Gettysburg National Cemetery

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox cemetery Template:American Civil War cemeteries Gettysburg National Cemetery, originally called Soldiers' National Cemetery, is a United States national cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, created for Union army casualties sustained in the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The Battle of Gettysburg was fought over three days between July 1 to 3, 1863, and proved both the Civil War's deadliest and most significant battle. It resulted in over 50,000 casualties, the most of any battle in both the Civil War and all of American military history. But the battle also proved to be the war's turning point, turning the Civil War decisively in the Union's favor and leading ultimately to the nation's preservation.

On November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Battle of Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. president, traveled to Gettysburg National Cemetery, where he participated in a ceremonial consecration of it and delivered the Gettysburg Address, which is now considered one of the most famous and historically significant speeches in American history. The day of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is observed annually at the cemetery and in Gettysburg as "Remembrance Day", which includes a parade, procession, and memorial ceremonies by thousands of Civil War reenactor troops representing both Union and Confederate armies and descendant heritage organizations led by the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) and the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV).

The cemetery contains 3,512 interments from the Civil War, including the graves of 979 unknowns.<ref name="CWWiki"/> It also has sections for veterans of subsequent wars, including the Spanish–American War (1898), World War I (1917–1918), and others, and includes graves of the veterans' spouses and children. The total number of interments exceeds 6,000.<ref name="CWWiki"/>

Battlefield monuments, memorials, and markers are scattered throughout the cemetery, and its stone walls, iron fences and gates, burial and section markers, and brick sidewalk are listed as contributing structures within Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District.<ref name=LCS />

The land on which the cemetery is located was part of the Gettysburg Battlefield, and the cemetery is within Gettysburg National Military Park, which is administered by the National Park Service, a U.S. government agency administered by the U.S. Department of Interior.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Description

The centerpiece of Gettysburg National Cemetery is Soldiers' National Monument (1869), a 60-foot-tall (18 m) granite monument designed by sculptor Randolph Rogers and architect George Keller. It is surrounded by concentric semicircles of graves, divided into 18 sections for Union states (1 each),<ref name="CWWiki">Template:Cite web</ref> a section for United States Regulars, and three sections for unknown soldiers.<ref name="CWWiki"/>

Battlefield monuments within Gettysburg National Cemetery include those of the 1st United States Artillery Battery H, the 2nd Maine Battery, the 1st Massachusetts Battery (Cook's Battery), the 1st Minnesota Infantry, the 1st New Hampshire Light Battery, the 5th New York Independent Light Artillery, the 136th New York Volunteer Infantry, the 1st Ohio Battery H, the 55th Ohio Infantry, the 73rd Ohio Infantry, and the 75th Pennsylvania Infantry; and markers for the 1st Ohio Battery I and the 3rd Volunteer Brigade Artillery Reserve (Huntington's Brigade). Other monuments include the New York State Monument (1893), the Kentucky State Monument (1975), the Lincoln Address Monument (1912), the Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial (1994), the Major-General John F. Reynolds Statue (1872), and the Major-General Charles Collis Memorial (1906).

History

In 1863, William Saunders was selected by a committee of Union governors to design the Soldiers National Cemetery. Saunders' radial plan of "simple grandeur," grouped the Union dead by states and focused on a central monument. The graves were marked with simple, unadorned, rectangular slabs of gray granite inscribed with the name, rank, company, and regiment of each soldier. Saunders noted in his description of the design that this repetition of "objects in themselves simple and common place" was meant to evoke a sense of "solemnity" which "is an attribute of the sublime." Officers and enlisted men were buried alongside one another to symbolize the egalitarian nature of the Union Army, which consisted mostly of volunteer citizen soldiers.<ref>Template:Cite book Template:PD-notice</ref>

Reinterments

Union remains were transferred from the Gettysburg Battlefield burial plots,<ref name=Becker>Template:Citation</ref> local church cemeteries, field hospital burial sites, including Camp Letterman, Rock Creek-White Run Union Hospital Complex, USA General Hospital,<ref name=Revised>Template:Cite book</ref> and the "Valley of Death" below Little Round Top, where unburied soldiers decomposed in place.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Samuel Weaver, as "Superintendent of the exhuming of the bodies", personally observed the contractor's workers opening graves, placing remains in coffins, and burying them in the cemetery,<ref name=Revised />Template:Rp and at least one reinterment from neighboring Evergreen Cemetery. Template:Wide image

