Monday, June 25, 2007

2nd Manassas Monuments

These three monuments are all New York monuments. Fittingly they are along NY Ave, which is just south of the Groveton Cemetery and west of Young's Branch and Chinn Ridge. They would have been along the Union left flank on August 30, 1862 and were attacked by Longstreet's corps.

The 5th New York, Duryee Zouaves, suffered brutal losses in briefly holding this ridge. The park brochure claims a loss of 123 men killed. The monument puts the killed at 124, plus 223 wounded, out of just 462 men in action. This loss occurred in five minutes along this ridge, which the monument claims as the greatest loss of life in any single regiment in any battle of the war.
Near the 5th New York's monument is the 10th New York, National Zouaves, monument. A complete breakdown of casualties is not given on the monument except to say that they lost a third of the regiment, including 31 killed or mortally wounded.
Along the Warrenton Turnpike just west of NY Ave is the monument to the 14th New York State Militia, 84th New York Volunteers, also known as the Brooklyn regiment. It does not detail what the regiment did that day or its losses, except to say that during its service it lost about 600 men killed and wounded. That is somewhat odd because regiments usually list losses much more exactly on monuments.

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