Existing comment:
The War Correspondents' Arch:
In the early 1890s, George Alfred Townsend decided to sponsor a memorial to Civil War correspondents. He donated two-tenths of an acre of his Gapland estate, near the highest point of Crampton's Pass, and began a popular subscription drive to raise money to build a memorial arch. Contributors included Thomas Edison, J. Pierpont Morgan, George Pullman, Joseph Pulitzer, and John Wanamaker.
Townsend started designing the arch in November 1895. Architect John L. Smithmeyer volunteered his services, preparing detailed drawings and overseeing construction. The memorial was dedicated on October 16, 1896, by Maryland Governor Lloyd Lowndes, in a grand ceremony that included a U.S. Army drummer and bugler and closed with the singing of "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."
In 1904, Townsend deeded the memorial to the U.S. War Department. It was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. In 1946, its 50th anniversary, it was rededicated to the correspondents of all wars. In 1958, the land surrounding it was dedicated as Gathland State Park. In 1974, XXX', The Society of Professional Journalists, designated it a notable site. The National Park Service maintains it today as a national monument within Gathland State Park.
The memorial is 50 feet high and 40 feet wide. The large Moorish arch is 16 feet high and built of Hummelstown reddish brown sandstone. Above, three Roman arches represent Description, Depiction, and Photography. Nine-feet-high by six-feet-wide, these arches are made from blue limestone from Virginia's Cedar Creek Battlefield quarries.
The west side of the tower holds inscribed stone plaques. One dedicates the tower "to the Army Correspondents and Artists 1861-1865 whose Toils Cheered the Camps, Thrilled the Firesides, Educated Provinces of Rustics Into a Bright Nation of Readers and Gave Incentive to Narrate Distant Wars and Explore Dark Lands." Other plaques contain quotations, a poem written by Townsend, the names of 157 Civil War correspondents, and the names of three people who helped erect the monument.
To either side of the central arch on the east side of the monument, terra cotta heads accent the words "Speed" and "Heed". Above the main arch are the words "War Correspondents" in large letters. Above the three smaller arches are two terra cotta horse heads.
The square crenellated tower flanks one side of the main arch. On the east side, a niche holds a six-foot-high statue that has been variously identified as Pan or Orpheus. The statue is holding pipes and either half drawing or sheathing a Roman sword. Over a small turret on the opposite side of the main arch, a gold weathervane represents a quill pen breaking a sword.
The lists on the arch include Civil War Correspondents, artists, post-war journalists, and men instrumental in building the arch. Many names are omitted, incomplete, misspelled, or misstated. The following people are believed to be memorialized on the arch.
Northern Civil War Correspondents
Finley Anderson
James Nye Ashley
Adam Badeau
Theodore Barnard
George W. Beaman
Henry Bentley
William Denison Bickham
Albert H. Bodman
George C. Bower
Junius Henri Browne
Solomon T. Bulkley
Aaron Homer Byington
Sylvanus Cadwallader
S.M. Carpenter
Thomas M. Cash
Frank G. Chapman
William Conant Church
George W. Clarke
Charles Carleton Coffin
Richard T. Colburn
Joel Cook
Thomas M. Cook
Edward Crapsey
F. Crieghton
Lorenzo Livingston Crounse
E. Cuthbert
Nathaniel Davidson
William E. Davis
Edwin F. Denyse
John P. Dunn
B.D.M. Eaton
Charles Henry Farrell
James C. Fitzpatrick
R.D. Francis
Thaddeus B. Glover
Charles H. Graffan
T.C. Grey
Charles Graham Halpine
Charles H. Hannam
J. Barclay Harding
George H. Hart
John Hasson
John E. Hayes
Leonard A. Hendricks
Arthur P. Henry
Frank Henry
Volney Hickox
Adams Sherman Hill
George Washington Hosmer
Edward Howard House
Alexander Houston
Warren P. Isham
De Benneville Randolph Keim
William H. Kent
Thomas Wallace Knox
Francis C. Long
P.T. McAlpine
Richard Cunningham McCormick
Joseph Burbridge McCullagh
William H. Merriam
John Norcross
Crosby Stuart Noyes
Galen H. Osborne
Bradley Sillick Osbon
Charles Anderson Page
Nathaniel Paige
Uriah Hunt Painter
Comte de Paris, Louis Philippe Albert d'Orleans
A. Paul
Edward Alexander Paul
E. T. Peters
Henry Jarvis Raymond
J. Whitelaw Reid
Albert Deane Richardson
W.H. Runkle
Oscar G. Sawyer
William Franklin Gore Shanks
Richard L. Shelly
George Washington Smalley
Henry Morton Stanley
Edmund Clarence Stedman
Jerome Bonaparte Stillson
William H. Stiner
William Swinton
Benjamin Franklin Taylor
George Alfred Townsend
Benjamin Cummings Truman
Henry Villard
J.H. Vosburgh
Lawrence W. Wallazz
F. Watson
E.D. Westfall
Samuel Wilkeson
Franc Bangs Wilkie
F. Wilkison
A.W. Williams
John R. Wilson
Theodore C. Wilson
John Russell Young
William Young
Southern Civil War Correspondents
Peter W. Alexander
Durant Da Ponte
Felix Gregory de Fontaine
Donelson Caffery Jenkins
George W. Olney
George Perry
James Beverley Sener
William G. Shephardson
John S. Ward
Henry Watterson
Civil War Artists
S.E.H. Banwill
Thomas Francis Beard
Joseph A. Becker
H. Bensanon
A. Berghaus
Mathew B. Brady
W.T. Crane
Felix Octavius Carr Darley
S.S. Davis
Theodore Russell Davis
G. Ellsbury
Edwin Forbes
S. Fox
C.E. Hillen
E.B. Hough
J.S. Jewett
J.F. Laycock
Henri Lovie
Arthur Lumley
Frank H. Mason
W.B. McComas
A. McCullum
Larkin Goldsmith Mead
Henry Mosler
E.F. Mullen
Frank H. Schell
Fred B. Schell
William Ludwell Sheppard
David Hunter Strother
James E. Taylor
J.S. Trexler
Frank Vizetelly
Alfred Rudolph Waud
William Waud
George Forrester Williams
Other newspapermen and artists
Henry van Ness Boynton
Francis Pharcellus Church
John A. Cockerill
Frederick Dielman
James Elverson
Daniel M. Houser
Victor Fremont Lawson
Francis Henry Richardson
Richard H. Sylvester
Others
John Milton Hay
Lloyd Lowndes
Edward Mealey
John Godfrey Moore
John L. Smithmeyer
Samuel Ward |