Consecration

President Lincoln (seated, left of center) at the cemetery's consecration on November 19, 1863, several hours before he delivered his famed Gettysburg Address

An 1863 map of Soldiers' National Cemetery

• 
  Granite bands mark the graves of unknown soldiers.
• 
  National Cemetery rostrum (1879)
• 
  1st Minnesota Infantry Memorial Urn (1867), first battlefield monument installed in the national cemetery
• 
  Major-General John F. Reynolds (1872) by John Quincy Adams Ward
• 
  New York State Monument (1893)
• 
  Lincoln Address Memorial (1912)
• 
  Kentucky State Monument (1975)
• 
  The cemetery's south end contains graves of soldiers from more recent wars. The back of the Lincoln Address Memorial is at upper left.

Chronology

Chronology

Date	Event Template:Align
1863-07-01	Union artillery in the summit's cornfield<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> at the subsequent cemetery site counterfired on Confederates west of Gettysburg at the seminary and railway cut.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> On July 2, Confederate sharpshooters in Gettysburg were "picking off" Federals on the hill.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Nowrap	8,900 dead soldiers were on the battlefield,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and townspeople and farmers buried some of them at battlefield sites (e.g., along fences and stone walls).<ref name=AS186311 />
1863-07-07	The local Provost Marshal solicited "Men, Horses, and Wagons…to bury the dead" in various Gettysburg Battlefield plots.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1863-07-10	The last "Rebel dead" were interred on the battlefield (horse carcasses remained to be buried).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:When	Battlefield land preservation began by August 5<ref name=McConaughy /> with attorney David McConaughy's purchases including "the heights of Cemetery Hill"<ref name=BaltimoreSun>Template:Cite news</ref> which he planned for a soldiers' cemetery where lots could be purchased for reinterring soldiers.
1863-07-20	Template:Sic who was deployed from Gettysburg in a combat unit, began weekly newspaper ads for "removals into Ever Green Cemetery".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1863-07-24	David Wills, a Gettysburg attorney, recommended a state-funded cemetery at the south slope of East Cemetery Hill "on the Baltimore turnpike, opposite the Cemetery"<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp—the open, sloped tract of Template:Convert<ref>Template:Citation (letter included in report, p. 60)</ref> was sold by Peter Thorn in 1899.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1863-07-28	State funds regarding "Pennsylvanians killed [were for] furnishing transportation for the body and one attendant" to home cemeteries<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (600–700 coffins were used.)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1863-08-14	Wills, after being designated Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin's agent, purchased McConaughy's summit tract and a day or so laterTemplate:Who a 2nd tract "between Evergreen and the five-acre tract of Miller's apple orchard"<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp totalling Template:Convert for $2,475.87<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> ($Template:Inflation in Template:Inflation-year dollars).
1863-08-21	Wills had contacted William Saunders about designing the cemetery.<ref name=HAER />
1863	The reinterment contract was issued and required wooden boards nailed to the head of the coffins to protrude from the ground for displaying identities.<ref>Wills request for proposals from contractors to reinter the deadTemplate:Full citation needed</ref>
1863-10-17	† In a former cornfield of the battle,<ref name=DN2000 /> the first reinterments (Cpl Story & Pvt James) were from the 1804 "United Presbyterian Burying Ground".<ref name=Revised />Template:Rp The "Associate Reformed Graveyard" closed in 1899<ref name=Amrhein>Template:Cite report</ref> (at least five others are identified as reinterred from that graveyard.)
1863-11-16	۩ A flagpole<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was erected "near the stand prepared for the world-renowned Orator, Hon. Edward Everett".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Template:Convert<ref name=Selleck>Template:Citation (cited by Tilberg 1970)</ref> "platform" was "on the spot where the monument is to be built<ref name=Reid />…"fronting away from the cemetery [toward the subsequent] vast audience" (in Evergreen Cemetery).<ref name=Carr />
1863-11	Joseph Becker sketched the flagpole, the "grand stand"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> ("speaker will face this way"), and East Cemetery Hill graves.<ref name=Becker />
1863-11-19	¶ President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address after the Everett oration at the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.
1863-11-24	† 1188 remains, including 582 unknown, "had already been interred in the Cemetery".<ref name=AS186311>Template:Cite news</ref>
