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“Gowen monument”
The monument to the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment and its commander, Colonel George W. Gowen, is on the southeast side of Petersburg at the intersection of South Crater Road and South Sycamore Street.
The monument to Hartranft’s Division is two blocks (about 350 yards) to the west. The Old Men and Boys monument is about 200 yards to the northwest.
Looking south toward the monument and Sycamore Street. Crater Road (known as Jerusalem Plank Road during the war) is behind the photographer and intersects at a sharp angle with Sycamore Street just to the left. All of this area was dead ground between Union Fort Sedgwick (to the left) and Confederate Fort Mahone (at the monument to Hartranft’s Division about two blocks away on the right) but commercial development has obliterated all traces of them.
About the monument
The monument consists of a base supporting a bronze statue of Colonel Gowen. Bronze tablets with text are on the front and right side of the base. A tablet on the left side of the monument is a bas relief of soldiers of the 48th Pennsylvania working on the mine that was exploded to create The Crater.
There are three other bronze reliefs on the front of the monument. At the top is the symbol of the Ninth Army Corps, to which the regiment belonged. Under the text tabet is a relief of Brevet Brigadier General Henry Pleasants set on a palm leaf. Pleasants commanded the regiment when it dug the mine. At the base of the statue is a seal of the State of Pennsylvania.
The citizens of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania dedicated the monument in 1907. It stands in between the sites of Union Fort Sedgwick and Confederate Fort Mahone. The two forts were barely a few hundred feet apart, making life in them extremely dangerous and leading to their nicknames, Fort Hell and Fort Damnation. Today all trace of these forts are gone and the area is completely filled with suburban development.
About the 48th Pennsylvania
The 48th Pennsylvania Infantry was made up of anthracite coal miners. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a mining engineer, commanded the regiment at the start of the Siege of Petersburg. They came up with the plan of tunneling under and blowing up the Confederate battery that looked over their trenches. The plan was approved by Meade and Grant but they received virtually no support and had to improvise tools and scrounge wood and sandbags to carry it out.
The mine and its explosion was a success even though the resulting Union attack was a complete failure. Colonel Pleasants was rewarded with promotion to brigadier general. The regiment stayed in the lines. Its new colonel, George Gowan, was killed at the location of the monument while leading the regiment in an attack on Fort Mahone during the collapse of the Confederate lines around Petersburg just a few days before the surrender at Appomattox.
There are two smaller monuments to the 48th Pennsylvania at the entrance to the mine and at The Crater. Wayside markers tell the story of Digging the Mine and the development of the Ventilation Shaft. All of these are about a mile to the north, inside the Petersburg Eastern Front portion of Petersburg National Battlefield Park at Stop Eight on the battlefield tour.
From the tablet on the front of the monument
48th Regt.
Penn. Vet. Vol. Inf.
1st Brig. 2nd Div.
Burnside’s 9th A.C.
Mustered in
September 30, 1861
Mustered out
July 17, 1865
From the bas-relief on the front of the monument
Brevet Brigadier Genl Henry Pleasants of the 48 Regt PVV
From the tablet on the right side of the monument
Erected by the surviving
Comrades, school children and
Citizens of Schuylkill County,
Pennsylvania, and dedicated to
The memory of the dead of
The 48th Regiment Pennsylvania
Volunteers.
Col. George W. Gowen,
Killed in action in front of
Fort Mahone, April 2nd, 1865
Aged 25 years
Colonel George W. Gowen, who was killed at this spot on April 2, 1865.
Location of the monument
The monument to the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment is on the southeast side of Petersburg, Virginia, at the intersection of South Crater Road and South Sycamore Street. (37°12’10.5″N 77°22’51.0″W)