Sumter.

The battery consisted of 6 Napoleons and 101 men under the command of Lt. Chandler P. Eakin (1836-1903). Eakin was badly wounded on July 2 and Lt. Philip D. Mason (1842-1864) took command. Mason was later mortally wounded at the battle of Trevillian Station.

The regimental monument is located in the National Cemetery. This battery was part of the Artillery Reserve.

1st U.S. Artillery Battery H

Artillery Reserve, 1st Regular Brigade

Engaged: 6 Napoleons and 101 men; 1 killed, 8 wounded, 1 missing

Monument: National Cemetery

73rd Ohio Infantry

The 73d Ohio Infantry was raised from the counties of Athens, Highland, Pickaway, Pike, and Ross. It was enlisted at Chillicothe in December 1861.

Their commander at Gettysburg was Lt. Col. Richard Long, Jr. (1837-1889). Long was the inventor of a truss rail joint. Ironically, he was killed at Pittsburgh when he was run over by a train.

The 73d’s rather simple monument is located in the National Cemetery near the Taneytown Road.

73rd Ohio Infantry

11th Corps, 2nd Division, 2nd Brigade

450; 21 killed, 120 wounded, 4 missing

Monument: Taneytown Road

1st Ohio Artillery Battery H

1st Ohio Battery H was known as Huntington’s. It was part of the Artillery Reserve during the Gettysburg Campaign.

Raised from the counties of Lucas and Washington, the battery also contained men from Battery F, 1st Pennsylvania Artillery. The unit had 6 Ordnance rifles and 123 men under the command of Lt. George W. Norton (1818-1906), a Toledo farmer.

The unit’s simple monument, erected by the state of Ohio, is located in the National Cemetery marking the position on July 2 and 3.

1st Ohio Artillery Battery H

Artillery Reserve, 3d Volunteer Brigade

Engaged: 6 Ordnance Rifles, 123 men; 2 killed, 5 missing

Monument: National Cemetery

1st West Virginia Artillery Battery C

The monument to West Virginia Battery C is located in the National Cemetery. This monument is nearly identical to the monument erected to the 3d West Virginia Cavalry (though of course the inscriptions vary).

Known as the “Pierpont Battery,” this unit actually came from Washington County, Ohio, but it was formed by the governor of West Virginia in March 1862. It’s commander was Capt. Wallace Hill (1839-1895), a farmer from Marietta, Ohio. The battery consisted of almost 125 men and 4 Parrotts of the 10 pounder variety.

1st West Virginia Artillery Battery C

Artillery Reserve, 3d Volunteer Brigade

Capt. Wallace Hill (1839-1895)

Engaged: 4 Parrotts and 124 men; 2 killed, 2 wounded

Monument: National Cemetery

55th Ohio Infantry

The 55th Ohio monument is located just outside the gates of the National Cemetery on the Emmitsburg Road. Raised from the north-central counties of Erie, Huron, Sandusky, Seneca, and Wyandot, their commander at Gettysburg was Col. Charles B. Gambee (1827-1864) who was killed in May 1864 at Resaca in Georgia.

The regiment numbered 375 at Gettysburg and suffered around 50 casualties. This monument marks the position held on July 1, 1863. Unfortunately, the regiment chose to erect a monument made of sandstone. This soft stone does not weather well like harder stones such as granite and the monument is actually slowly melting away under the elements. Little can be done to correct this problem. The monument’s main feature is a carved relief of a soldier kneeling behind a stonewall, musket pointed towards the enemy.

55th Ohio Infantry

11th Corps, 2nd Division, 2nd Brigade

Commanded by: Col. Charles B. Gambee (1827-1864)

Engaged: 375; 6 killed, 31 wounded, 12 missing

Monument: Outside the cemetery on the Emmitsburg Road

Focus: the 1st Minnesota

The monument to the First Minnesota is one of the largest regimental monuments on the battlefields.

Located just to the south of the Pennsylvania monument along Cemetery Ridge (Hancock Avenue), the 1st Minnesota is one of the most famous Union regiments to fight at Gettysburg because of the desperate and near suicidal charge launched by the unit on July 2, 1863. Commanded at Gettysburg by Colonel William Colvill (wounded in the July 2 attack), Captain Nathan Messick (killed on July 3 repulsing Pickett’s Charge), and Captain Henry Coates, the First numbered, officially, 420 at Gettysburg and suffered casualties of 50 killed, 173 wounded, and 1 missing. In the famous July 2 charge, the regiment is said to have lost 82% of its numbers, almost two companies having been detached at the time.

The First Minnesota also has an urn in the National Cemetery’s Minnesota plot. The 1st was the only Minnesota regiment present at Gettysburg. The marble urn erected in the National Cemetery dates to 1868.

Dedicated on July 2, 1897 and costing $16,000, the main unit monument on Hancock Avenue depicts a soldier charging across the field towards where the Minnesota earned eternal glory. General Hancock noted, “no more gallant deed was recorded in history.”

A second monument marks the position of the regiment on July 3 when it took an active role repulsing the Confederate assault in the afternoon. This monument is located north of the main monument.

Members of the 2nd Corps, 2nd Division, 2nd Brigade

Commanded at Gettysburg by Col. William Colvill (1830-1905)

Brought 420 to Gettysburg; 50 killed, 173 wounded, 1 missing

Monuments: Hancock Avenue just south of Pennsylvania Monument. There is a second monument also along Hancock Avenue closer to the Angle.