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Monuments at Gettysburg – 141st Pennsylvania Infantry
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on April 8, 2015
The 141st Pennsylvania Infantry Monument at Gettysburg is located south of the town of Gettysburg at the Peach Orchard. It was dedicated in 1889 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The picture of the monument (above) is from Stephen Recker’s Virtual Gettysburg Web Site which has more information about the monument and the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry.
A full description of the monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.
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The heavy losses of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry were noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer article of 11 September 1889:
Lost Seventy Per Cent of Its Men.
The 141st reached Gettysburg coming from Emmittsburg, 1 July 1863, after dark, and on the 2nd took position on Emmittsburg Pike to the right of the Peach Orchard, where it was engaged in support of batteries. The angle formed in Sickles’s line at this point was the most exposed part of the field. Save for a shielding cut in the road leading out to Round Top the regiment would have been annihilated by the enemy’s terrific artillery fire. At length the infantry advanced. It had reached the fence skirting the peach orchard on the south, counting on the easy capture of the Union guns when the 141st, which had lain concealed from view, leaped the wall, dashed upon the bewildered foe and held an advanced position while the horseless guns could be dragged to a place of safety. Here in the repeated overwhelming attacks of the 141st, though fearfully torn, maintained a bold front and lost 70 per cent of its men. The beloved Major Spalding was killed and all the captains but Captain Horton. The latter remained on the field, though wounded.
General Henry J. Madill, Colonel in command in the conflict, will deliver the oration at the monument.
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Henry J. Madill
The commander of the 141st Pennsylvania Infantryy at Gettysburg was Colonel Henry Joseph Madill. Madill, an attorney from Towanda, Pennsylvania, joined the 35th Pennsylvania Infantry on 22 June 1861 as Major at headquarters, but when the 141st was formed on 30 August 1862, he transferred there at the rank of Colonel. After Gettysburg, he was breveted Brigadier General on 2 December 1864. He was wounded at Petersburg on 2 April 1865 and on 13 March 1865 he was again breveted, this time as Major General. His discharge came on 11 June 1865 and was backdated to 25 May 1865.
In his later years he returned to his law practice and was elected to several offices including County Recorder and Registrar and the Pennsylvania General Assembly representing Bradford County. He applied for a Civil War pension on 6 September 1871, which he received and collected until his death.
Colonel Madill died on 29 June 1899 at Wysox, Bradford County, and is buried in the Wysox Cemetery.
For further information about him, see his Findagrave Memorial and an article entitled The 141st at Gettysburg which was published in the Daily Review of Bradford County.
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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 141st 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 141st 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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