Brooklyn’s Prospect Park is rich with historic sculpture. The gem, of course, is the Arch at Grand Army Plaza. While everyone in Brooklyn is familiar with the Arch celebrating the triumph over the Confederacy in the Civil War, many people miss the statue of Gouverneur Warren just across the street. Warren was widely hailed as the “Savior of Little Round Top,” at least until the novel The Killer Angels turned the title over to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. I was at Prospect Park earlier this week and I paid a visit to the general.
Nearly everyone who has visited Gettysburg is familiar with Warren’s statue atop Little Round Top. This statue has some of the same elements as the Gettysburg statue. Warren is depicted in both gazing out at the horizon, field glasses in hand as though he is constantly searching for Longstreet’s Confederates, whether in Devil’s Den or advancing from Prospect Park West. In both, he is standing on Little Round Top for the granite in his Brooklyn pedestal was quarried from Little Round Top.
Here is what the Warren Statue at Gettysburg looks like.
At the start of the Civil War, Warren was teaching math at West Point. A native of Cold Spring, New York, Warren had been born just across the Hudson from the Academy. He commanded first a regiment in the Union Army of the Potomac and later a brigade. In 1862 he became a Brigadier General and in 1863 he was named chief engineer of the army.
At Gettysburg, Warren recognized the importance of Little Round Top to the Union defensive line. Seeing it unguarded he personally convinced several units passing near the hill to divert to defend it. After the battle he was promoted to corps command. Frictions with Phil Sheridan, a Grant favorite, and some cautious moves by him during the Petersburg Campaign, led to his humiliation at Sheridan’s hands. A court convened years later exonerated Warren. This statue was put up by a Brooklyn Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) post named after him. In many ways, I think it is superior to the Gettysburg statue.
Henry Baerer, a Munich-born immigrant sculpted this work. The Fowler statue honoring the commander of the 14th Brooklyn was also created by Baerer. It is located a block from the Brooklyn Academy of Music at Fowler Square. The statue was nicely restored twenty years ago.
Here is the dedication from the “G.K. Warren Post No 286” of the Grand Army of the Republic, the preeminent Union veterans’ organization.
The front of the pedestal has this plaque.
The statue was unveiled in 1896 on July 4.
The July 5, 1896 has this sketch of the new statue.
My favorite photo from my visit.
From the July 5, 1896 Brooklyn Eagle.
I took this shot of the Arch at Grant Army Plaza an hour later after nightfall. While not visible, the Warren statue is to the left of the arch and across the street.
This shot I took three years ago shows Warren in relation to the Arch.
All Brooklyn photos by Pat Young.
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Great article!! I never knew of this monument. Fascinating bit of information.
Back in the 60’s, I lived a few blocks away on St. John’s Place.
The sculptor of the Irish Brigade Monument at Gettysburg, William O’Donovan, sculpted the statue of Lincoln on horseback on the Grand Army Plaza Monument. He was a Confederate corporal at Gettysburg.
I have a photo essay on Grand Army Plaza I am trying to spruce up.
Does it say it is Little round top stone on the statue anywhere?
And we know Washington Roebling was on his staff and married his sister Emily, and the couple’s connection with Brooklyn!