The Battle of Pines Bridge Monument

The Battle of Pines Bridge Monument

Yorktown Heights, New York
8’ bronze

The Pines Bridge Monument commemorates the Battle of Pines Bridge where Col. Christopher Greene, the Black Freemen and Native Americans, members of the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, perished on May 14, 1781 while guarding the Pines Bridge crossing and the patriot line along the Croton River. The composition depicts a 1st Rhode Island Regiment black soldier along with Colonel Greene and a Wampanoag soldier, of which there were a dozen in the regiment. The monument is situated in Railroad Park in Yorktown.

 The 1st Rhode Island Regiment under Colonel Christopher Greene was comprised of African Americans and Native Americans as well as European-American settlers. The monument was designed to reflect that diversity, the first Revolutionary War memorial to depict all three races together in combat.  After months of deliberating and considering diverse designs, the Pines Bridge Monument Committee (PBMC), in conjunction with the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce, the Yorktown Historical Society, and the Yorktown Planning Department announced the selection of the design by renowned sculptor Jay Warren from Rogue River, Oregon.  The monument is comprised of three statues including a Native American soldier, an African-American soldier, and a White soldier. This diversity represents the interconnectedness of each group in the fight for independence that centered around Yorktown’s Pines Bridge in the 1700s. Read the Yorktown Historical Society’s write up on this monument for a brief history of this battle.

The monument was dedicated on November 17, 2018.