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Monuments at Gettysburg – 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 6, 2015
The 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Monument at Gettysburg is located south of the town of Gettysburg on Cemetery Ridge behind Meade’s Headquarters.
The above drawing of the monument was included in the 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 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry.
A full description of the monument, its GPS Coordinates, additional photographs, and some of the history of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, can be found on the Stone Sentinels Web Site.
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From the Philadelphia Inquirer of 11 September 1889:
The Monument of the 2nd Cavalry.
The survivors of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, which served at General Meade’s headquarters during the Battle of Gettysburg, will dedicate their monument at 2 P.M. They will meet at 1 P.M. at the court house and proceed to the monument. Captain Albert N. Seip, president of the Regimental Association, will turn the monument over to John M. Krauth, Esq., who will accept it for the Battlefield Memorial Association. An address on the operations of the regiment in that battle will be given by J. J. Galbraith, of Company M, Secretary of the Regimental Organization. A poem from Mr. George Parsons Lathrop, of New London, Connecticut, written expressly for this dedication and entitled “Battle Days,” will be read,
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Richard Butler Price
The commander of the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry at Gettysburg was Colonel Richard Butler Price.
Colonel Price enrolled in the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry on 23 June 1862 from Philadelphia, where he resided. He commanded the regiment for most of the remainder of the war until his discharge on 31 January 1865. On 13 March 1865, he was breveted Brigadier General.
The First Troop City Cavalry of Philadelphia is the subject of a book by the same name by Joseph Seymour. Born in 1807, R. Butler Price was one of the oldest regimental commanders from Pennsylvania in the Civil War. His experiences as a cavalry leader are summarized in that book in a photo caption found on page 16:
Some troopers also helped organize the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry. Shown here is Col. R. Butler Price. Price served with the troop for slightly less than six months in 1826, before rejoining the organization in 1830. Price served with the troop as a private when the troop mustered into state service to put down an armed mob at the state capitol in Harrisburg in 1849 and likely served during the Kensington Riots that rocked the city of Philadelphia in 1844 during a series of civil disturbances known as the “Buckshot Wars,” so named because the involved troops were ordered to load their muskets with buckshot to disperse unruly mobs. In 1861, Price helped organize the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry. On 7 September 1861 he became the regiment’s colonel….
Price died in Philadelphia on 15 July 1876 and the funeral was conducted from his sister’s residence. He is buried in Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia. See his Findagrave Memorial for additional information.
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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 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry 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 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry, but was not part of the regiment during its days at Gettysburg. There could also be errors on the plaque.
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