So you think you know Maine at Gettysburg, part 1

The state of Gouverneur K. Warren stands watch on Little Round Top at Gettysburg National Military Park. How familiar are you with the Maine monuments at Gettysburg? (Brian F. Swartz Photos)

Gettysburg fans, let’s take Part 1 of the MMM quiz, short for “Maine Monument Minutiae.”

And if you’re a “frequent flier” at Gettysburg or own the book Maine at Gettysburg, you might know the answers (printed below).

1. Which Maine regiment has as many monuments as its unit designation? And where are they?

Is this Gettysburg National Military Park monument dedicated to a Maine unit? If so, which one?

2. Name the Maine regiment with three monuments, including that of Co. B. Where are these monuments located?

3. Adding or multiplying this unit’s monuments by two would equal the regiment’s numerical designation. Identify the regiment.

4. Somewhere on the battlefield, which Maine outfit will always be No. 1? Identify the unit and its monument’s location.

5. Which Maine regiment has monuments in The Wheatfield and near the Pennsylvania Monument?

6. Survivors erected monuments, however ornate or plain, at two locations apiece for two Maine artillery batteries. Name them.

7. The National Park Service once placed two bronze Napoleons at each monument for this Maine battery, but one gun vanished years ago. Name the battery and the place where the lonely Napoleon points toward distant woods.

This monument honors a Maine artillery battery. Do you know which one?

8. Some time after its 1889 dedication, which Maine monument sprang a “leak” that required fixing?

9. Five black polished cannonballs crafted from Addison granite top this artillery battery’s monument on Hancock Avenue. What is the battery? Who was its commander at Gettysburg?

10. In 1889, survivors of this Maine regiment erected a 24-foot “simple granite obelisk” (Maine at Gettysburg, p. 37) where the unit “fought for nearly three hours” on July 1, 1863. A few hundred feet to the north, the survivors dedicated “a massive granite marker” and two flank markers “near the Mummasburg Road” (Maine at Gettysburg, p. 42), at the site where the Mainers fought advancing Confederates to buy time for fleeing Yankees. What was the regiment? Who was its commander?

Answers:

1. The 3rd Maine Infantry Regiment has, in chronological order, monuments at Pitzer’s Woods, the Peach Orchard, and on Cemetery Ridge.

2. In 1889, the 20th Maine Infantry survivors dedicated regimental monuments on Little Round Top and Big Round Top and a smaller stone honoring Capt. Walter Morrill and the Co. B boys on LRT.

3. The 4th Maine Infantry Regiment.

4. The 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment survivors erected a monument on the Hanover Road in 1889.

5. The 17th Maine Infantry’s monument in The Wheatfield is easily identifiable. Less noticeable, the smaller regimental monument located on Hancock Avenue across from the Pennsylvania Monument can be overlooked altogether.

6. Hall’s 2nd Maine Battery and Stevens’ 5th Maine Battery.

7. Two bronze Napoleons stood either side of the small marker for Stevens’ 5th Maine Battery on Seminary Ridge Avenue, a short distance from the Lutheran Seminary. The National Park Service relocated the left-hand cannon sometime in the recent past. The right-hand cannon points toward McPherson’s Woods.

8. Placed atop a boulder near the Devil’s Den, the 4th Maine Infantry’s monument was sealed at its base to prevent water from working beneath it. The sealant later cracked, letting in water and threatening the integrity of the monument. Regimental survivors made sure the repairs were done right.

9. The 6th Maine Battery, commanded by 1st Lt. Edwin B. Dow and known as Dow’s 6th Maine Battery.

10. The 16th Maine Infantry, led by Col. Charles Tilden.

Next week: Maine Monument Minutiae quiz, part 2


If you enjoy reading the adventures of Mainers caught up in the Civil War, be sure to like Maine at War on Facebook and get a copy of the new Maine at War Volume 1: Bladensburg to Sharpsburg, available online at Amazon and all major book retailers, including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble. —————————————————————————————————————–

Brian Swartz can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net. He enjoys hearing from Civil War buffs interested in Maine’s involvement in the war.

Brian Swartz

About Brian Swartz

Welcome to "Maine at War," the blog about the roles played by Maine and her sons and daughters in the Civil War. I am a Civil War buff and a newspaper editor recently retired from the Bangor Daily News. Maine sent hero upon hero — soldiers, nurses, sailors, chaplains, physicians — south to preserve their country in the 1860s. “Maine at War” introduces these heroes and heroines, who, for the most part, upheld the state's honor during that terrible conflict. We tour the battlefields where they fought, and we learn about the Civil War by focusing on Maine’s involvement with it. Be prepared: As I discover to this very day, the facts taught in American classrooms don’t always jibe with Civil War reality. I can be reached at visionsofmaine@tds.net.