1863-12-07	Wills advertised for farmers to report graves on their property.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1863-12-17	The Board of Commissioners of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg was organized at Harrisburg and incorporated on March 25, 1864.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=NYT1869 />
1864-02-03	Michigan appropriated the first payment from a state for the cemetery. By the federal turnover in 1872, 18 states had contributed $129,523.24.<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp
Template:When	The "city of Boston" exhumed 158 soldiers' remains for reinterment in Massachusetts.<ref name=Revised />Template:Rp
1864-03-19	† Samuel Weaver reported 3,512 total Union bodies "taken up and removed to the Soldiers' National Cemetery" October 27-March 18.<ref name=Revised />Template:Rp
1864-03-21	† Wills identified the cemetery had 3,564 total burials, including those buried directly in the cemetery (not exhumed)<ref name=Revised />Template:Rp (e.g., Major George Tate's leg amputated at a hospital was buried in the cemetery which he annually visit from Massachusetts.)<ref>Template:Circa local Gettysburg newspaper item reporting Major Tate's annual visit (e.g., Gettysburg Times)Template:Full citation needed</ref>
1864-12	† 37 more bodies had been located and reinterred, the stone walls had been completed (the lodge nearly so), and the "main avenue" was "ready for macadamizing".<ref name=Unrau />
1865	Wills had iron fencing erected between the Soldiers' and Evergreen cemeteries<ref name=GDG_encdevel /> contrary to the condition when Pennsylvania purchased McConaughy's tract.<ref name=McConaughy>Template:Citation (cited by GDG.org: The Development of the National Cemetery)</ref>
1865-03-06	۩ The cemetery's 3 stone walls<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the brick "gate house" (lodge) were complete, and the gate was ready to be erected.<ref name=Revised />
1865-05	§ Daniel K. Snyder was appointed the cemetery superintendent, and was replaced in November by Sgt John McAllister.<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp
1865	۩ The wooden marker boards for each grave were replaced with gravestones<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (the CCC reset gravestones into concrete in 1934).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Specify	† A Union soldier buried July 5, 1863, at South Mountain's Monterey toll house was reinterred at the cemetery (his wife visited both sites for the 1913 reunion).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1865-07-04	۩ The "Exercises Incidental to the Laying of the Corner Stone" for the Soldiers' National Monument were conducted<ref name=Bartlett>Template:Cite book</ref> after designs had been requested in 1864.<ref name=Sellars />Template:Rp
1867-06-19	To plan the transfer to the federal government, the "Board of Managers" appointed a committee<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (Blake, Carr, Ferry, Hebard, McCurdy, Selleck, and Wills).<ref name=SS1867>Template:Cite news</ref>
1867-06-20	The Committee of Arrangement of the Board of Commissioners of the National Cemetery met Governor Geary, who with General Grant visited the cemetery.<ref name=SS1867 />
1867	۩ The marble urn in the National Cemetery was dedicated to the 1st Minnesota Infantry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1869-07-01	۩ The Soldiers' National Monument was dedicated<ref name=NYT1869 /> after the crowning statue of the Genius of Liberty had arrived in October 1868.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On August 26, the "Plenty" statue was added to the monument,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the "Peace" statue was added betweenTemplate:Specify August 30, 1869,<ref name=PG1869 /> and September 21, 1887.<ref name=WCD1887 />
Template:Circa	۩ The 2nd floor of the stone "gatehouse" (Greek Revival architecture) was expanded with a Mansard roof.<ref name="Photographs">Template:Cite web</ref>
1870-07-14	"A Resolution Authorizing the Secretary of War to take charge of the Gettysburg and Antietam National Cemeteries" passed.<ref>16 Stat. 390Template:Full citation needed</ref>
1871-07-22	The commissioners met ""to close up the business of the Board preparatory to its transfer to the National Government".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1872-05-01	Pennsylvania ceded the cemetery to the Department of War<ref name=Sellars /> (the board of commissioners expired.)<ref name=NYT1891 />
1872-08	§ Charles Stambaugh became the superintendent until July 1873.<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp
1872-08-31	۩ The Reynolds statue cast from bronze cannon tubes<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp (Robert Wood & Co. foundry, J. Q. A. Ward design) was erected on a dark Quincy granite pedestal.<ref name=Bartlett />Template:Rp
