The Truth Or Not

As a volunteer for the National Park Service at Gettysburg for a few years, I ran into one question over and over again. I know that many people would come up to me and ask me questions just to try to "trick" me, but quite often they couldn't. But this one question, although not a "trick" had a tricky answer. And what was that question? It was this: Is it true that the eqestrian statues had to have two hooves off the ground if the general was killed, 1 hoof off the ground if the general was wounded and all four on the ground if they got out unscathed?

This is a difficult question to answer because the answer is "It's a myth but its true." Huh??? Well, let's look at the different equestrian statues on the field (and, yes, I do include the Virginia monument as an equestrian statue....although some don't). There are a total of eight equestrain statues: Reynolds, Lee, Longstreet, Sedgwick, Meade, Slocum, Howard, and Hancock.

The only statue that has two feet on the ground is General Reynolds out on Chambersburg Pike. And yes, he was killed here at Gettysburg (on July 1). When the sculptor was asked about why he did it, his response was that he wanted to see if it could be done.....and yes, it can be done. Its been there for 100+ years and its still going strong.

The only statue that has 3 feet on the ground is the Hancock equestrian statue. Hancock was wounded on July 3 during Pickett's Charge.

Lee, Sedgwick, Meade, Slocum, and Howard all have their horses set firmly on the ground with 4 feet. All these men survived the battle without getting themselves wounded or killed.

Now, as you can see, the story is holding up. But then there is the Longstreet monument (and as much as I'm trying to stay away from this, I have to say it: I HATE that monument.....I have NEVER seen a more disrespectful monument to a great general before and that thing needs to GO!!!!). The Longstreet equestrian monument not only has the horse (is it a horse or a carousel pony????) standing on 2 feet, but it also has this poor animal standing on the top of one foot, while the other one is in the air. Longstreet was never wounded nor killed at Gettysburg. Although, some say his reputation was killed here.

So, if this holds true, how can we call it a myth? Easy....when talking to the sculptors, they all acknowledged that at no time did anyone EVER tell them about this "so-called" rule and they just did what they wanted to. But when stopping and looking at each of the statues, its easy to see that it COULD be planned...but it never was. It was an accident.

So the answer to the question is easy.....It's a myth but it could be true.