Dedicated: 1878.
Location: Little Round Top. Located on the south slope of Little Round Top.
Description: Marble monoloith. The monument indicates the approximate location where General Strong Vincent was mortally wounded on July 2, 1863. An inscription is located nearby next to the 44th New York monument denoting that as the spot of General Vincent’s mortal wounding. The current piece, fabricated by Codori Memorials, replaces one executed in 1878 which was moved to storage after being vandalized. The current stone was placed in 1978.
About Brig. Gen. Strong Vincent
The pride of Erie, Pennsylvania, Vincent was born on June 17, 1837 in Waterford. He graduated from Harvard and was an attorney at the outbreak of the Civil War.
On September 14, 1861, he became the lieutenant colonel of the 83rd Pennsylvania. He assumed command of the regiment upon the death of its colonel at Gaines Mill but developed malaria and did not rejoin the army until Fredericksburg. In May of 1863, he assumed command of the brigade he led at Gettysburg. He wrote to her, “If I fall, remember you have given your husband to the most righteous cause that ever widowed a woman.”
Vincent took responsibility for bringing his brigade to Little Round Top and placed it upon a spur which now bears his name. Vincent positioned himself at the right of his brigade with the 16th Michigan. During the battle, Vincent mounted a boulder, and brandishing a riding crop given to him by his wife, shouted to his men “Don’t give an inch!” A bullet struck him through the thigh and the groin and he fell.
Vincent was carried from the hill. General Meade recommended Vincent be promoted to brigadier general for Gettysburg although it is unknown whether word of the promotion ever reached Vincent before his death on July 7, 1863. He is buried in Erie Cemetery, beside his infant daughter who was born two months after his death and lived less than a year. He is memorialized by a statue on the 83rd Pennsylvania monument on Little Round Top, by a statue erected in 1997 at Blasco Memorial Library, Erie, and by Strong Vincent Middle School in Erie.
Casualty Monument | Brigade Monument | Memorial Carving | 83rd Pennsylvania