Heth's Division - CS Division Tablet - Gettysburg, PA
Posted by: Groundspeak Regular Member Math Teacher
N 39° 49.115 W 077° 14.864
18S E 307618 N 4410039
This monolith is 1 of 10 CS Division tablets in the park and marks the command position of Heth's Division during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. The monument is located on W side of West Confederate Ave, across from N.C. Memorial.
Waymark Code: WMEDV5
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 05/13/2012
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member BruceS
Views: 6

Heth’s Division served as a member of Hill’s Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Henry Heth (December 16, 1825 – September 27, 1899) was a career United States Army officer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He is best remembered for inadvertently precipitating the Battle of Gettysburg, when he sent some of his troops of the Army of Northern Virginia to the small Pennsylvania village, according to his memoirs, to get some shoes.

The Heth's Division - 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 directly across the road from the North Carolina State Monument and 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 1:06 PM, just before the clocks were set ahead for the Spring. I was at a elevation of 570 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
Third Army Corps
Heth's Division Major Gen. Henry Heth

Brig. Gen. J.J. Pettigrew

First Brigade - Brig. Gen. J.J. Pettigrew, Col. J.K. Marshall
Second Brigade - Col. J. M. Brockenbrough
Third Brigade - Brig. Gen. James A. Archer, Col. B.D. Fry, Col. S.G. Shepard
Fourth Brigade - Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis
Artillery Battalion - four batteries - Lieut. Col. John J. Garnett

July 1. The Division moved at 5 a.m. from Cashtown toward Gettysburg about 3 miles from town the advance met the Union forces. Archer's and Davis's Brigades moved forward on the right and left of the turnpike were soon engaged. The Brigades were forced to retired with heavy loss. After resting for an hour the Division was advanced in line of battle to the right of the pike and met with stubborn resistance. Rodes's Division Second Corps appeared on the left and formed a line at right angles. The Union troops retired to a wooded hill in the rear and finally gave way. The Division bivouacked on the ground won.

July 2. The Division in the morning was relieved by Anderson and held in reserve.

July 3. The Division occupied the position of the day before and was ordered to report to Lieut. Gen. Longstreet to unite in the attack on the Union centre. The assault was made and failed. The Division returned to its former position.

July 4. At night the Division took up the line of march.

Casualties, killed 411, wounded 1905, missing 324. Total 2630.

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 Heth'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 MN762.

From the nomination form:
1 of 10 CS Division Tablet in Park. Marks the command position of Heth's Division during Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863. Located on W side of West Confederate Ave, across from North Carolina Memorial.

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.


My Sources
1. NRHP Narrative
2. Stone Sentinels
3. Virtual Gettysburg
4. Draw the Sword
5. Historical Marker Database
6. Wikipedia

Date Installed or Dedicated: 07/01/1907

Name of Government Entity or Private Organization that built the monument: Gettysburg National Military Park Commission

Union, Confederate or Other Monument: Confederate

Rating (1-5):

Related Website: [Web Link]

Photo or photos will be uploaded.: yes

Visit Instructions:

To log a visit, a waymarker must visit the monument or memorial in person and post a photo. Personal observations and comments will be appreciated.

Search for...
Geocaching.com Google Map
Google Maps
MapQuest
Bing Maps
Nearest Waymarks
Nearest American Civil War Monuments and Memorials
Nearest Geocaches
Create a scavenger hunt using this waymark as the center point
Recent Visits/Logs:
Date Logged Log User Rating  
Searcher28 visited Heth's Division - CS Division Tablet - Gettysburg, PA 09/03/2016 Searcher28 visited it
ChapterhouseInc visited Heth's Division - CS Division Tablet - Gettysburg, PA 04/12/2015 ChapterhouseInc visited it

View all visits/logs