Gettysburg National Military Park

The view of the battlefield from Little Round Top

Gettysburg National Military Park sits on land of the famed three-day battle that marked the "High Tide of the Confederacy." Sitting on 3,965 acres, the park is home to over 43,000 American Civil War artifacts. The park's 1,000,000 visitors each year can tour the battlefield on a group tour or in their own cars and visit the Soldier's National Cemetery where Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.

The battle began on July 1, 1863 as an attempt to stop Robert E. Lee's invasion of the Union. The fighting broke out at McPherson Farm on the north side of the city of Gettysburg. Leading the Union forces was Abner Doubleday who is often considered the inventor of baseball. (However, most baseball historians claim that this attribution is false.) The first day ended with the Union forces being pushed back to the present-day location of the Soldiers' National Cemetery.

The second day of the battle saw a more successful Union effort. The Confederate line was broken, and the Union took strategic positions on Little Round Top and Devil's Den.

The view of Devil's Den from Little Round Top

The third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg ended with a Union victory. The Confederates sent many cavalries charging at the Union line - the most famous of which is Pickett's Charge, called the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." Today, this "High Water Mark" is adorned with statues and monuments to the soldiers who fought on July 3, 1863. Pickett's Charge and the minor attempts to break the Union line failed, sending the Confederate soldiers back into Maryland and Virginia. Over the three days, over 50,000 soldiers were killed or injured. The Battle of Gettysburg is often considered the turning point in the American Civil War as the Confederates did not win another major battle, culminating on April 9, 1865 when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia.

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln and others met in Gettysburg to dedicate the Soldiers' National Cemetery. For the occasion, Lincoln delivered one of the most famous speeches in American history, honoring those who died and calling for continued support for the war and its cause. Visitors to the park can visit the Soldiers' National Cemetery and the spot where Lincoln famously uttered:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

As visitors to the park traverse the battleground, they see the many monuments to the soldiers who fought on July 1-3.Some monuments are dedicated to an entire cavalry, and others commemorate all of the soldiers from an entire state who fought at Gettysburg. Ultimately, Gettysburg National Military Park is a must-see destination for all Americans.

Cannons in front of the Pennsylvania Memorial