PLEASE NOTE:  Due to the size of the replica, it can only be purchased at the gallery in Gettysburg. If you wish to arrange pickup, please email or call the gallery to arrange logistics.
 
Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The original “Bucktails” were the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves Regiment (42nd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment).  Named for the regiment’s custom of wearing the tail of a deer on their hats, the Bucktails were said to be superior marksmen, and during the first year of the war they distinguished themselves as skirmishers and sharpshooters.
 
In July 1862, due to this excellent record, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton directed Roy Stone, a major in the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, to enlist an additional brigade of Bucktails. Stone raised 20 companies of recruits by the end of August to send to Harrisburg for official organization into the 149th and 150th Pennsylvania regiments.
 
On June 30, 1863, the brigade had bivouacked four miles away from the town of Gettysburg.  As soon as the noise of battle was heard on the morning of July 1st, the column was put in motion for the relief of Gen. John Buford's hard-pressed troopers.  When the brigade arrived on the field at 11:00 a.m., Gen. John Reynolds had already fallen, and Gen. Abner Doubleday was in command.  Doubleday ordered the brigade posted on the first ridge beyond Seminary Ridge “…the right resting on the Chambersburg Pike, and the left reaching nearly to the wood occupied by Meredith's Brigade, with a strong force of skirmishers thrown well down the next slope, and the pike held by a platoon of sharp-shooters.”  Bates, Samuel P. History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg, 1868-1871.
 
" At about one and a half P. M.," says Colonel Roy Stone in his official report, " the grand advance of the enemy's infantry began….A heavy force was then formed parallel to the Chambersburg Pike, and pressed forward to the attack of my position. Anticipating this, I had sent Colonel [Walton] Dwight, with the [149th], forward to occupy a deep railroad cut, about one hundred yards from the pike, and when they came to a fence within pistol shot of his line, he gave them a staggering volley, re-loaded as they climbed the fence, and waiting until they came within short range, gave them another volley, and charged, driving them back over the fence in utter confusion. Returning to the cut, he found that the enemy had planted a battery which perfectly enfiladed it, and made it untenable. He accordingly fell back to the pike."
 
Lt. Col. Dwight sent the color party about fifty yards north to draw fire away from the regiment.  Although this worked, when the Union line was forced to retreat, the colors were lost despite the heroic death of Color Sergeant Henry Brehm.  Brehm had fought off a party of attackers but was shot down while running to return the colors to the retreating regiment.
 
The brigade held, in the face of vastly superior numbers, until it determined that Meredith’s Brigade on their left had retired.   Realizing that the Confederates were coming in on their left flank and they were in danger of being surrounded, the brigade fell back gradually to Seminary Ridge, fighting as it went, and making an occasional stand.  The brigade held their position for a time; however, finding itself outflanked, it eventually fell back through the town and took a position on Cemetery Hill.
  
On September 11, 1889, Captain J.C. Johnson was part of the regiment's reunion that day and delivered the monument’s dedication speech.  The following is an excerpt from that speech:
 
"We are again assembled on the field where we fought more then a quarter century ago, and where we left many of our comrades wounded, mangled, and dying. Time has worked great changes since that day. Many who escaped death here, afterwards fell gloriously on other fields of battle…. It is, however, eminently proper here to remember that our comrades who laid down their lives on this field were brave men. And it may be forgiven us if we mention that in this great battle no Pennsylvania regiment lost a larger number than did ours.
 
I have been told that it is now taught at West Point the change of front by regiment, that our regiment made on this field under fire, was a movement of such difficulty that it has not been done elsewhere since the battle of Waterloo….It is pleasant to think, and we justly have a pride in the thought, that history will record that in this battle of battles. The One Hundred and Forty-ninth did her full duty nobly and well."
 
The monument marks the hotly contested patch of ground of the Union lines near McPhearson's Ridge on July 1, 1863.  The monument was dedicated on September 11, 1889 and is located on the south side of Chambersburg Road, across from the equestrian statue of Major General John Reynolds.