Gettysburg National Cemetery

Our last stop in Gettysburg was the Gettysburg National Cemetery, located on Cemetery Hill. After the battle ended and the two armies left, the bodies of those fallen were left on the battlefield. Many were buried were they had fallen with only wooden markers sporting their names (if known) written in pencil. 

A committee was formed to create a National Cemetery where the fallen could be relocated to and put to rest. A lawyer named David Wills worked out the purchase of the land by the State of Pennsylvania. William Saunders, a landscape architect designed the cemetery. He planned for a large monument to stand in the cemetery's center with the graves radiating outward in a semi-circle. Each section of the circle of graves is divided by state. 

The Soldiers' National Monument that stands in the center of the cemetery today was made beginning in 1865 and placed on the battlefield and dedicated in 1869, six years after the battle.

The statue at the top of the monument is called the "Genius of Liberty." There are four statues around the base of the monument, representing war, history, plenty, and peace. I believe the two statues in the picture below are war and peace.

The bodies of the soldiers were moved to the cemetery beginning in October of 1863, three months after the battle ended. Although some Confederate Soldiers are buried there, the majority are Union Soldiers. The families and states of the Confederate Soldiers took many of the bodies back to the south and buried them there. 

The cemetery was dedicated on November 19, 1863. The committee asked  Edward Everett, a Massachusetts' statesman and famous speaker, to speak during the ceremony. As an afterthought, the committee asked President Abraham Lincoln to deliver some remarks as well. Edward Everett spoke for two hours. Abraham Lincoln followed him and spoke for two minutes, delivering the Gettysburg Address. 

In front of the Soldier's National Monument is a much smaller stone monument from the State of Kentucky that bears the text of the Gettysburg Address on bronze plates. The inscription is from an actual copy of the speech written by Lincoln and contains his signature at the end. The Gettysburg Address is one of the most famous American speeches ever given.

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.

In the front center of each state's section of the cemetery is a single stone marker on which is inscribed the state's name and the number of bodies buried in their section. There is a whole section for soldiers whose identities remain unknown. The stone in that section simply reads "Unknown 425 bodies."

Cement strips mark the graves of the buried soldiers. They are buried with their heads pointing towards the Soldier's National Monument and their feet extending outwards.

The names of the soldiers, if known are inscribed in the cement, marking their location. There are still many soldiers buried out on the battlefield because their graves were lost.

There is a monument for the soldiers from New York that fought in the battle. It is very large, but not quite as big as the Soldier's National Monument. On the front tablet it reads:

To the officers and soldiers of the State of New York who fell in the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 2, 3, 1863, many of whom are here buried, this monument is erected by a grateful commonwealth.  

Official return of casualties in the New York commands
Killed: 82 officers, 912 enlisted men
Wounded: 306 officers, 3763 enlisted men
Captured or missing: 68 officers, 1685 enlisted men

 

The figure on top of the monument represents the State of New York. She is holding out a wreath as if to place it on a grave. The monument is set off to the side of where the bodies are buried. It faces the section where the New York Soldiers are buried. You can see the statue through the trees from the New York section, reaching her hand towards their graves.

The cemetery is beautiful and it felt like hallowed ground. It was sobering to walk near those who died giving their life for a united nation and liberty of all men. 

The Civil War lasted two more years after the Battle of Gettysburg. One year after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Lincoln was re-elected and delivered his Second Inaugural Address. That is an amazing speech as well, and I encourage you to read it. Six days after the Confederate Army surrendered and the war ended, Lincoln was assassinated.

I have always admired Lincoln and I would even say that he is my favorite American President. After touring Gettysburg, visiting the cemetery and learning more about his accomplishments, I have a new-found respect for him and all that he did so that our country could be united and strong.