GETTYSBURG – Most of the cleanup has been completed after 23 monuments in Gettysburg National Military Park were defaced with an oil-based substance earlier in the month. Park Communications Specialist Jason Martz said that just the Pennsylvania Monument was left to clean out of the 23 sites. He said it had the most severe damage.
The first step of the cleanup process is using a pressure washer with hot water. If that doesn’t work, Martz said they try a biological solution, which is common in masonry and for cleaning gravestones. If that fails, earth materials are mixed on-site into a clay-like substance that gets applied onto the oil and left to sit for 24 hours. The latter may be used several times to complete the work.
Gettysburg Park officials noted restoration could cost taxpayers thousands of dollars per monument. U.S. Rep. John Joyce (R-PA13) said, “These actions were not simply acts of graffiti. They were acts that damage our legacy.”
State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-33) said, “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the desecration of historic monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park. These actions are not protest, not expression and not harmless mischief — they are acts of vandalism and desecration that dishonor the memory of the brave Americans who fought, suffered and died on this sacred ground.
“The monuments that stand at Gettysburg do not glorify war; they commemorate sacrifice,” Matriano continued. “They honor citizen-soldiers who gave what Lincoln called ‘the last full measure of devotion,’ so that the nation might have, in his words, ‘a new birth of freedom.’ To deface these memorials is to dishonor not only the men who fought here, but the cause of equality and civil rights that their sacrifice helped advance.
Tim Smith, Gettysburg History’s director of education, specializes in studying the monuments on the battlefield. He said the oil-based substance could erode away at the names on them.
“They’re made of bronze and of granite,” Smith said. “They’re made of substances that would last for centuries, and the veterans were hoping that you could read the texts on them for hundreds of years to come.”
Smith noted that despite signage that states the park is closed from sunset to sunrise, that doesn’t deter everyone.
“Early on, in the 1880s, there was vandalism to some of the monuments on the battlefield,” Smith said. “In 1913, someone went around with a ballpeen hammer and damaged several monuments.”
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) just visited Gettysburg six weeks ago after other acts of vandalism had occurred.
“I told the park leadership then that this had been a chronic problem, that I would support some form of legislation or focus funding to help them clean up some of these desecrated monuments,” McCormick said.
Martz said people should call 911 if they see something suspicious happening on the battlefield. Smith said there’s also a Park Watch program where volunteers can help park rangers watch over the battlefield.
