Last updated: September 7, 2022
Place
69th Pennsylvania Monument
Quick Facts
Location:
Gettysburg National Military Park
Significance:
69th PA Monument at Gettysburg
Designation:
Civil War Monument
The 69th Pennsylvania was a typical infantry regiment. The regiment was the basic building block of Civil War armies. Composed of ten companies of 100 men each, a full-strength regiment contained 1,000 officers and men. But disease, battle casualties, desertions, and men detailed to support and logistical duties reduced the strength of units in the field so that by the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, the average regiment in either army contained slightly over 300 men.
The 69th had 26 officers and 258 enlisted men equipped for duty when they first went intoaction on July 2. By the end of the battle, the regiment had 40 killed or mortally wounded,80 wounded, and 17 captured: nearly one-half its strength.
This monument to the 69th, which was dedicated in 1887, is unique in that it is the only regimental monument on the field to include markers for each of the ten companies in the regiment. The company markers are connected to each other by a chain to symbolize that the 69th’s line bent, but did not break, during Pickett’s Charge. On top of each company marker you will see letters and the number 69. This is an abbreviation for each company, such as Company H, 69th Pennsylvania. The company markers can give you a sense of the frontage a Civil War regiment presented in battle. The soldiers fought in a line of battle, meaning the men formed in two ranks nearly shoulder to shoulder. Sergeants and lieutenants spread across the rear of the two rank lines as “file closers.” Their job was to maintain order, fill gaps in the ranks, and prevent men from running away. The purpose for the close order tactics was to mass firepower and enable the commander to control his men more easily.
The fighting along the front of the 69th was at very close range. Company F was overrun in the fighting and every man was killed, wounded or captured. Company D briefly engaged in hand-to-hand combat that some survivors said prevented the rest of the regiment from being outflanked and destroyed. One member of the 69th related how the Confederates seemed to be “coming in all around us, but how they fi red without killing all our men I do not know.”
The 69th had 26 officers and 258 enlisted men equipped for duty when they first went intoaction on July 2. By the end of the battle, the regiment had 40 killed or mortally wounded,80 wounded, and 17 captured: nearly one-half its strength.
This monument to the 69th, which was dedicated in 1887, is unique in that it is the only regimental monument on the field to include markers for each of the ten companies in the regiment. The company markers are connected to each other by a chain to symbolize that the 69th’s line bent, but did not break, during Pickett’s Charge. On top of each company marker you will see letters and the number 69. This is an abbreviation for each company, such as Company H, 69th Pennsylvania. The company markers can give you a sense of the frontage a Civil War regiment presented in battle. The soldiers fought in a line of battle, meaning the men formed in two ranks nearly shoulder to shoulder. Sergeants and lieutenants spread across the rear of the two rank lines as “file closers.” Their job was to maintain order, fill gaps in the ranks, and prevent men from running away. The purpose for the close order tactics was to mass firepower and enable the commander to control his men more easily.
The fighting along the front of the 69th was at very close range. Company F was overrun in the fighting and every man was killed, wounded or captured. Company D briefly engaged in hand-to-hand combat that some survivors said prevented the rest of the regiment from being outflanked and destroyed. One member of the 69th related how the Confederates seemed to be “coming in all around us, but how they fi red without killing all our men I do not know.”