3rd Maine Infantry Position Marker (1900 - 2012) - Gettysburg, PA - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

The Gettysburg National Park Commission [The Commission is also referred to as the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission or the Gettysburg Park Commission], established by the United States Department of War, after they took over the administration of the park from the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (whose funds had expired) on March 3, 1893, and whose stewardship was later transferred to the National Park Service in 1933 (SOURCE), took a pictorial inventory of many the existing monuments in the eventual historic district (a majority of them seem to have been Pennsylvania monuments). I have found hundreds of these pictures on Virtual Gettysburg, a comprehensive website which pictorially inventories all the monuments, providing a text of all inscriptions and minor narratives. All the photos look the same as if they were taken by the same camera and in the same approximate time period. Even the angles are all the same, positioning the monument at a slight right angle, revealing a little of the left part of the monument. The entire park looks so young and immature when the photos were taken. After all, the Battle of Gettysburg was thirty-seven years old at the time and war veterans were only in their fifties. I have never been able to find any photo credits (I have a sneaking suspicion some of the photos may have been snapped by members of the Park Commissions and published in their annual November report to the War Department) but I know they are public domain because their copyrights have all expired. Most of my pictures I use come from a website called Virtual Gettysburg. It seems however, all the pictures of the New York monuments were either borrowed from or shared with a New York monuments website. That site, The New York State Division of Military & Naval Affairs can be found HERE. I found my 1900 picture aHERE. The 110-year old picture was taken from Final Report on the Battlefield of Gettysburg (New York at Gettysburg) by the New York Monuments Commission for the Battlefields of Gettysburg and Chattanooga, published in Albany, NY by the J.B. Lyon Company in 1902.

Clearly it is evident, through a survey of historical pictures and other archival information, much change has occurred at Gettysburg Battlefield. With the passage of legislation affording historical status to this site as well as placing it under the auspices of the National Park Service, its patrons and caretakers had to groom and prepare the area to make it more authentic as well as educational. Today the battlefield has managed to maintain an authentic 1863 feel, but back then, as evident in the many photos, it was a desolate, empty place of brown and green fields broken only by the occasional farmstead, their outbuildings and fields of crops. With the emergence and dedication of hundreds of monuments since 1900 (and many before), and the development of farmland, some change has occurred but nothing too dramatic. The site of these pictures is still pretty much the same. After 112 or so years, the trees in the background have been cut and cleared and now only appear in the further background as there is now a paved road.

This two foot piece of history is in front of the principal 3rd Maine Infantry monument and located down Berdan Avenue in Pitzer Woods. At the end of this small road there is a roundabout which allows you to go back out to the main road, West Confederate Avenue. Parking is available on the side of the road. Please stay off of the grass and only stop on asphalt. I visited this monument on March 10, 2012, @ 2:51 PM. I was 550 foot ASL. I was 550 foot ASL. I used my General Electric 10.1 megapixel model # A1050 digital camera. The marker faces northwest and when I snapped my photo I was only a few feet away, hunched down low, facing southeast.

The 3rd Maine was commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg by Colonel Moses B. Lakeman. Lakeman took over the brigade on July 3rd, and Captain William C. Morgan took command of the regiment.

The monument is not listed independently as a contributing structure but it is listed with the principal monument. The Draw the Sword site helped out by the NPS narrative offers the following description: Notes regiment’s position in the forenoon hours of July 2 in Pitzer Woods. This marker is shaped like a diamond, the corps symbol for the Union Third Corps. Position markers, 2'x2'x2'.

The memorial was dedicated October 3, 1889. It's brief description reads:

3rd
Maine
Infantry
engaged here
forenoon of
July 2nd
1863.