Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
Organized at Chillicothe, Ohio, and mustered in on December 30, 1861, under Colonel Orlando Smith, the 73rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Long, Jr. (inventor of the Long’s Truss Railroad Joint).  Arriving on the battlefield during the afternoon of July 1st, 1863, the 73rd Ohio reached Cemetery Hill, a strategic location south of the town, as the 1st and 11th Corps were falling back through Gettysburg to escape advancing Confederate troops.  Taking up a position on Cemetery Hill, the 73rd was “almost incessantly engaged on the ground in its front.  Its losses during the fight amounted to one hundred and forty-three officers and men out of about three hundred,” said Whitlaw Reid in Ohio in the War.
 
The 73rd Ohio remained on Cemetery Hill, and under nearly constant fire, for the remainder of the battle.  The 73rd and its allied units were to hold the high ground and guard the artillery units on Cemetery Hill.  While holding this position, soldiers of the 73rd were subject to artillery bombardment and to being killed by Confederate sharpshooters who had taken up positions in the town.  As Samuel Hurst, an officer in the 73rd OVI, described the shelling in his journal--“…shot and shell fell like hail, tearing the ground scattering their own fragments and the earth and stones in every direction.”
  
On July 5th, the 73rd Ohio joined the Union's pursuit of the retreating Confederates.  The regiment marched through the Maryland communities of Emmitsburg, Middletown, South Mountain, Hagerstown, Falling Waters, and Berlin, before crossing the Potomac River and entering Virginia.  The organization continued its pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia, traveling through White Plains, New Baltimore, and Catlett's Station, before entering camp at Bristow's Station.  The 73rd remained at this location until September 25, 1863, when authorities ordered the regiment to Chattanooga, Tennessee to join the Army of the Cumberland.
 
On September 11, 1897, musician Richard Enderlin of Company B was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions when he “voluntarily took a rifle and served as a soldier in the ranks during the first and second days of the battle. Voluntarily and at his own imminent peril went into the enemy’s lines at night and, under a sharp fire, rescued a wounded comrade.”  The wounded comrade he rescued was 41-year-old Private George Nixon of Company B.  Nixon had been hit twice, in the right hip and right leg.  Unfortunately, Nixon would die on July 14; he was buried in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.  He was the great-grandfather of President Richard M. Nixon.
 
As reported in the October 23, 1974, issue of The Gettysburg Times (page 3), “The Superintendent of the Gettysburg National Military Park, John R. Earnst, announced today that the 73rd Ohio monument, which stands on the side of Taneytown Road, adjacent to the stone wall of the National Cemetery, will be moved to the Gettysburg National Cemetery Annex on Steinwehr Avenue.  In recent conversations with Gettysburg Borough officials, it was decided that the present location of the monument presents a hazard to traffic and it should be removed.  The monument has been at its present site for 87 years.”
 
The monument was dedicated on September 14, 1887 and is currently located south of Gettysburg on the east side of Taneytown Road about 125 yards south of the intersection with Steinwehr Avenue.