72nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment Monument

"72nd Pennsylvania Infantry
Philadelphia Fire Zouaves
Mustered in Aug 10 1861
Mustered out Aug 24 1864
Total enrolment -1600
Killed and mortally wounded -195
Wounded-558
Died of disease & in rebel prisons - 70
Captured or missing -165
Total loss - 988"
2nd Corps
LHS
" July 1863. The Regiment reached this Angle at 1 a.m., took position in rear of this monument supporting Cushing's Battery A, 4th U.S> Artillery. At 6 p.m. assisted in repulsing an attack of the enemy and in making a counter-charge, driving them from beyond the Emmitsburg road, capturing 250 prisoners."
2nd Division"

RHS
"July 3, 1863. The Regiment assisted in repulsing the charge of the enemy on the angle at 3 p.m. and in capturing many standards and prisoners. During the carronading which proceeded the charge the regiment was in line 60 yards to the left and rear of this monument when the rebels forced the troops from the first line the 72nd fought its way to the front and occupied the wall. Present at Gettysburg 458, killed and mortally wounded 62, wounded 133, missing 2
Total of killed, wounded and missing 197
72nd Penna Infantry"

Rear:
"Yorktown, Fair Oaks. Peach Orchard, Savage Station, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Chantilly, Antietam, Fredricksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Tolopotomy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg
2nd Brigade"

The positioning of this memorial was at the centre of a controversy that went all the way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The battlefield commission wanted the monument on the main line of battle in it's rearward position but the veterans wanted in their position on the wall when the fighting finished. The veterans won and the monument was dedicated at the Angle on July 4, 1891

This memorial in the Gettysburg National Military Park commemorates the 72nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment (3rd California Regiment "Philadelphia Brigade"), involved in the Battle of Gettysburg.

California was unable to supply its quota of Union soldiers. U.S. Senator Edwin Baker of California recruited Pennsylvania militiamen to fight in three regiments sponsored by his state. In 1861, the three were reorganized as the 69th, 71st & 72nd Pennsylvania regiments – the "Philadelphia Brigade".

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from 1 to 3 July 1863 by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. The battle involved the largest armies (104,000 Union soldiers and 71,000 Confederate soldiers) of the entire war and is often described as the war's turning point. The battle resulted in a Union victory, ending the Confederate attempt to invade the North.
The battle involved the largest number of casualties of the entire war: in total over 6,600 men were killed, 33,000 wounded and 12,000 missing or captured. The losses were about equal on both sides.

Pictures 1 & 4 show the 72nd Pennsylvania Monument in relationship to the 4th U.S. Artillery A Battery (Cushing's) and Major General Armistead's memorial (furthest point reached on Pickett's Charge) and across the fields to the Virginia state memorial.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward