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Monuments at Gettysburg – 110th Pennsylvania Infantry
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on March 12, 2015
The 110th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument at Gettysburg is located south of the town of Gettysburg on DeTrobriand Avenue. It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The drawing of the monument pictured above is from a Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889.
A picture of the monument can be seen on Stephen Recker’s Virtual Gettysburg Web Site which has more information about the monument and the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry.
A full description of the second monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.
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A brief description of the fighting and casualties of the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry was given in the Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889:
One Third Killed or Wounded.
The 110th moved into the Gettysburg campaign under Lieutenant Colonel David M. Jones. In the battle it was posted across the brow of a rocky wooded eminence to the left of and parallel with the Emmittsburg Pike. Time and again the desperate rebel horde was swept back by the 110th. Lieutenant Colonel Jones here lost a leg and one third of the regiment were either killed or wounded.
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The commander of the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry at Gettysburg was Lieutenant Colonel David M. Jones. On 2 July 1863 Jones was wounded resulting in the loss of his left leg. Major Isaac Rodgers then took over command of the regiment.
David M. Jones was from Franklin Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and enrolled in the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry as Captain of Company A on 24 October 1861. It is believed that he was about 23 years old at the time, but his age his age was not recorded at that time; after his death, his date of birth was given in an obituary as 24 April 1838.
On 16 June 1862, Jones was promoted to Major and transferred to headquarters of the regiment. On 21 December 1862, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, the rank he held during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Lieutenant Colonel Jones did not sufficiently recover from the loss of his leg to return to command, and on 9 October 1863, he was discharged by General Order and a Surgeon’s Certificate of Disability. On 12 May 1864, he applied for a disability pension, which he received and collected until his death at Denver, Colorado, 16 July 1877, leaving a minor child to apply for support on 23 March 1878.
In the years between his discharge and his death, he served as Recorder of Deeds in Blair County and as such his name appears on documents in the pension application files of widow’s of comrades who served with him in the Civil War.
According to an extensive article about Colonel Jones which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 15 January 1878, he had gone to Denver to try to recover from an illness that he claimed to have contracted at Gettysburg. His body was embalmed in Denver and shipped back to Pennsylvania for burial. That Inquirer article also details his military career, including the fighting at Gettysburg.
Lieutenant Colonel Jones is buried at Grandview Cemetery, Tyrone, Blair County, Pennsylvania. His Findagrave Memorial pictures his grave marker and G.A.R. star-flag holder, but the biographical information about him needs to be updated to reflect his Civil War service.
Isaac Rodgers took over command of the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry for the wounded David M. Jones. At the time of the battle, his rank was Major. He had joined the regiment originally as a 1st Lieutenant of Company B on 25 October 1861 and by 1 December 1862 was promoted to Captain of that company. On 21 December 1862, he was transferred to regimental headquarters with the rank of Major and as a result of his actions at Gettysburg, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on 5 December 1863. Unfortunately for Lieutenant Colonel Rodgers, he did not survive the war, as he was mortally wounded at Spottsylvania, Virginia, on 12 May 1864, and on 28 May 1864, he succumbed to his wounds. It is not known at this time where he is buried.
According to the Pension Index Card available from Fold3, Rodgers’s mother Matilda applied for pension benefits on 2 June 1865, which she received, and on 15 May 1878, his father applied, also receiving benefits. Since the two files have been consolidated with the 1878 application, only a reference file of 2 pages is currently available on Fold3.
Complete Pennsylvania Veterans’ File Cards for both David M. Jones and Isaac Rodgers are available from the Pennsylvania Archives.
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Around the base of the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg are a series of plaques which, by regiment and company, note the names of every soldier who was present at the Battle of Gettysburg. The plaque for the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry is pictured below. By clicking on the plaque it should enlarge so the names can be more clearly read. If a name does not appear, it could be that the soldier did serve in the 110th Pennsylvania Infantry, but was not part of the regiment during its days at Gettysburg. There could also be errors on the plaque.
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