Pennsylvania monuments at Antietam
The monument to the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment at Antietam is east of Sharpsburg on Rodman Avenue. (Rodman Avenue tour map) It was dedicated on September 17, 1904.
The statue on the monument is of the colonel of the 50th Pennsylvania, Benjamin Christ. He had taken over brigade command in July of 1862 as senior colonel. Lieutenant Colonel Brenholtz had been wounded at Second Bull Run, leaving the regiment to be commanded in the Maryland Campaign by Major Edward Overton, Jr., an attorney from Bradford County.
Major Overton was severly wounded on the advance up the slope from Burnside’s Bridge, where the regiment “charged with great spirit and gallantry, and attained a position in advance of the Union lines, where it was exposed to a terrible cross-fire of artillery; but it maintained its position until the rebels were forced to retreat.” Captain William H. Diehl of Company E, a landlord from Berks County, took over command when Overton was wounded.
Text from the monument:
1st Brigade 1st Division 9th Corps
Colonel Benjamin C. Christ
Casualties at Antietam
Killed 8
Wounded 46
Missing 3
Total 57
Recruited in Berks, Schuylkill, Bradford, Susquehanna, Lancaster and Luzerne Counties.
Battles participated in:
Coosaw Spotsylvania
Pocotaligo N.Y. River
Second Bull Run North Anna
Chantilly Bethesda Church
South Mountain Cold Harbor
Antietam Petersburg
Fredericksburg
The Crater
Vicksburg Weldon Railroad
Jackson Ream’s Station
Blue Springs Poplar Spring Church
Campbell’s Station Hatcher’s Run
Siege of Knoxville Fort McGilvery
Wilderness Fort Stedman
Assault on Petersburg
Location of the monument
The monument to the 50th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry is east of Sharpsburg on the east side of Rodman Avenue about 0.3 mile south of Maryland Route 34 (39°27’03.5″N 77°44’24.3″W).
See more on the history of the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment during the Civil War