During the fighting in the West Woods, the Philadelphia Brigade, commanded by Gen. O.O. Howard, lost more than 550 men in about twenty minutes of combat. Thirty years later the Philadelphia Brigade Association purchased eleven acres for their monument, and the veterans used the excess property around it to establish a public park. They planted trees, erected a gate, and in 1896 dedicated a monument in what is known today as Philadelphia Brigade Park. Standing over seventy feet tall, the Philadelphia Brigade Monument is the tallest monument on Antietam National Battlefield.
