Gettysburg Battlefield - History

History

For this area's history during the battle's 1st day, 2nd day, Pickett's Charge, & 3rd day cavalry battles, see Battle of Gettysburg.

At the close of the battle, some of the ~22,000 wounded remained on the battlefield and were subsequently treated at the outlying Camp Letterman hospital or nearby field hospitals, houses, churches, and other buildings. Dead soldiers on the battlefield totalled 8,900; and contractors such as David Warren were hired to bury men and animals (the majority near where they fell). Samuel Weaver oversaw all of these reburials.The first excursion train arrived with battlefield visitors on July 5.

On July 10, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin visited Gettysburg and expressed the state's interest in finding its veterans, and attorney David Wills arranged for the purchase of 17 acres (0.069 km2) of Cemetery Hill battlefield land for a cemetery. On August 14, 1863, attorney David McConaughy recommended a preservation association to sell membership stock for battlefield fundraising. By September 16, 1863, battlefield protection had begun with McConaughy's purchase of "the heights of Cemetery Hill and" Little Round Top, and his total purchased area of 600 acres (2.4 km2) included Culp's Hill land.

On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, which was completed in March 1864 with the last of 3,512 Union reburied. From 1870 to 1873, upon the initiative of the Ladies Memorial Associations of Richmond, Raleigh, Savannah, and Charleston, 3,320 bodies were disinterred and sent to cemeteries in those cities for reburial, 2,935 being interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. Seventy-three bodies were reburied in home cemeteries. The cemetery was transferred to the United States government May 1872,, and the last Battle of Gettysburg body was reburied in the national cemetery after being discovered in 1997.

Union Gettysburg veteran Emmor Cope was detailed to annotate the battlefield's troop positions and his "Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg from the original survey made August to October, 1863" was displayed at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Also in 1863, John B. Bachelder escorted convalescing officers at Gettysburg to identify battlefield locations (during the next winter he interviewed Union officers about Gettysburg).