The day after Christmas I went to Bethlehem, in the spirit of the Season. The town was celebrating the birth of Christ, but it was not the scene of the birth 202 years ago. This was the relatively new steel town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. That day’s New York Times told of a new trend of couples being married during Christmas week in the small city named after a town in Israel. If you are going there to get married, you may want to pay a visit to the Soldier’s Monument on West Union Blvd and 8th Street in Bethlehem near the city’s Rose Garden Park.
Bethlehem, whose municipal name became the name of one of the largest steel companies in the world, had gone through a Rust Belt decline from the 1960s through the 1990s, but it has come back. In fact, in the 2020 Census, the city had more people than ever before with a population of over 75,000.
After I explored the monument, I had a great pizza dinner with my family at Lehigh Pizza on 13 W 3rd St where we paid an average of $13 dollars each. There is a casino in the city, which I avoided, but a I saw many luncheon spots as well as parks where one can have a picnic.
In 2015, Bethlehem took down the monument because it was leaning and appeared to be in danger of falling down. The statue was restored and a new dedication was held in 2017. The statue is made of zinc, a cheaper alternative to bronze, however, over the years it becomes more brittle and municipalities have had to invest in preservation care.
When the statue was originally dedicated on October 11, 1887 it was located on West Market Street. A large parade was held which was attended by Pennsylvania’s Governor’s James A. Beaver. 3,000 Union veterans from 12 posts of the Grand Army of the Republic marched and attended the ceremonies.
The statue still seems to lean a little backwards!
A history of Bethlehem issued in 1876 said that during its early history, the people of Bethlehem had distained service in the militia. However, by the 1840s there were efforts to raise a local militia and the Washington Grays became the militia company. On April 23, 1861, they were martialed in as Company A of the First Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. After the Grays left for Harrisburg, a meeting was held to form a Home Guard out of volunteers above the age of 45. That summer, a cavalry company was organized and it joined the Forth Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment. After Bull Run, many Bethlehemites joined the 46th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. In August of 1862, a company was raised for the 129th Pennsylvania Nine Month Regiment.
Many of the men recruited had German last names. These were both older families involved in the Moravian church that had settled the area as well as new immigrants who were members of the Lutheran and Catholic communities in the borough.
On June 28, 1863 word reached Bethlehem that Lee’s army had invaded Pennsylvania and soon thereafter refugees began arriving. The village had sheltered refugees during the Revolution, but this was the first time since the 18th Century that it had helped Americans fleeing war. A company of men were sent by Bethlehem to join the 34th Pennsylvania Militia to support the Army of the Potomac.
Bethlehem was originally settled by Moravian Protestants. This religion began its break from the Catholic Church before Martin Luther in what is now the Czech Republic. While the Moravians played an important role in developing the town, by the 1840s, immigrants had begun to flock to the area.
The monument has listed major battles of the Civil War.
The front of the monument shows infantry rifles.
Unique among the hundred statues I visited in the last year-and-a-half, this monument gives a short history of Bethlehem.
Now back to the inscription from the Grand Army of the Republic on the front of the monument. It identifies the post of the G.A.R. as the “J.K. Taylor No. 182, G.A.R.” It says the post was named after Captain Jonathan K Taylor who received a mortal wound at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862 and who died four months later. The captain commanded Company C of the 129th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment.
As I was photographing the monument, a man passed by me and said that Taylor had recently made the news. His sword was at last found 160 years after he died. Taylor’s 20 year old body was transported back to Bethlehem and laid in the Moravian cemetery there. He was the only office from Bethlehem to be killed in battle during the Civil War. Recently, a collector returned the sword used by Taylor to the Nitschmann Middle School across the street from the monument.
As you can see in the recruiting poster below, the person who sighed the appeal for new troops was Captain Taylor.
The Sons of Union Veterans posted this photo of the scabbard of the sword and a photo of Taylor.
The 129th Pennsylvania was typical of the dozens of “Nine-Month Regiments” raised during the emergency call-up of the Summer of 1862. It was organized in August of 1862. By the next month it was in the theatre of war. By December, it was in one of the worst disasters of the Army of the Potomac. Following that it was in the “Mud March.” Then it fought at Chancellorsville. Two weeks later, it was mustered out in May of 1863.
The monument is on West Union Blvd. at the corner of 8th Avenue in the Rose Garden Park. Nitschman Middle School, where the sword is displayed, is across the street. I have not seen when the sword is open to the public. It has only been on display for less than a month when I visited.
All color photos were taken by Pat Young unless otherwise noted. To see more sites Pat visited CLICK HERE for Google Earth view.
Sources:
A History of Bethlehem Pennsylvania by Joseph Mortimer Levering (1900)
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