Union monuments at Gettysburg > Vermont
2nd Regiment United States Sharpshooters, Companies E & H
The monument to Vermont’s Companies E and H of the Second United States Sharpshooters is south of Gettysburg in front of the Slyder Farm. (Bushman Hill & Slyder Farm tour map) It as dedicated by the State of Vermont in October of 1889.
About the Vermont Sharpshooters monument
The granite monument stands 11′ tall. The front of the monument displays a (beginning at the top) of the Seal of the State of Vermont over two crossed rifles (one a target rifle with telescopic sight). Below the rifles is a hornet’s nest commemorating the report of a Confederate officer in Law’s Alabama Brigade of encountering “a perfect hornet’s nest of sharpshooters” on the Slyder Farm on the afternoon of July 2nd.
Col. Hiram Berdan’s two regiments of sharpshooters were unique in the Union army, using different uniforms, weapons, equipment and tactics from the “line units”. Although operating as United States Army units, each company within the regiments was formed of recruits from a single state. After the war the states (Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Wisconsin) erected monuments to their respective companies.
The 2nd Regiment of Sharpshooters was commanded by Homer R. Stoughton. It brought 204 men to the field and lost 5 killed, 23 wounded and 15 missing.
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From the front of the monument:
Companies E and H
Second United States
Sharpshooters.
Second Brigade
First Division, Third Corps
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Arrived on the field July 1 at 6 p.m. July 2, met the onset of Longstreet’s Corps near this point and helped to check its advance upon Round Top. July 3, reinforced the front lines in the repulse of Pickett’s Assault. July 4, skirmished all day along the Emmettsburg Road. Number Engaged, 48, wounded, 9, captured, 5.
From the rear of the monument:
Organized in November and December 1861 and, aggregating 430 officers and men, these companies took part in the battles of Orange Court House, Rappahannock Station, Sulphur Springs, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wappings Heights, Auburn, VA., Kelly’s Ford, Brandy Station, Orange Grove, Mine Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, June 16 ’64, Deep Bottom, Petersburg Sept. 10 ’64, Boyden Plank Road, Weldon Railrod,and Hatcher’s Run. Consolidated with Fourth Vermont Feb. 25, 1865, these companies served with that regiment to the close of the war. Killed and mortally wounded, 40, wounded, 90; mustered out July, 1865.
Companies E & H of the 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters are also honored by a monument at Antietam
Location of the Monument to the 2nd Vermont Sharpshooters at Gettysburg
The monument to the Second Vermont Sharpshooters is south of Gettysburg at the end of the Slyder Farm Drive about 1/2 mile east of Emmitsburg Road. The Slyder Farm Drive is closed to unauthorized automobiles but is a walking and riding trail. The monument can also be reached by a shorter trail about 500 yards from South Confederate Avenue, from near the monument to the First Vermont Cavalry Regiment. (39°47’20.3″N 77°14’48.7″W)