Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry served as a member of Col. Jacob Sweitzer’s Brigade in Barnes’ Division of the 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac, a Fighting 300 Regiment.  This regiment was organized in Pittsburgh as the 33rd Pennsylvania on Aug. 31, 1861; after the members left for Washington, D.C., the regiment’s name changed to the 62nd that November.  The 62nd contained men from Allegheny, Clarion, Jefferson and Blair counties.  The infantry was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James C. Hull of Pittsburgh.  Hull was promoted from Captain, Co. A to Lieutenant-Colonel, June 27, 1862.
 
At the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, the 62nd Pennsylvania advanced into the Wheatfield, a four-acre field where some of the fiercest fighting of the battle occurred.  The “Whirlpool of Death,” otherwise known as “The Wheatfield,” switched between Union and Confederate control at least six times that afternoon before the Confederate forces were routed and resulted in more than 6,000 casualties.  The 62nd, under Hull’s command, fought in the Wheatfield at least twice that afternoon and suffered high casualties.  Hull’s unit brought 426 men to the Gettysburg battlefield; 175 died in the first few hours of the battle and the regiment suffered a 41 percent casualty rate.  “The woods which surrounded the wheatfield seemed to be swarming with the enemy, every avenue of escape cut off, and the men terribly exposed in this open field,” wrote historian Samuel Bates.  The federals fought their way back toward Little Round Top, and the Pennsylvania Reserves charged forward in support.
 
On September 11, 1889, the Philadelphia Inquirer included the following information on the 62nd Pennsylvania Infantry in its article on the monument dedications:
 
The 62nd in the Wheat. At sundown on 1 July, the 62nd left Middleburg in all possible dispatch for Gettysburg, where it was determined to concentrate for a decisive fight. Moving up the Baltimore Pike until it crossed Rock Creek, the division was posted to the left of the road and in the rear of Cemetery Hill. The heaviest part of the 62nd’s fighting occurred in the wheat field, surrounded by the woods, which seemed to be swarming with the enemy, and every avenue of escape was cut off. The loss in the 62nd was very heavy. Col. Sweitzer was wounded and had his horse killed under him. Major Lowry, Captain Edwin H. Little, and James Brown and Lieutenants Scott C. McDowell, Josiah P. Mouck and Patrick Morris were among the killed. Many of the men were bayoneted, Colonel Jeffords of the 4th Michigan, dying on the following morning of a bayonet wound. By order of General Sykes the division was posted during the night along the stone wall at the foot of the hill to the right of Little Round Top. By order of General Sykes the division was posted during the night along the stone wall at the foot of the hill to the right of Little Round Top, where it remained until the close of the battle. As it marched away from Gettysburg the regiment could but muster about 90 men.
 
This monument was dedicated on September 11, 1889 and is located south of Gettysburg on De Trobriand Avenue.