Pickett's Division - CS Division Tablet - Gettysburg National Military Park Historic District - Gettysburg, PA - NRHP Historic Districts - Contributing Buildings on Waymarking.com

Pickett’s Division served as a member of Longstreet’s Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Maj. Gen. Geo. E. Pickett (January 16, 1825 – July 30, 1875) was a career United States Army officer who became a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for his participation in the futile and bloody assault at the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name, Pickett's Charge. After the failure at Gettysburg, Pickett continued to command his division during the Overland Campaign as well as the Siege of Petersburg. During the battle of Five Forks, however, Pickett and his men were defeated, which led to the eventual collapse and surrender of the Confederate army.

The Hood's CS Division Tablet is located southwest of Gettysburg on West Confederate Avenue on the right or west side of the road if traveling in a southernly direction. The monument is very close to the Armistead and Garnett Brigade tablets. The monument faces southeast. Parking is available at intermittent cutouts on the side of the road in this section. As an alternative, one might park at the Virginia Monument, 543 feet northeast of this position. Please do not park on the grass, park on the side of the road. I cannot emphasize that enough! I visited this monument on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 2:16 PM, just before the clocks were set ahead for the Spring. I was at a elevation of 578 foot ASL.

Draw the Sword, with descriptive help from the NPS site, offers the following description: One of ten Confederate division monuments that describe the movements and itenirary of each division of the Army of Northern Virginia. Designed by E. B. Cope. The locations of the markers indicate the general location of the battle lines of the various Confederate divisions during the battle.

Monument is a rock-faced granite monolith with polished face on which is affixed a bronze narrative tablet. Dimensions: 4.2 feet x 2.0 feet, with an overall height of 7.0 feet. The tablet was erected on July 1, 1907 by the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission. The inscription on this monolith reads:

C.S.A.
Army of Northern Virginia
First Army Corps
Pickett's Division Maj. Gen. Geo. E. Pickett
Garnett's Brigade Brig. Gen. R. B. Garnett, Major C.S. Peyton
Armistead's Brigade Brig. Gen. L.A. Armistead, Lieut. Col. William White
Kemper's Brigade Brig. Gen. J.L. Kemper, Col. Joseph Mayo, Jr.
Artillery Battalion, Four Batteries, Major James Dearing
July 1. Guarding trains at Chambersburg.

July 2. On march to Gettysburg.

July 3 Reached the field about 9 a.m. Near 12 m. took position beyond crest of hill on which the Artillery was placed. About 1.30 p.m. Division was formed in an open field east of Spanger's Woods the right near a barn facing the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. At 3 p.m. moved forward to assault across the field about three fourths of a mile under a severe fire losing many officers and men only a few reaching the salient. The Division being separated from its support on the right and left and the assault having failed returned to its former position on the ridge.

July 4. The Division took up the line of march during the night.

Casualties killed 232, wounded 1157, missing 1499, total 2888.

There are hundreds of non-sculpted monumentation for the various Confederate States & Union units which fought at Gettysburg, about 10 different variations of tablets, markers and monoliths by my reckoning. Six designs represent brigade (2), division (2), corps (2), & army headquarters (2), each different in a subtle way so as to distinguish between armies. Battery/advance position markers and regimental monuments for United States Regulars & Confederate have their own distinct design (2), bringing the total to ten deigns at the battlefield. Many of the tablets were created by Albert Russell & Sons Co. of Newburyport, Massachusetts and are made of granite, bronze and concrete or like this one, cast iron. All of these tablets were designed by architect Colonel Emmor Bradley Cope (July 23, 1834 - May 28, 1927). He designed pretty much every tablet for both the Union and Confederate armies, each one distinct, with several different varieties. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg, as well as he should be as this park and most of the things seen here today were designed by him and as such, are his legacy. These monuments/tablets were erected just after the turn of the century during the first and beginning of the second decade of the 20th century. Each one has since been preserved or restored at least twice since the turn of the 21st century. The plaques and tablets were erected by the Gettysburg Park Commission (established by the War Department). The Gettysburg Park Commission is also referred to as the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission or the Gettysburg National Park Commission, to clear up any confusions, especially my own.

On October 1, 1898, the Gettysburg National Park Commission in a letter to the Secretary of War set gave recommendations for continuing the task of organizing and progressing the work of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Every November they wrote their annual report which outlined the work of the GNPC for that year. The following is an excerpt from that report relevant to this waymark. The link at the end of the paragraph will take you to the entire report. The method of marking the positions of troops on this field, as approved by the War Department, is to place the principal tablet or monument of each command at the position occupied by the command in the main line of battle, and to mark the several important positions subsequently reached by each command in the course of the battle by subordinate and ancillary tablets, with appropriate brief inscriptions giving interesting details and occurrences and noting the day and hour as nearly as possible. SOURCE

Most of the Commission reports have been digitized and can be found HERE. The initial 1893 report up to and including 1921 can be found here. 1922 to 1926 are missing and have yet to be discovered. The years 1927 to 1933 were discovered in 1996 and are also included. To my knowledge this is the most comprehensive list of documents that illustrated the development and formation of the park.

Information about these specific types of monuments:
DIVISION HEADQUARTERS MARKER
Division headquarters are rectangular bronze tablets mounted on large, rectangular stones. Union headquarters have a corps or service branch symbol (like a cross, clover or crescent moon) as a separate bronze piece above the tablet, while Confederate headquarters are labeled "C.S.A." on a separate bronze piece in an oval. There are 22 Union and 10 Confederate Division markers at Gettysburg. Both markers are of similar design and were all construed of Winnsboro (S.C.), granite. Each stands seven feet in height. SOURCE & SOURCE

The Pickett's Division - CS Division Tablet is a contributing feature to the Gettysburg National Military Park Historic District which is nationally significant under NR Criteria A, B, C & D. Areas of Significance: Military, Politics/Government, Landscape Architecture, Conservation, Archeology-Historic. Period of Significance: 1863-1938. The original National Register Nomination was approved by the Keeper March 19, 1975. An update to this nomination was approved by the Keeper on January 23, 2004. The tablet is designated as contributing structure number MN755.

From the nomination form:
1 of 10 CS Division Tablets in Park. Marks the command positions of Pickett's Division during Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. Located at Section 2, on W side of West Confederate Ave, at Spangler Woods.

Short Physical Description:
Rough-hewn monolith, 4'2"x2', 7" high. Bronze inscription tablet, 3'8"x3'6", mounted on polished face. Bronze oval plate inscribed "C.S.A." in raised letters.

Long Physical Description:
These 10 monuments consist of a rock-faced granite monolith with polished face on which is affixed a bronze narrative tablet. The locations of the markers indicate the general location of the battle lines of the various Confederate divisions during the battle. Designed by E. B. Cope. 4.2 feet x 2.0 feet, with an overall height of 7.0 feet.