Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association

The Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (GBMA) was an historic preservation membership organization and is the eponym for the battlefield's memorial association era. The association was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 13, 1864, after attorney David McConaughy recommended on August 14, 1863, a preservation association to sell membership stock for battlefield fundraising.[1] McConaughy transferred his land acquired in 1863 to the GBMA, and the association's boardmembers were initially local officials. The GBMA sold stock to raise money, hired a superintendent at $1000/yr,[2] added to McConaughy's land holdings, and operated a wooden observation tower on East Cemetery Hill from 1878–95.[3]

The association granted few exceptions to their requirement for placing memorials only on established lines, e.g., the 1887 plaque commemorating Gen Armistead's farthest advance on July 3 and the 1884 2nd Maryland Infantry monument on Culp's Hill. In 1880, GBMA officers were Grand Army of the Republic members from various states, by late 1882 GBMA funds were nearly exhausted, and by the 1890s the GBMA's roads were in disrepair.

After being chartered by the commonwealth, the GBMA subsequently claimed to have the exclusive zoning authority to locate all Gettysburg monuments including those not on the small portion of battlefield land owned by the GBMA. In July 1888 the GBMA denied the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry's request to place a statuary monument on the 72nd's private land at The Angle, a location previously approved by a commonwealth commission of 5 state officers. The GBMA then had the 72nd's Captain John Reed arrested on December 12, 1888, for trespassing after "he had started men at work laying a foundation for the [statuary] monument of the Seventy-second Regiment." In October 1889, Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association v. Seventy-second Pennsylvania Regiment heard testimony regarding the regiment's Pickett's Charge location(s), and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania "reaffirmed" for the 72nd: "the Commonwealth … has the right to designate the position where any of her regiments specially distinguished themselves" (Justice Sterrett). Although at the July 4, 1891, statuary dedicationEdward McPherson accepted the monument for the GBMA, on August 25, the GBMA Executive Committee recommended a disclaimer marker be placed to indicate the GBMA had "no responsibility for the location of the monument as now placed".

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