The Corn Exchange Regiment

There are a couple of monuments on the fields of Gettysburg that catch my attention. These belong to the 118th Pennsylvania Regiment....also known as the Corn Exchange Regiment. Why the Corn Exchange? Well, as it turns out, the Corn Exchange in Philadelphia actually financially backed this regiment.

There are three two monument to this regiment. The one is at the loop on the Stony Hill and the other one (shown here with the Trostle Farm in the background) is on Wheatfield Road near Sickles Ave. The third monument is a little off the beaten path in that it is located on Big Round Top but on the Old Veterans trail (not the switchback path).

The 118th Pennsylvania was organized in May, 1862 and participated in most of the major battles from Antietam (The Maryland Campaign) all the way through to Appomattox in April 1865.

The reason I'm thinking about this regiment is because the other morning I was out walking around the loop, looking at monuments and taking pictures and realized that I had never walked out to the monument. Now, its not that far from the road, but because of the loop and issues with parking, I just never bothered to walk over and look at it. So the other morning, at 6:30 am, I did it. I walked over and checked it out and was really impressed with the image of the soldier on top. Now, to look at a monument in the morning is completely different than looking at a monument at any other time of the day. First, the sun was just coming up so the monument took on a reddish glow on its eastern side. But we can't just notice the colors but the sounds in the background also. The Rose Farm has a bunch of Black Angus cows roaming in the area and while standing and reading the monument, all I heard were the cows mooing. I also heard many birds chirping and woodpeckers doing their thing.

Somehow, while listening to the early morning sounds, observing the lighting, and seeing the intricate details of the monument, it made my whole excursion over to this monument a really special time for me. There is nothing quite like experiencing the battlefield in the early morning but somehow its so much better when the sun just comes up.

I know that with the fighting that the men did on the Stony Hill and Wheatfield areas, they didn't experience the peace that I felt on that morning, but being there and seeing what the soldiers saw (Although changed by 146 years of development) it made that morning a bit different. Sometimes we don't stop and really think about our ancestors, our predecessors to this life....the men who molded our history. But standing on the field, when no one else is around, and listening to the sounds and seeing the sights, it brings the reality home.

One of the these days, I'm going to have to pick up a book about this regiment and follow them throughout the Civil War. Oh....my book list is getting longer by the minute!