Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harman & Major General Thomas Mifflin @ the PA Columns - Valley Forge, PA
N 40° 05.309 W 075° 26.324
18T E 462598 N 4437670
There are four of these beautiful, bronze relief plaques on both sides of the two 32-foot PA columns which serve as Revolutionary War memorials. Each relief tablet serves as a memorial to a total eight Civil War officers.
Waymark Code: WMB3P1
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 03/31/2011
Views: 4
The inscription on the relief tablet simply has their names and reads: Josiah Harman Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Mifflin Major General. This relief is on the front side of the left column if you are facing west. Basically, as you approach these columns, walk to the front of the left one and you'll see the relief. Harman is on the left facing forward and slightly angled to the right and Mifflin is on the right, facing forward, and slightly angled to the left.
This relief memorial pays tribute to Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harman & Major General Thomas Mifflin. With regards to Harman, after an encampment of almost six weeks at Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania the army moved into its winter quarters at Valley Forge where they would remain for the next six months. It was here that the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment received a new commander, Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harman, on January 1, 1778. Harman would remain in this position until 1780. After the war he became the Commander of the First American Regiment, for a time they only infantry unit in the fledgling army of the independent United States.
Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744 – January 20, 1800) was an American merchant and politician from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania, President of the Continental Congress, and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. He served as Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, President of the Pennsylvania Supreme Executive Council and the first Governor of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Columns were constructed in stages. The Pennsylvania Columns were started in 1909 but a lack of funds prevented its completion until 1912. The eagles and these bronze reliefs of Pennsylvania generals were added in 1910. The monument, which flanks Outer Line Drive, features two tall granite columns. At the base of each column there are two bronze plaques containing the bas-relief busts of two military officers--Colonel William Irvine and Adjutant General Joseph Reed; Major General Arthur St. Clair and Brigadier General John Cadwalader; Brigadier General John Armstrong and Brigadier General J. Peter G. Muhlenberg; Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Harman and Major General Thomas Mifflin. On the top of each column of course are the bronze eagles with outspread wings, standing on the two respective granite balls.
The sculptor Henry Bush-Brown of Newburgh, New York was the artist.