2nd Maryland Infantry – 1st Maryland Battalion

Alternate Designations: None.

Commander: Lt. Col. James R. Herbert, wounded; Maj. William W. Goldsborough, wounded and captured; Capt. James P. Crane.

Installed Nov. 1886. Dedicated Nov. 19, 1886.

Location: East side of Slocum Avenue, overlooking Pardee Field.

Description: The monument cost $1,000.00. Vertical tapered monument of Richmond granite with cornice and apexed top on which is perched a polished sphere. It stands on a tiered base. Decorative relief elements include a Seal of the State of Maryland on the front face and a Cross of Lord Baltimore on each side, on the cornice. Monument is three-part shaft of smooth cut granite with a pyramidal top containing a ball apex and set on a 5.4 foot square tapered smooth cut base. The shaft contains polished excised lettering, a state seal bas-relief, incised inscriptions, and a cross bas-relief. Overall height is 9.6 feet. Flanking markers are one foot square.

This is the only monument to a Maryland Confederate unit (excluding battery tablets) and the first Confederate monument erected at Gettysburg. It marks the area penetrated by the 2nd Maryland Infantry during the Confederate attack on Culp’s Hill on the evening of July 2, 1863. In October 1884, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association granted permission to the survivors of the 1st Maryland Battalion (which had served in Steuart’s Brigade of Ed Johnson’s Division) to erect a monument indicating it’s position on the battlefield. Some Union veterans opposed allowing a Confederate monument. Of particular problem was the fact that there were already TWO Union “First Marylands” — the 1st Maryland “Potomac Home Brigade” and the 1st Maryland “Eastern Shore.” Both units also had monuments nearby the site chosen by the 1st Maryland, CSA. The GBMA decided to allow the 1st Maryland CSA to build a monument, but required that it be designated as the 2nd Maryland Infantry, CSA, to avoid confusion with the two Union 1st Marylands. The men of the 1st Maryland CSA reluctantly agreed.

National Park Service List of Classified Monuments Number: MN328.

Sculptor: Flaharty and Rummel, fabricator.

Other Monuments: Main Monument | Advanced Position Stone

Army of Northern Virginia > Ewell’s Corps > Johnson’s Division > Steuart’s Brigade