Who is that guy, seemingly waiting for the bus, on Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue? General Edward “Ned” Fowler led Brooklyn’s 14th Regiment in many Civil War battles. “The Red-Legged Devils” were devastated during the Battle of Manassas in 1862, losing all but 100 of its 960 members. Undaunted, Fowler led the 14th to the battles of Gettysburg, Mine Run and Spotsylvania in 1863-1864. After the war Fowler and his family lived in a number of buildings in Fort Greene and nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant. He died in 1896 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.
Fowler’s sculpture, by Henry Baerer, was originally placed in Fort Greene Park in 1902; vandals broke off his sword hand and toppled him from his pedestal in 1966. The statue was restored and replaced in the small triangle here in 1976, which was then renamed “Fowler Gore.”
7/1/14
3 comments
And to think that all this time I thought it was a statue of Spike Lee, standing his ground against the advancing army of gentrifiers…
I think you meant to include a link at the end of the first paragraph. Right now it reads ‘see page 00’.
Thanks