1878-10	۩ 50 new iron settees were placed in the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1879-05	۩ The 1st rostrum of Template:Convert was being completed by P. J. and J. J. Tawney,<ref name=GDG_12-23 /> with 12 brick columns and a Template:Convert high floor.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to Decoration and Dedication days' observances, the building was used during military camps (e.g.,1882 Camp Burnside)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and 1890 Camp Abe Patterson).<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1881-06	† 20 skeletons plowed up on the Gelback Farm along the Emmitsburg Road were reinterred.<ref>[1] </ref>
1882	۩ 17 tablets were erected to display stanzas of Bivouac of the Dead (only 8 remain).<ref name=LCS />
1882-05-10	† During Grand Central Avenue (now Hancock Avenue) construction, remains of a US soldier found on the Leister Farm were interred in the Cemetery.<ref name=GBMAminutes />
1884-11-08	† First and only African-American veteran of the Civil War, Henry Gooden of the 127th Regiment United States Colored Troops, is buried among U.S. Regulars in the Civil War section.
1887-10-01	§ Battlefield guide<ref>Template:Cite newscol. 2</ref> and assistant superintendent William Holtzworth replaced Supt. Nicholas G. Wilson who resigned to become the GBMA superintendent.<ref name=GBMAminutes />
1889	† Remains found during avenue construction were reinterred in the cemetery,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the cemetery gate to the Taneytown Road was planned.<ref name="news.google.com">Template:Cite web</ref>
1889-09	Joseph H. Smith constructed the "grand stand…for use on Thursday, Pennsylvania Day – on the large lawn in front of the rostrum".<ref name="news.google.com"/>
1890	۩ Two "Act of Congress Tablets" were placed in the cemetery to commemorate<ref name=LCS /> the February 22, 1867 "act to establish and perfect National Cemeteries"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (the congressional reburial program had been resolved on April 13, 1866).<ref name=Appendix>Template:Cite report</ref>
1891-02	۩ The cemetery's Taneytown Road (west) entrance was built at the summit curve of the Gettysburg Electric Railway.<ref name=Bien />
1891	§ Calvin Hamilton<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> resigned as<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> local school board president<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and became the cemetery superintendent after 2 years as assistant to W. D. Holtzworth.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1892	۩ William H. Tipton photographed the cemetery's summer house<ref name="Photographs"/> near the west gate.
1893-07-02	۩ After an October 1890 objection by Wills had been resolved, the Ionic<ref name=NYT1891>Template:Cite news</ref> New York State Monument<ref name=LCS /> was unveiled<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with the "statue of “Victory” in the presence of at least 12,000 persons".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The ceremony concluded with an artillery salute by Battery C.<ref>Newspaper clipping timesmachine.nytimes.com July 3, 1893 Retrieved May 27, 2023</ref>
1899	† Remains found at the United Presbyterian Cemetery during construction of the shirt factory were reinterred in the cemetery.<ref name=Amrhein />
1899-09-23	† Remains of 18 soldiers found on Culp's Hill were reinterred in the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1900	† Remains found by fence builders on a farm were reinterred in the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
1903	۩ A larger Gettysburg Rostrum was built<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Template:Convert with a sod platform<ref name=LCS /> to replace the original 1879 rostrum.
1904-05-30	¶ President Theodore Roosevelt delivered the Decoration Day address<ref>[2] </ref> after detraining near the McPherson Ridge railway cut.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1905	The lodge at the Baltimore Pike entrance was dismantled<ref name=GC1905 /> (teacher Ruth Hamilton at the High Street School had lived at the lodge).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1906	۩ $6000 was appropriated for a new lodge for the superintendent<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> (Wm. H. Johns was the contractor).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1908	First placement of memorial flags on graves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1912-01-24	۩ The Lincoln Address Memorial was erected on the cemetery grounds "near site of original summer house".<ref name=LCS />
Template:Specify	"A 205' macadam roadway [was] graded and piked around the Lincoln Memorial in Template:Sic."<ref name=HAER />
1914-04	§ Major M. M. Jefferys succeeded Calvin Hamilton as superintendent<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the Jefferys family moved into the lodge.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1915-05	The "Three-Mile Picture Show" named for the length of film recorded wreath-laying at the Lincoln Address Memorial by local "colored residents".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=SS19150507 />
