Union Headquarters monuments > 11th Corps > 1st Division
The monument to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, 11th Army Corps is southeast of Gettysburg on Wainwright Avenue. It is at the foot of East Cemetery Hill. (Wainwright Avenue tour map)
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Colonel Leopold Von Gilsa commanded the brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. Von Gilsa was a former Prussian Army officer who had settled in New York City. He was colonel of the 41st New York Infantry. The 1st Brigade had been commanded by one of its senior colonels since August of 1862.
The view looks west from the foot of Cemetery Hill. The Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse shows over the top of the hill above the monument, and General Hancock’s equestrian statue is at the top of the hill on the right.
From the monument
Army of the Potomac
Eleventh Corps First Division
First Brigade
Col. Leopold Von Gilsa
41st (9 Cos.) 54th 68th New York
153d Pennsylvania Infantry
July 1. The Brigade except the 41st New York having been temporarily left at Emmitsburg arrived about noon and took position a mile northerly from town on left of Harrisburg Road and right of Rock Creek Second Brigade on right and Third Division on left. Advanced over a knoll into woods in front and encountered Brig. Gen. Gordon’s Brigade and was attacked by Brig. Gen. Doles’s Brigade Major Gen. Rodes’s Division and subjected to a severe enfilading artillery fire from Lieut. Col. Jones’s Battalion on a knoll east of Rock Creek and forced back to the Almshouse where being outflanked the Brigade fell back with the Corps to Cemetery Hill and took position behind a stone wall on the right of Corps. The 41st New York rejoined the Brigade in the night.
July 2. Remained in position all day engaged as skirmishers. An attack in the evening on Cemetery Hill on the left was repulsed with the aid of First Brigade Third Division Second Corps.
July 3. Under artillery fire for an hour and a half but not engaged.
Casualties Killed 4 Officers 50 Men Wounded 21 Officers 289 Men Captured or Missing 6 Officers 157 Men Total 527
Location of the monument
The monument to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division of the 11th Army Corps is southeast of Gettysburg at the foot of East Cemetery Hill. It is on the west side of Wainwright Avenue 215 yards north of Slocum Avenue. Wainwright Avenue is one way northbound. (39°49’17.7″N 77°13’38.4″W)