Gettysburg National Cemetery

Soldiers National Monument at the center of Gettysburg National Cemetery, Randolph Rogers, sculptor

A 1904 map depicted the Gettysburg Electric Railway along the cemetery's northeast and south walls, and a circular monument at the future site of the Lincoln Address Memorial across from the future site of the Gettysburg National Museum.

Graves of soldiers from wars after the Civil War buried along the Taneytown Road near the Lincoln Address Memorial.

The Gettysburg National Cemetery on the Gettysburg Battlefield's Cemetery Hill is near the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania) to the south. Shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg, the initial concept and early organizational efforts were led by rival lawyer David McConaughy. With the support of Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin, the site was purchased and Union dead were moved from shallow graves and inadequate burial sites on the battlefield to the cemetery. Local attorney David Wills was the man primarily responsible for acquiring the land, overseeing the construction of the cemetery, and planning its dedication ceremony. The landscape architect William Saunders, founder of the National Grange, designed the cemetery.

Description

The Soldiers National Monument is at the center of 2 concentric semicircles of graves with sections for 18 Union states, along with a US Regulars section and 3 sections (north, south, & inner circle) for graves of the unknown. Subsequent sections outside of the semicircle have burials for Spanish-American War and World War I soldiers. Historic district contributing structures of the cemetery include the stone walls (CM01), iron fences and gates (CM02, CM03), burial and section markers (CM04, CM05, CM06), the brick sidewalk (CM07), and various monuments, memorials, and exhibits.

History

Remains were transferred from the Gettysburg Battlefield plots, local church cemeteries, field hospital burial sites (e.g., Camp Letterman), the "U. S. A. General Hospital, York, Pa." and the Valley of Death where soldiers not buried decomposed in place.[1] Over 6,000 burials subsequent to the initial Union burials included veterans of the Mexican-American War.^{[citation needed]}

Chronology

Date	Event
1863-10-17	The 1st re-interments were from the Presbyterian graveyard on North Washington street (now defunct)
1863	Major George Tate's amputated leg from a Battle of Gettysburg hospital was buried in the cemetery, and he visited the site annually from Massachusetts.
1863-11-19	After only "1258 had been reburied in the semicircular cemetery", the Edward Everett oration and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address were delivered at the Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg.
1863-12-07	David Wills advertised for farmers to report graves on their property (e.g., at field hospitals and on the battlefield).[2][3]
1863-12-17	The Board of Commissioners of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg was organized at Harrisburg and incorporated on March 25, 1864.
1864-03-19	Samuel Weaver reported 3,512 total Union bodies on the battlefield had been exhumed October 27-March 18.
1864-03-21	David Wills identified the cemetery had 3,564 total burials, including the 3,512 exhumed.
1865-03-06	The cemetery's iron fence along Evergreen Cemetery, the 3 stone walls, and the brick "gate house" were complete (the gate was ready to be erected.)
	A Union soldier killed in the Fight at Monterey Gap and initially buried across from the toll house was re-interred at the Gettysburg National Cemetery (his wife visited the grave for the 1913 Gettysburg reunion.[4]
1865-07-04	The "Exercises Incidental to the Laying of the Corner Stone" for the Soldiers' National Monument were conducted.
1867-02-22	Legislation for "Act of Congress Tablets" placed 2 in the cemetery to commemorate establishment & protection of National Cemeteries.[5]
1867	The marble urn in the National Cemetery was dedicated to the 1st Minnesota Infantry.[6]
1869-07-01	The Soldiers' National Monument with crowning statue of the Genius of Liberty was dedicated.
1869-08-26	The "Plenty" statue was placed on the Soldiers' National Monument.
	The "Peace" statue was placed on the Soldiers' National Monument.
	The cemetery's bronze Reynolds statue by the Robert Wood & Co. foundry (design by J. Q. A. Ward) was erected on a pedestal of dark Quincy granite.
1870	A congressional bill passed for federal acquisition of the Gettysburg & Antietam cemeteries.[7]
1872-05-01	Pennsylvania ceded the cemetery to the War Department.[8]
1882	The poem Bivouac of the Dead was placed in the cemetery on 17 tablets (only 8 remain).
1887	A battlefield guide, William Holtzworth, was appointed the superintendent of the "National Soldier's Cemetery at Gettysburg".
1893	The New York State Memorial was unveiled[9] with "the beautiful statue of “Victory” in the presence of at least 12,000 persons".
1900	Remains found by fence builders were interred in the cemetery.[10]
1903	The rostrum was added to the cemetery grounds.[11]
1908	Memorial flags were 1st used on the graves.[12]
1912	The Lincoln Address Memorial was added to the cemetery grounds.[13]
1915	Cemetery superintendent Major M. M. Jefferys, who succeeded Calvin Hamilton in 1914[14] and had moved with his family into the lodge,[15] resigned during illness while at "Johns Hopkins hospital" in May 1915[16] (Harry E. Koch had been acting superintendent.)[17]
1928	President Calvin Coolidge delivered the Memorial Day address in the rostrum.[18]
1928	The brick comfort station at the cemetery opened[19][20] (closed 1931).[21]
1933	Control of the Gettysburg National Military Park was transferred to the National Park Service.
1933	Lafayette Square fencing was moved to the cemetery[22] (originally placed in 1889 on East Cemetery Hill by Calvin Gilbert).
1942	Captain Earl Taute was the cemetery superintendent.[23]
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."
1963	The Bethlehem Steel Company deeded 5 acres (2.0 ha) to the National Park Service for a cemetery expansion.
	The annex between the north wall of the cemetery and Steinwehr Avenue was dedicated.
1980	The cemetery's stone walls were reconstructed.[24]
1993-08-21	The Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial was dedicated in the cemetery annex by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
1997	Remains of a soldier discovered during Seminary Ridge excavation were interred in the cemetery.[25]

External media
Images
	1865 list of interments
	illustration of dedication
Videos
	1955 helicopter footage (minute 9)