Gettysburg Monuments Campaign Update

Close to 100 people were on hand on last month at the Gettysburg National Military Park for a ceremony marking yet another advance in the campaign of state Rep. Harry Readshaw, D-Allegheny, to preserve Pennsylvania monuments on the battlefield.

The organization Friends and Descendants of the 151st Pennsylvania presented at $650 check to Readshaw's Gettysburg Monuments Project. The check was accepted on behalf of Readshaw by his aide Kathi Schue and Craig Caba, treasurer of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association, which has teamed up with the legislator for the Gettysburg Monuments Project.

The funds will be designated for the restoration and preservation of the monument to the 151st regiment, located in the Gettysburg National Military Park at the intersection of South Reynolds and Meredith Avenues, west of Gettysburg off state Route 30.

Many members of the regiment were schoolteachers recruited from central Pennsylvania, enough so that it was nicknamed Teachers' Regiment. Col. George F. MacFarland of Harrisburg commanded the group.

The Teachers' Regiment suffered heavy casualties on the opening day of the battle, July 1, 1863. As Confederate reinforcements began to push back a federal advance force, the 151st held stiff resistance to protect retreating Union troops. Of the 446 men in the regiment, 322 were killed, wounded, or missing at Gettysburg.

Funds from the Friends and Descendants of the 151st Pennsylvania will be added to the $1,700 presented to Readshaw in a July ceremony by the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The funds will be used by the National Park Service to clean and repair the monument and its foundation, and remaining money will be placed in a trust to fund future cleaning and preservation work.


©1998 APALACHIN COMMUNITY PRESS