Links to the 150th Anniversary

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Honor the dead

Cemetery Hill, the ridge where the final battle of Gettysburg was won at great cost, great heroism, became the home of many of the 3,500 known and unknown soldiers who died there. In November 1863, Abraham Lincoln stood on those grounds to dedicate this as a National Cemetery, though it was designated only for Union soldiers. New York and Pennsylvania , the largest regiments. Maryland, Wisconsin, Illinois, they are there. Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia- these men were either lost or returned to southern burials after the war. 

Across the fence is the original Evergreen Cemetery, filled with markers as old as 1600, and as recent as WW2. A tall obelisk inscribed with the name Gettys marks the burial place of the family that founded the town, the small farming town that held a mere 2500 citizens in 1863. But the 10 roads that intersected the town and the abundant agriculture were an ideal location for two vast armies of men, horses, artillery and wagons to confront each other.

And yes, they did. Three days later and 51,000 Americans were killed, injured, captured, or injured.



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