Collis Zouaves - Chancellorsville VA
N 38° 18.562 W 077° 38.714
18S E 268715 N 4243451
A monument stands at the 114th PA's line of battle during the Chancellorsville campaign in May 1863.
Waymark Code: WMB5MW
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 04/08/2011
Views: 7
On May 3, 1899, General Charles Collis and about 20 veterans of the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers or the Zouaves as they were known, returned to the battlefield at Chancellorsville, Virginia to dedicate a monument to their comrades who had fallen here 36 years earlier during the Civil War.¹ An old archival
photograph
of the dedication can be seen at
Fredericksburg Remembered. The inscription on the plaque mounted on a block of granite reads:
ERECTED TO MARK THE LINE OF BATTLE OF THE
114TH REG'T. PENNSYLVANIA VOL'S.
ON THE MEMORABLE 3RD. DAY OF MAY 1863, WHERE IT LOST 3 OFFICERS
AND 35 ENLISTED MEN KILLED.
LIST OF KILLED.
List of men and their companies
COLLIS ZOUAVES is engraved on the front of the base and 1ST BRIG. 1ST DIV. 3RD CORPS. is engraved on the rear.
The 114th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers were originally formed in Philadelphia in 1861 under Capt. Charles H. T. Collis. They were also known as the Zouaves D' Afrique. (Pictures of their flashy uniforms can be seen here.) At the end of April 1863 when the Chancellorsville campaign erupted, Col. Collis' Zouaves arrived from their camp in nearby Falmouth. On the morning of May 3, a furious battle raged with Confederate troops, Jackson's Corps. The Zouaves were eventually forced back and their losses numbered 173 killed and wounded.²
The monument is near Fairview on the Chancellorsville Battlefield
of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Although it can be seen from Rt. 3, the old Plank Road, there is no pull-off or parking for access. It can be accessed from Fairview by a short walk through the woods to the clearing where the monument stands.
¹ Collis' Zouaves: The 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War by Edward J. Hagerty, pg. 325
² 
114th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Zouaves D' Afrique