Fundraising Begins For 119th N.Y. Statue On Long Island
By Bill Bleyer
September 2004

ROSLYN, N.Y. - For 90 years, a bronze statue of an infantryman stood atop a Civil War monument in Roslyn Cemetery on Long Island. Then in 1992, it was stolen, leaving three long bolts sticking up from the granite pedestal.

So last year, when newspapers printed photographs of a newly restored Civil War monument at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, several Long Island historians all had the same inspiration.

The bronze statue of the infantryman on the Green-Wood monument, they noticed immediately, was very similar in design and size to the one stolen from Roslyn Cemetery.

They made calls to Green-Wood to inquire about borrowing the mold from its statue. And now plans are underway to erect a replacement statue in Roslyn next spring.

The $18,500 project is being organized by Co. H, 119th New York Volunteers Historical Association, an organiza-tion of Civil War reenactors based at Old Bethpage Village Restoration. The group was "re-formed" in 1980. The original Co. H was formed in August of 1862 and made up of residents of the towns of Hempstead and North Hemp-stead on Long Island.

The Roslyn monument honoring local men who had fought for the Union was erected in 1902 by the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic. The six-foot statue rested on a 14-foot granite base on which the names of 30 local veterans were inscribed.

The statue was taken shortly after Memorial Day in 1992, leaving the bolts undamaged.

"You can see that they're not bent," said Harrison Hunt, a founder of Co. H and its historian emeritus. "That statue was lifted very carefully and very deliberately stolen. It wasn't just toppled" by vandals. "My belief is that it was done for a collector. There are collectors out there who want something and they know they can't tell anybody about it or show it to anybody, but they've got it."

Hunt said the statue might eventually surface just as World War II treasures looted by the Nazis have been turning up now. "It may take a while, but it's possible it might show up."

He said there are telltale markings on the statue that would allow it to be identified.

But with the mold made from the reconstructed 1866 Green-Wood statue available, the historians didn't want to wait any longer. They knew the molds for the Roslyn statue are long gone.

"The idea has been out there since the day it was stolen," said Robert Hansen, Co. H's current historian and coordi-nator of the statue project.

The Roslyn Presbyterian Church Cemetery Fund has pledged $1,000 for the project. And the Gerry Charitable Trust, based in Roslyn, has pledged matching funds for up to half of the cost. Civil War groups on Long Island are consider-ing donations.

Hansen said anyone who wants to contribute can send a check payable to "The 119th NYSV Association" with "Roslyn GAR Statue Fund" in the memo field to 119th NYSV Association, 248 Glen Ave., Sea Cliff, 11579-1520. The association hopes to rededicate the replacement statue next April to mark the 140th anniversary of the end of the Civil War or in June to commemorate the return of the 119th to Long Island after the war.

Hansen said the memorial was located in the GAR plot, which contains the remains of a number of Civil War veter-ans, and was the center of Memorial Day remembrances for years after its dedication, even after the death of the last of the local GAR members.

When the new statue goes up, Hunt said, the organizers will do whatever they can to keep it from being stolen. "We'll bolt it on better," he said.

Association members participate in local school programs, parades, living history presentations and reenactments as well as television documentaries and feature-length movies. For information about the unit contact Hansen, (516) 759-6956, rahansen@optonline.net