Dedicated: 1988.
Location: Located on east side of Crawford Avenue.
Description: Full-length portrait of Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford stands on a rock base. He is in the uniform of his rank, including a wide-brimmed hat. A sword hangs at his proper left side. He holds a flagpole vertically in both gloved hands, braced against his proper right knee. Samuel W. Crawford (1829-1892) commanded the Pennsylvania Reserve in the defense of Washington in May 1863. He led the division at Gettysburg, where they made up the 3rd Division of Sykes’ Corps and in all the operations of the Army of the Potomac until the close of the war. A relatively recent addition to the battlefield; erected by the state of Pennsylvania. Crawford was born in Franklin County and is buried in Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery.
About Major General Samuel Wylie Crawford
On November 8, 1829, Samuel Crawford was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1846 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1850. He joined the U.S. Army as an assistant surgeon in 1851 and was serving in that capacity when Fort Sumter was bombarded.
Crawford decided to “change careers” at the start of the Civil War and transferred to the infantry. He led a brigade at Cedar Mountain and was severely wounded at Antietam. He could not return to service until May 1863 and led the Pennsylvania Reserves Division at Gettysburg, fighting in the Valley of Death. He would command this division of the V Corps until the end of the War and was present when Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
Crawford retired from the army in 1873 and later owned significant parcels of land where his men fought and which are now part of Gettysburg National Military Park. He died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
His monument at Gettysburg was dedicated in 1988, along with the monument to General Gibbon. During the fighting at Gettysburg, Crawford seized a flag and rallied his division, leading them forward.