We went to Gettysburg twice. The first time on a tour bus with other senior missionaries. There were so many tour buses, cars, and people all over the place. It took all us old people so long to get off and on the bus when the tour guide, (who was very good), stopped us, that it was hard to get a "feel" of the place. The second time, just Greg and I went. We got there as early as we could, we skipped the visitor's center, took a back road and found a parking lot next to the Soldier's National Cemetery. It felt very sacred, sad, beautiful, and patriotic.
Gettysburg residents became concerned with the poor condition of soldiers' graves scattered over the battlefield and at hospital sites, and pleaded for state support to purchase a portion of the battlefield to be set aside as a final resting place for the defenders of the Union cause. The result is the Soldiers' National Cemetery. Removal of the Union dead to the cemetery began in the fall of 1863, and it was dedicated on November 19, 1863. The dedication ceremony featured orator Edward Everett and included solemn prayers, songs, dirges to honor the men who died at Gettysburg. Yet, it was President Abraham Lincoln who provided the most notable words in his two-minute long address, The Gettysburg Address, eulogizing the Union soldiers buried at Gettysburg and reminding those in attendance of their sacrifice for the Union cause, that they should renew their devotion "to the cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.."
Just a number.
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These markers were in the cemetery identifying
losses by state or military units. There are a lot
of them.
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Above, graves from the Spanish American War.
Below, graves from World War I & World War II.
Because it is a national cemetery, families can request
a cemetery for their fallen family member. There are
Vietnam veterans buried here. |
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The following pictures are some of the memorials states erected.
They are all over the place, some even outside the boundaries of the
park, erected before the park was in existence. Some are simple,
a few are elaborate, but all honor their fallen soldiers. |
The following three pictures are the Pennsylvania
Memorial. It deserves a note of it's own, because
the battle was in her state, and it sits in the spot
where the Union Army held the Confederate
Army on the second day.
