That Nation Might Live - Gettysburg National Military Park

Once covered in bloodshed and death, these 6,000 acres of tranquil farmland, pristine meadows, and dense woodlands are a living memorial to the deadliest battle of the American Civil War — Gettysburg National Military Park with 1,300 monuments, 400 cannons, and 147 historic buildings tells the story of three days that would change the world and the tens of thousands who fought to reunite a nation torn apart by the sins of slavery.

Gettysburg — Lincoln Square

On June 3, 1863, General Robert E. Lee lead the Confederate Army of 72,000 men northward for the second invasion — the move would disrupt the Union plans, resupply the Confederate Army with plunder from rich northern farms, and threaten Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Arriving in Gettysburg, PA on June 26th, the Confederate cavalry chased out the local militia and raced up and down Chambersburg Street frighting residents. The infantry followed looting the railroad and burning nearby bridges. Food, horses, and other supplies were seized — and troops spent worthless and unwelcome Confederate money in local shops. By morning the Confederate army withdrew from Gettysburg and stretched from Chambersburg to Carlisle looting the countryside. The Union Army of the Potomac with 85,000 troops began to arrive south of Gettysburg — and on July 1st the two armies consolidate their strength here.

West Fields — Oak Ridge

On the first day, Union troops still arriving at the battlefield were outnumbered taking positions along Barlow’s Knoll and Oak Ridge to protect the town. The Confederate Second Corp began a massive assault and under extreme pressure repelled the first two rounds of attacks until Barlow’s Knoll was overrun. Followed by a Confederate third attack on Oak Ridge, the Union took heavy losses and the line eventually collapsed — forcing them into a fighting retreat through town and a defensive position on Cemetery Hill.

Rose Farm & The Wheatfield

During the second day of the battle over 20,000 men engaged in hand-to-hand combat at the Rose Farm which included Stony Hill and Rose Woods. It was some of the bloodiest fighting with over six thousand men were killed or wounded. The farm buildings were used as a Confederate field hospital and an estimated 750 soldiers were buried on the property. The area is now referred to as the Wheatfield.

Little Round Top

The smaller of two rocky hills and the site of an unsuccessful Confederate assault against the Union left flank is where the most well-known military actions at Gettysburg happened, and perhaps the entire Civil War. With heavy casualties, low on ammunition, and knowing his men couldn’t repel another Confederate charge — Colonial Joshua Chamberlain took command of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment and culminated his forces in a dramatic downhill bayonet charge into the larger Confederate regiment forcing them to retreat. Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry and battle was later popularized in the 1993 movie Gettysburg.

Devil's Den

The origins of the name are uncertain, however, the thin soil rocky ridge lined with giant boulders saw some of the fiercest fighting and one of the most haunted places in Gettysburg. Union Troops of the 99th PA, 4th NY Battery and 4th Maine snipers entrenched themselves in the rocks — as 5,500 Confederates from Major General John Bell Hood’s infantry swarmed Devil’s Den from three sides capturing it from Union forces.

The victory came at a heavy cost with over 1,800 Confederate and 800 Union casualties. The losses were so high the swampy section between Devil’s Den and Little Round Top was named the "Slaughter Pen” — and nearby Plum Run the Valley of Death. It is an eerie place, full of unrest and tourists often experience paranormal activity with reports of apparitions, malfunctioning cameras or phones, and even sustained ghostly interactions.

Culp's Hill

The heavily wooded peak occupied by Union Troops, Culp’s Hill was the critical right flank of the Union defenses and protected the main supply line on the Baltimore Pike. On the morning of July 2nd, General Lee ordered Confederate attacks on both ends of the Union line—and 3 brigades (4,700 men) charged up the eastern slope of Culp’s Hill.

Within the Confederate Army, 2nd Virginia Infantry was Wesley Culp, the nephew of Henry Culp who owned the hill, and the brother of William who served in the Union Army, 87th Pennsylvania. Wesley was killed on the family farm he was trying to take. William survived the war and regarded his brother as a traitor, never speaking of Wesley again. A sad reminder of how the conflict tore families apart.

Union troops repelled the Confederate advances for two days except along the southern part of lower Culp’s Hill and the meadows leading to Spangler Springs. The Union General Greene quickly reinforced the falling lines and eventually stopped the third attack. The fighting ended with an unnecessary and futile counterattack by Union troops at Spangler Springs.

Spangler's Spring Run

Flowing from the south base of Culp’s Hill to Rock Creek, Spangler’s Spring supplied Union and Confederate soldiers with water during the battle. On the morning of July 3rd, Union batteries opened fire on the Confederate position. Colonel Charles Mudge, commander of the 2nd Massachusetts and 27th Indiana couldn’t believe his orders referring to them as murder — a full-frontal assault over the open marshy ground against an entrenched Confederate army. Both units surged across the open meadow and were decimated, forced to retreat by the Confederate troops protected by a stone wall. The battle continued for 7 hours as Confederate forces counterattacked but were not able the break the newly reinforced Union lines.

