Booknotes: A Forest of Granite

New Arrival:

• A Forest of Granite: Union Monuments at Gettysburg 1863-1913 by Brendan Harris (Brookline Bks, 2025).

Brendan Harris's A Forest of Granite: Union Monuments at Gettysburg 1863-1913 "(e)xplores how Union veterans at Gettysburg shaped memorials to honor their sacrifices and convey deeper meanings behind their battle experiences."

A forest of granite indeed. It seems that only a battle fought in an actual Vermont quarry could contain more visible granite than that placed across the Gettysburg battlefield. Someone who has visited great battlefields across the world would have a more accurate reference point than I do, but one does get the impression that the Civil War veteran generation was exceptional in just how much its members felt compelled to establish permanent markers, monuments, and tablets in such heavy concentrations at the very places upon which they and their comrades fought. At Gettysburg alone there are an estimated 1,300 of these in total for both sides.

Harris's study traces "the overlooked efforts of veterans who sought to build lasting tributes, not only to mark where they fought but to convey the deeper meanings behind their sacrifices." Spanning the half-century following the battle's conclusion, these monumentation initiatives were largely "grassroots efforts" by Union veterans "to immortalize their experiences on the battlefield that held the greatest significance for the Army of the Potomac." According to Harris, his detailed examination of unit monumentation at Gettysburg reveals both the "complex individual makeup" of the Union army as well as the reasons "why veterans revered Gettysburg more than other battles fought during the Civil War" (pg. xiii).

As the decades following the end of the war progressed, the purposes of the monuments and the messages behind them also changed. More from the description: "Through dedication speeches, correspondence, and historical records, the book reveals how Union veterans raised funds and rallied political support to construct these monuments, even as the nation moved toward reconciliation and reconstruction. Early monuments emphasized punishment for the South and the preservation of the Union, while later ones reflected themes of reconciliation. These tributes, set against the preserved landscape of Gettysburg, reflect the complex social, political, and economic forces of their time, and continue to shape our understanding of Civil War memory."

Each chapter examines a "specific monument type," providing a great many examples of each. Numerous photographs (nearly one every other page or so) accompany the text discussion. Chapters also compartmentalize the different "eras" during which veteran monumentation unfolded, the 1888-1894 period being labeled the "Golden Age" of Gettysburg monumentation. Due to the exceptional number of Pennsylvania and New York monuments placed at Gettysburg, a separate chapter is devoted to them. In addition to revisiting Gettysburg troop strength (by state) and casualty numbers, the appendix section breaks down monument number totals by state and also provides GPS coordinates of a select group of monuments.