1915-05-06	† Remains of a soldier discovered at Menchey's Spring on the base of East Cemetery Hill were reinterred in the cemetery.<ref name=SS19150507 /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1915-05	§ Acting superintendent Harry E. Koch replaced<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Major Jefferys who resigned during illness while at "Johns Hopkins hospital".<ref name=SS19150507 />
1915-09	§ Superintendent Austin. J. Chapman (1915 to 1918)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> prohibited hackmans' jitneys from carrying more than 15 persons into the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1928	¶ President Calvin Coolidge delivered the Memorial Day address in the rostrum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1928-09	۩ The brick comfort station at the cemetery opened.<ref>Template:Cite news (reprinted in 1943)</ref> It was closed in 1931.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (The 1st Gettysburg Parkitecture comfort station was built in 1933.)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1930	¶ President Herbert Hoover delivered the Memorial Day address at the rostrum that had been temporarily extended by Army Quartermasters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1930-08-31	§ James W. Bodley retired after serving as superintendent since 1918.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1933-06-10	Template:Executive Order combined management of the cemetery and military park with the Department of the Interior<ref name=Unrau />Template:Rp (Nine other cemeteries were transferred on July 28.)<ref name=Appendix />
1933	۩ Lafayette Square fencing was moved to the cemetery<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> after 1888 legislation had moved it<ref name=GDG_12-23 /> to East Cemetery Hill in 1889<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (installed by Calvin Gilbert).<ref name=GBMAminutes />
1936	† A U.S. Colored Infantry soldier who died after the Civil War was reinterred from Yellow Hill Cemetery (Biglerville) into the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1938	The National Park Service planted 200 rhododendron plants in the cemetery.<ref name=GDG_encdevel />
1942	§ Captain Earl Taute was the cemetery superintendent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1947/48	† 850 World War II dead were reinterred "from European and South Pacific theaters".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1949	Federal appropriations of $10,000 was planned to add Template:Convert to the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1955	۩ The American Legion Tablet was placed in the cemetery to honor the "efforts of American fighting forces in preservation of freedom of all men."<ref name=LCS />
1955	The Oscar-nominated The Battle of Gettysburg documentary filmed the cemetery.
1963	¶ President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a dignitary in the Remembrance Day activities at the cemetery.
1963-11-19	Bethlehem Steel deeded Template:Convert "to enlarge the present cemetery"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> during a luncheon for the Lincoln Fellowship's 25th anniversary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1967-04-15	A design for the annex between the north wall of the cemetery and Steinwehr Avenue had plans for 1666 graves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1968-02	† The first burial was completed at the annex (a 22-car parking lot had been contracted on January 23, 1968).<ref name="C0mAAAAIBAJ 1546">Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:When	† The last interment was made in the original cemetery area<ref name="C0mAAAAIBAJ 1546"/> (closed October 27, 1972, except for spouse interments).
1972	The last formal speaker for a Decoration Day ceremony at the cemetery was in the rostrum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1976–08	The National Park Service acquired the 4th of 6 houses along Steinwehr Avenue east of the Taneytown Road for the cemetery annex.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1980	۩ The cemetery's 1864 stone walls were reconstructed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1993-08-21	۩ The Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial in the annex was dedicated by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
1997-07-01	† Remains of a soldier discovered in 1996<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> during Seminary Ridge excavation<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> were interred in the cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Further reading

• Template:Cite book

External links

• National Park Service: Gettysburg National Cemetery
• Finding Aid for Correspondence and Printed Material on Gettysburg National Cemetery, Special Collections, Linderman Library, Lehigh University. Template:Webarchive
• The Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg (1874) by John Russell Bartlett
• Template:GNIS
• Template:HALS