Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The 124th New York Infantry was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Augustus van Horne Ellis.  The regiment had been recruited, mainly, from Orange County, New York, and was christened the “Orange Blossoms” by Ellis at the Battle of Chancellorsville when he admonished his soldiers to “Let the girls of old Orange hear a good report of this day's work." 
 
During the thick of the fighting around the Devil’s Den on July 2, 1863, Colonel Ellis ordered the staff’s horses brought up and he, Major James Cromwell, and Adjutant Henry Ramsdell mounted.  When a captain protested that they were making targets of themselves Major Cromwell replied, “the men must see us today.”  As the 1st Texas Infantry approached the 124th New York, “marching as if on parade, across the open field,” Lieutenant Colonel Ellis ordered his men to stand and fire.  The Texans fell back, and the New Yorkers charged.  “In this charge we suffered severely,” said Lieutenant Colonel Francis M. Cummins.  
 
“In the savage hand-to-hand fighting among the rocks, men shot at one another from the opposite side of the same Boulder, sometimes so close that clothing caught fire from the blaze of an enemy’s rifle. The high-pitched Rebel yell and the full-throated Federal huzzahs echoed through the rocks as first one side and then the other gave way…”
 
The regiment held off numerous attacks by Robertson’s Texans, but in the end, Ellis was among the dead.  “He was one of those dashing and chivalrous spirits that we frequently read of, but seldom encounter in real life,” noted General J. H. Hobart Ward.  Major Cromwell was also killed, but the 124th held long enough to buy an hour’s time for the south flank of the Army of the Potomac.
 
After fighting at the Devil's Den and suffering heavy casualties on July 2, the Regiment was ordered into a position to reinforce the main Federal lines on Cemetery Ridge in the event of a Confederate attack.  This marker indicates the regiment’s position on July 3, where it remained in reserve and did not participate in the repulse of the Confederate attack on that day.
 
The monument was dedicated on July 2, 1888 and is located north of Pleasonton Avenue near the State of Pennsylvania monument.