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"The
Rock" At
Gettysburg |
 The 20th Massachusetts Infantry played a key role during one of
the Civil War's critical moments: the height of Pickett's Charge at
Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. The 20th Massachusetts moved in to reinforce
the Union position at a critical moment, to prevent a Rebel breakthrough
that may have changed the course of history. If you visit this area of the
Gettysburg battlefield, you will see many statues and magnificent
monuments. To the left of the famous "copse of trees", the high-water mark
of the Confederacy, is the quite unusual 20th Massachusetts Memorial. It
is a rough edged 30-ton rectangular monolith of "Roxbury puddingstone".
This pebbled conglomorate type of rock is native to Massachusetts. On the
base of the monument is a bronze plaque with the following text:
The puddingstone boulder was sent by rail from Roxbury (a section of Boston) to Gettysburg in 1886 by the Regimental Association. The bronze tablet was placed upon it and given by Mrs. Nathaniel Thayer of Boston, a daughter of Colonel Paul Revere, the third colonel of the Regiment and grandson of the Revolutionary War hero. The idea for this unusual monument came from some of the 20th Mass. soldiers raised in Roxbury, who as children climbed on such large puddingstone boulders. Fittingly, the Massachusetts General Laws state that puddingstone is "the rock or rock emblem of the commonwealth." This law was enacted in 1983. Puddingstone is composed of different materials deposited from afar by erosion and glaciation, washed by the ocean and cemented into a sort of natural concrete by heat, pressure and time. It is found in deposits between the Blue Hills and the Atlantic Ocean , in Dorchester, Mattapan and Milton, Mass., as well as in Roxbury. It was used as a building material in the 19th Century. Among the Boston churches built of puddingstone are the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End, and the Old South Church at Dartmouth and Boylston St. across from the Boston Public Library. Link to the other unique monument: "The Lion at the Library" |
Massachusetts
Infantry in line of battle on July 2, 1863, until (on July 3) it
advanced to the front of the copse of trees at right to assist in
repelling the charge of Longstreet's corps. This tablet is placed by
their comrades in honor of Colonel Paul Joseph Revere, First Lieutenant
Henry Ropes, Second Lieutenant Sumner Paine and 41 enlisted men who were
killed or mortally wounded."