Pickett's Charge — The Copse of Trees

The last major assault was ordered by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee against Major Gen. George Meade and Union positions at Cemetery Hill. Approximately nine Confederate infantry units consisting of 12,500 men advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile as Union artillery bombardments and gunfire cut them down. Although some Confederate soldiers breached the lower Union defenses at The Copse of Trees — they were unable to hold and ultimately repelled.

The Confederate casualties exceeded 50%, a loss was so decisive it marked the end of Lee’s campaign into Pennsylvania. It is considered an avoidable mistake the Southern army would never recover from militarily and psychologically. Featured at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center is the 1883 Gettysburg Cyclorama depicting Pickett’s Charge. The oil painting by French artist Paul Phillippoteaux is 42-ft x 377-ft and intended to immerse viewers into the battle.

Casualties

On July 4th, General Robert E. Lee failed to defeat the Union Army at Gettysburg and was forced to retreat through Maryland and over the Potomac River. The Union and Confederate armies suffered over 53,000 casualties during the three-day engagement — over one-third of the 150,000 troops engaged in the conflict. The death toll was so high that they are still finding remains today — with 60 found in 1996 by a tourist. In addition to being the deadliest battle in the Civil War, Gettysburg had the highest amount of generals killed or wounded.

At the age of 20, Jennie Wade was the only direct civilian and woman casualty at the Battle of Gettysburg. Her house is a popular tourist site where she was struck by a stray bullet — her remains are buried at the Evergreen Cemetery. In 1882, the United States Senate granted her mother a war pension citing Jennie was killed baking bread for Union soldiers. The monument dedicated to her includes a perpetual flag — only one of two sites devoted to a woman with this distinction; the other is the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia.

Soldiers' National Cemetary

Four months after Union troops defeated the Confederacy at Gettysburg, President Lincoln arrived in Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, to dedicate the final resting place for 3500 Union soldiers. Massachusetts statesmen Edward Everett delivered the main speech and Lincoln followed with a few brief remarks he wrote the night prior. His speech was less than 2 minutes long would be known as the “Gettysburg Address” which is considered the best-known speech in American history.

"Fourscore 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 cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot 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 here 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." - Abraham Lincoln

Gettysburg Address Memorial

The cemetery includes monuments to President Lincoln and New York Union troops. The centerpiece by sculptor Randolph Rogers, Soldiers’ National Monument features the “Genius of Liberty” statue surrounded by four smaller statues representing war, plenty, history, and peace. Confederate burials did not receive placement at the national cemetery and eventually relocated to cemeteries in Virginia, Carolinas, and Georgia in 1870.

End of the Civil War

General Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, VA on April 9, 1865. President Lincoln would be assassinated five days later. The Civil War resulted in over a million casualties, including over 620,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians deaths — 3 percent of the U.S. population at the time. The Union army suffered over 360,000 deaths and the Confederacy army 260,000 — although some claim the Confederacy deaths are undercounted. Nearly 200,000 more died from disease or war-related injuries months and years later. An estimated 8% of all “freemen” between the ages of 13 and 43 died, including 18% of southern men. African American troops made up 10% of the Union death toll.

Lincoln with the Republican-controlled Congress already passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Consitution that abolished slavery. In 1869, Ulysses S. Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States and championed equal rights with the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments providing equal protection of the laws, and gave all-male American citizens the right to vote regardless of their "race, color, or previous servitude condition. Grant would be given the hard task of reconstruction and enforcing these new laws in the Southern States that resisted them — enacting legal, political, and military offensives against white supremacist organizations that committed terrorist acts against African Americans.

With emancipation, a legal reality — the system of convict leasing kept many African Americans in bondage and the lowest level of the labor force due to corrupt and discriminatory sentencing until it was abolished in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Eternal Light Peace Memorial

With the words, “Peace Eternal In A Nation United” the memorial commemorates the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion and the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. An emotional gathering with over 53,000 Union and Confederate veterans attending from 46 of the 48 states. President Woodrow Wilson addressed the veterans, ”We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past, the quarrel was forgotten — except that we shall not forget the splendid valor."

President Franklin D Roosevelt unveiled and dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial at the last reunion and 75th anniversary in 1938. The second gathering included less than 1800 veterans and only 25 from the battle. The average age was 94 years old. The memorial designed by Lee Lawrie and Paul Philippe Cret includes an eternal flame, a relief sculpture of two women, and an American eagle. Written along the side on the monument, “An enduring light to guide us in unity and fellowship”, and “With firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right - Lincoln”.

Gettysburg National Military Park is a phenomenal historic site and educational center with personal accounts of Union and Confederate troop movements and activities during those three tragic days, it also includes the fighting at Peach Orchard, Plum Run, and many smaller skirmishes.

Beyond the battlefield, Gettysburg is charming with great eateries, an abundance of outdoor activities, breweries, and rich history. David Hill House, Gettysburg Train Station, Shriver House Museum, and Eisenhower National Historic Site are a few notable sites.

Sources: Wikipedia, National Park Service, American Battlefield Trust, Cornell University Online Library, Britannican