Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The 147th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was organized at Oswego, NY, and mustered into service on September 22 and 23, 1862.  Seeing only light action previously at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the “Oswego plowboys” displayed their bravery in the opening moments of the Battle of Gettysburg.  As the 147th approached a wheat field outside the southern Pennsylvania village of Gettysburg on the morning of July 1st, “Men began to fall on all sides before we fired a shot,” remembered J. Volnay Pierce of Company G.
  
As Francis Pease, F Company, wrote to his parents: 
“...July 1st we were routed out at daybreak and ordered to march. We started at seven o’clock. When we got within a couple miles of Gettysburg, off to the South of the town, we saw two or three shells burst in the air. It was the rebel batteries shelling our cavalry, which was on ahead. There was hard fighting to be done and we were ordered to load, which we did without delay. Then came the order, double quick, and the men started towards the front on a run. The road became so crowded, however, that we were compelled to slacken the pace and could only get over the ground on a run at rare intervals. The horses of the artillery were coming up at a mad gallop. Soon the rebel cannon balls began to whistle over our heads, some of them pretty close and probably the greatest battle of the rebellion was raging.” 
 
The 147th, along with the 56th Pennsylvania and the 76th New York, collided with the 42nd Mississippi Regiment and 2nd Mississippi and 55th North Carolina Regiments after crossing a railroad cut and lining up in a wheat field. The men of the 147th were within 30-40 rods from the enemy and were ordered to lie down in the wheat field to avoid the blistering firing power of the opposing Confederate troops. 
 
Pease continued: 
“For fifteen or twenty minutes we fought hard, when the rebels flanked us on the right and began advancing upon us in large numbers. The firing from both sides was very rapid. Finally we got the order to retreat and we lost no time in obeying, leaving an awful sight of dead and wounded upon the field.”
 
The reason the 147th held its ground so long under withering fire was that the order to withdraw had not reached them. Lt. Col. Francis C. Miller, who received the order from General Lysander Cutler’s aide, was shot in the head before he could pass it along. His horse bolted and took him off the field, leaving Major George Harney in command. 
 
The 50th and the 76th were in retreat as Lieutenant J. Volney Pierce described what he saw next: “We were now nearly surrounded and the fight very hot – We stubbornly held that line. No order to fall back had been received. Col. Miller was wounded, early in the action and left the field. Maj. Harney was close up on the line with us. I saw an officer [Lt. Homer Chisman] of Gen. Cutler’s staff ride down towards us and wave his sword as a signal for us to fall back. In the meantime a brigade of Rebs crossed the fence on our right and rear, and we then broke for the rear ourselves.”
  
In the chaos that followed, many of the 147th were captured as they attempted to use the railroad cut as an escape route and were forced to surrender when they realized the Confederates had occupied both sides and were shooting fiercely. One of those was Francis Pease, who was paroled and sent to Parole Camp in Carlisle, Pennsylvania until October when finally exchanged.  
 
Other soldiers who also used the railroad cut to escape were able to get to safety, joining the regiment as it reformed on the Chambersburg Pike south of Seminary Ridge and went into the woods where other parts of Cutler’s Brigade were located. The soldiers re-entered the fray and fought until about 4 o’clock when repulsed again. This time they regrouped behind the village.
 
For the next two days the 147th continued to fight, although their numbers were greatly diminished. The official record, which is disputed, states that 380 men from the 147th fought on July 1st and by July 3rd, 76 had been killed or mortally wounded; 146 were wounded; 79 were missing. Homer Ames, a soldier in Battery G, 1st NY Light Artillery, put it succinctly: “The 147th regiment got it rather tight. Only 86 men remain to tell the tale.”
 
As time passed, a controversy arose as to which organization should have the distinction of being the first to engage the Rebels on July 1st. For years articles appeared in The National Tribune arguing for one unit or another. John Badger Bachelder was so fascinated by the tale of the Union victory at Gettysburg that he contacted many of the survivors and asked them to describe what they recalled. The response filled several volumes of letters and maps.
 
July 1, 1888, saw many of the members of the 147th Regiment again at Gettysburg, this time to dedicate the monument commemorating the organization’s participation in the great battle. 
J. Volney Pierce delivered the dedicatory oration and used the occasion to correct stories of the 147th’s “rescue” by other Union forces: 
 
“We challenge the statement that the One hundred and forty-seventh New York was for a moment ‘cut off,’ but fought until ordered [to] retreat by the authority from the division commander, and not ‘rescued’ by the action of any other regiment. There was no other regiment in reach of us to assist while we were fighting on the right of this railroad cut; when we left the ground it was by order, and we carried our colors with us.”
(credit to the Oswego County News)
 
The marker was dedicated on July 1, 1888, and is located on Reynolds Avenue, north of the Railroad Cut.