This Battery served in Poague’s Battalion who served as a member of the Artillery Reserve in the Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. Major William Thomas Poague (December 20, 1835 – September 8, 1914) was a Confederate States Army officer serving in the Artillery during the American Civil War. He later served as Treasurer of Virginia Military Institute. Poague is buried at Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. This artillery battery, however, was commanded by Captain James V. Brooke. The internet is a black hole for information about this officer.
The Brooke's Virginia Battery - CS Battery Marker is located on West Confederate Avenue, on the left or east side if traveling south southwest. This area is north of Spangler Woods, @ an area called Seminary Ridge. The tablet is north of to the left of the Virginia State Memorial (that's the one with the giant Lee equestrian statue). This is top 5 of the driving tour. The monument faces a westerly direction. Parking is across the street from the Virginia monument or at the side of the road at small, intermittently placed cutouts. Please do not park on the grass, park on the side of the road. I cannot emphasize that enough! You will be ticketed. I visited this monument on Saturday, March 10, 2012 at 1:40 PM, just before the clocks were set ahead for the Spring. I was at an elevation of 596 foot ASL.
These monuments were first built in 1900 and concluded in 1906 according to the NRHP nomination form. Some sites have the monuments being erected in 1910 or later. The NRHP narrative has it built in 1900 and finished in 1906 which makes no sense considering the first mention of these iron monuments did not appear until 1902 in the Commission's report. I did a complete review of the Commission reports and the Brooke's Virginia Battery was not mentioned until 1902. SOURCE 1910 seems to be the most reasonable, extremely conservative date so we will go with that. It is amazing with all the work and effort exerted to make the Gettysburg National Military Park a reality, no one took the time to keep accurate records and correct installation dates. The work was done under the direction of the Gettysburg National 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 then transferred to the National Park Service in 1933 SOURCE.
Draw the Sword, with descriptive help from the NPS site, offers the following description: Cast iron tablet, 3’8" x 3’4", with raised inscription painted in a contrasting color and mounted on fluted cast iron post. All 4’4" H. Tablets casts by Calvin Gilbert. The inscription on the 3.8' x 3.4' tablet narrates the events associated with Battery during the Battle. This particular marker is pretty beat up and faded. The top tab indicating the army, corps and division assignment is missing. The inscription on the monument reads:
Army of Northern Virginia
Hill's Corps Pender's Division
Poague's Battalion Brooke's Battery
Two Napoleons, Two 12 pounder Howitzers
July 2 Late in the evening the Napoleons were placed in position about 400 yards eastward from this point.
July 3 The Napoleons participated actively in all the operations of the artillery during the day including the cannonade preceding Longstreet's assault withdrawing afterward to a position near here. The Howitzers were kept in the rear and took no part in the battle but were held in readiness to resist any advance of the Union forces.
July 4 In the evening about dusk began the march to Hagerstown.
Losses not reported in detail.
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:
CONFEDERATE BATTERY AND BRIGADE TABLETS (ADVANCED POSITION)
These tablets are 3’8" x 3’4" in dimensions, with carefully prepared inscriptions cast in raised letters painted in white (contrasting the black background) describing the part taken in the battle by each brigade, their position and stating its numbers and losses so far as practicable to obtain. They are mounted on iron pillars or fluted cast iron posts about 3 feet high, grouted in the ground, and the tablets are inclined at a suitable angle so that the inscriptions can easily be read by persons riding or driving on the avenue. Every tablet is 4’4" in height. The advance position markers were cast by Calvin Gilbert. SOURCE & SOURCE. These tablets usually have accompanying artillery pieces which flank the tablet on either side. There can be as little as one cannon and as many as four. The cannons usually represent the battery and the armaments that specific battery used at Gettysburg. The cannons presumably point in the same direction as they once fired at the enemy in 1863. Sometimes only the cannon pads are present as the guns are periodically removed for service, cleaning, restoration, maintenance, etc.
The Brooke's Virginia Battery - CS Battery Marker 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 monument is identified as structure number MN795-B.
From the Nomination Form:
Civil War tablet that marks position of Brooke's Artillery CS Battery on July 2-4, 1863. Narrates events associated w/ Battery during Battle of Gettysburg.
Short Physical Description:
MN & 2 cannons. Cast iron tablet, 3'8" x 3'4", with raised inscription painted in a contrasting color and mounted on fluted cast iron post. All 4'4" H.
Long Physical Description:
Located on E side of West Confederate Avenue at Pitzer Woods, near Virgina Monument. The top of the tablet has not been re-installed.
![]()
My Sources
1.
NRHP Nomination Form
2.
Stone Sentinels
3.
Virtual Gettysburg
4.
Draw the Sword
5.
Historical Marker Database