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Gettysburg National Military Park


  • Address: Gettysburg National Military Park
  • Travel Genus: Sight
  • Sight Category: Historic District

A New Birth of Freedom

The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the High Water Mark of the Rebellion, Gettysburg was the war's bloodiest battle with 51000 casualties. It was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg Address. - NPS


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Timeline

Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
Y/M/D Person Association Description Composition Food Event
1863/06/21 Samuel J Randall Union Commander First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, a Union Militia, arrive at Gettysburg. The residents generously contributed to the Troop's commissary supplies. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/06/21 First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry Patriot Troops First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, a Union Militia, arrive at Gettysburg. The residents generously contributed to the Troop's commissary supplies. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/00 Paul Joseph Revere Union Commander Col Paul Joseph Revere is wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, dies two days later in the II Corps Field Hospital Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/00 Robert E Lee Confederate Commander Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/01 Oliver Otis Howard Union Commander Oliver O Howard establishes a strong defensive position on the high ground south of town that will become the main Union line for the remaining two days at Gettysburg. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/01 William Henry Jackson Union Soldier US Union and Confederate forces begin fighting a fierce engagement in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/01 Edmund Berkeley Confederate captain Major Edmund Berkeley leads Garnett's in attacking and destroying the property of the Cumberland Valley Railroad at Gettysburg. "Boys remember Haymarket" was their rallying cry. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/02 Joshua Chamberlain Union Commander Joshua Chamberlain and and the 20th Maine defend Little Round Top Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/02 Albert Gallatin Jenkins Confederate Commander General Jenkins climbs a hill near Rock Creek and is fired upon by Union artilary, the shell explodes, wounding Jenkins and killing his horse Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 Edmund Berkeley Confederate captain The 8th Virginia Infantry, the Berkeley Regiment, fought in all the principal battles in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The regiment was almost annihilated at Gettysburg. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 William N Berkeley Confederate Major Confederate Major William N Berkeley, 8th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company D "Champe Rifles", and his brother Charles F Berkeley Captain, Company D, are captured at Gettysburg. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 Edmund Berkeley Confederate captain The 8th Virginia Infantry, the Berkeley Regiment, fought in all the principal battles in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The regiment was almost annihilated at Gettysburg. Pickett's Charge
1863/07/03 Norborne Berkeley Confederate Colonel Confederate Colonel Norborne Berkeley (1828-1911) is wounded and captured at Gettysburg. Major of the 8th Virginia Volunteer Infantry at the start of the war, he was responsible for much of the early training. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 Stephen Wiley Brewer Military Confederate Captain Stephen Brewer of Co E, 26th North Carolina Infantry is wounded in the 3rd Pickett-Pettigrew's charge at Gettysburg. Pickett's Charge
1863/07/03 George E Pickett Confederate Commander Pickett's Charge
1863/07/03 Edmund Berkeley Confederate captain Edmund Berkeley is desperately wounded at the stone wall at Gettysburg during. After the famous charge of Pickett's men there were only 10 men left of the 200 who made the charge. Pickett's Charge
1863/07/03 William W Wells Union Commander Riding by the side of General Farnsworth, William Wells leads a cavalry charge from the west to beyond the Big Round Top spur, attacking the rear of Evander M Law's Alabama regiments. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 Charles F Berkeley Confederate Captain Confederate Major William N Berkeley, 8th Virginia Volunteer Infantry, Company D "Champe Rifles", and his brother Charles F Berkeley Captain, Company D, are captured at Gettysburg. Battle of Gettysburg
1863/07/03 Isaac R Trimble Confederate General Hunter McGuire amputates General Isaac R Trimble's leg after Pickett's Charge. Pickett's Charge
1863/07/03 Hunter McGuire Surgeon Hunter McGuire amputates General Isaac R Trimble's leg after Pickett's Charge. Pickett's Charge
1863/08/00 Emmor Bradley Cope Architect From August to October, Union sergeant Emmor Cope surveys a map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg.
1863/11/19 William Saunders Landscape Architect Soldiers' National Cemetery established
1863/11/19 Abraham Lincoln Author President Abraham Lincoln dedicates the Soldiers' National Cemetery. The dais of the dedication ceremony where Lincoln delivered his address was located near today's Soldiers' National Monument. Gettysburg Address Battle of Gettysburg
1869/07/01 Soldiers' National Monument began in 1865 is dedicated 1 July 1869. The Batterson-Canfield Company provided the design of the monument, a granite memorial with a shaft rising from a four-cornered pedestal and decorated with sculptured by Randolph Rogers.
1918/03/24 Dwight D Eisenhower Military Major Eisenhower takes command of US Army Camp Colt, tank service camp at Gettysburg. Camp Colt covers 200 acres of the civil war battlefield, including parts of the Codori and Smith farms and the site of Pickett's Charge.
1918/04/00 Richard Mather Marshall is stationed at Camp Colt. "The main encampments were on both sides of the Emmitsburg Road, starting at the High Water Mark and running out to Sickles' monument.... our infantry training took us all over the Battlefield."
1918/09/00 Dwight D Eisenhower US Army Commander Camp Colt (lost) is placed under quarantine due to a flu epidemic. The highly contagious disease spread when 110 soldiers came in from Camp Devens, Mass, arrived in camp.

Data »

Particulars for Gettysburg National Military Park:
Cultural Affiliation African American
Criteria Architecture-Engineering
Historic Use Battle site
Historic Use Cemetery
Criteria Consideration Commemorative property
Area of Significance Conservation
Cultural Affiliation Euro-American
Owner Federal
Area of Significance Historic and non-aboriginal
Sight Category Historic District
Criteria Historic Event
Criteria Information Potential
Area of Significance Landscape Architecture
Area of Significance Military
Level of Significance National
Historic Use Park
Criteria Person
Area of Significance Politics-government
Owner Private



US National Registry of Historic Places Data »

Accurate at time of registration:

PLACE DETAILS
Registry Name:
Registry Address:
Registry Number: 66000642
Resource Type:
Owner: Federal, Private
Architect: Cope, Emmor Bradley; Saunders, William
Architectural Style: No style listed
Other Certification: Additional documentation
Nominator Name: National Military Park
CULTURAL DETAILS
Level of Significance: National
Area of Significance: Military, Politics-government, Landscape architecture, Conservation, Historic and non-aboriginal
Applicable Criteria: Event, Person, Architecture-Engineering, Information Potential
Criteria Consideration: Commemorative property, Cemetery
Cultural Affiliation: Euro-American, African American
Period of Significance: 1850-1874
Significant Year: 1863, 1864, 1893
Associated People: Lincoln,Abraham; Lee, Robert E., et al.
Historic Function: Defense, Funerary, Landscape
Historic Sub-Function: Cemetery, Battle site, Park
Current Function: Recreation and Culture, Landscape, Agriculture, subsistence
Current Sub-Function: Museum Park Monument, Marker Agricultural fields

Gettysburg Address

By

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 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.

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