Monuments to Individuals at Gettysburg
The monument to Brevet Major General George Greene (West Point Class of 1923) is southeast of Gettysburg on Culp’s Hill. (Culp’s Hill North tour map) The monument was erected in 1906 by the State of New York.
Monument to Union Brigadier General George Sears Greene on Culp’s Hill
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Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, Twelfth Corps, Army of the Potomac
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From the tablet on the front of the monument:
George Sears Greene
Brevet Major General
United States Volunteers
1801-1899
This monument commemorates the services of General Greene and of the New York troops under his command, comprising the 60th, 78th, 102d, 137th and 149th Regiments of Infantry, forming 3d Brigade, Geary’s 2d Division of Slocum’s 12th Corps, and the 45th, 84th, 147th and 157th Regiments sent to his support during the night of July 2-3, 1863, when assisted by the 6th Wisconsin, 82d Illinois and 61st Ohio, these troops held this flank of the army against the attacks of a greatly superior force.
Erected by the State of New York 1906
From the tablet on the back of the monument:
Cadet U.S. Military Academy June 24, 1819; 2d Lieut. 3d U.S. Artillery, July 1, 1823; 1st Lieut. May 31, 1829. Resigned June 30, 1836.
Colonel 60th N.Y. Infantry Jan. 18, 1862; Brig. General U.S. Vols. April 28, 1862. Commanded 3d Brigade, 2d Division, Banks’ Corps at the Battle of Cedar Mountain, Aug. 9, 1862; 2d Division, Mansfield’s Corps at Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862; 3d Brigade, 2d Division, Slocum’s Corps, at Chancellorsville, May 1-3, 1863; at Gettysburg, July 1-2-3, 1863; and at Wauhatchie, Tenn., Oct. 28, 1863, where he was severely wounded.
Returned to field duty March 1865, joining Sherman’s Army in North Carolina. In action at Kingston March 10, 1865, and in command of provisional division until Sherman’s Army disbanded.
Breveted Major General U.S. Volunteers March 13, 1865. Honorably discharges April 30, 1866.
George Greene was born on May 6, 1801 in Apponaug, Rhode Island. He graduated from West Point in 1819 and served in a variety of New England garrisons and as an engineering instructor at West Point until resigning in 1836 to become a civil engineer.
After rejoining the army in 1862 as colonel of the 60th New York he became a brigadier general, serving with distinction in many battles. Probably his finest hour was at Gettysburg, where his lone brigade successfully held the right flank of the Union army on Culp’s Hill. At the age of 62 Greene was the oldest Federal general on the battlefield and the second oldest from either side, behind Confederate Brigadier General William Smith.
After the war Greene returned to civil engineering, becoming president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in the 1870’s. For many years he was the oldest living graduate of West Point. He died in New Jersey in 1899 and is buried in Warwick, Rhode Island.
See more on the life and career of George Sears Greene.
Location of the monument
The statue to General Greene is south of Gettysburg on the southeast side of the parking area on the summit of Culp’s Hill. (39°49’11.5″N 77°13’12.5″W)