The Battle of Gettysburg occurred on July 1-3, 1863. It was the bloodiest single battle of the American Civil War, with around 51,000 Union and Confederacy casualties. The battle became known as a major turning point in the war. The battle brought devastation to the residents of Gettysburg. Every farm field or garden was a graveyard. Churches, public buildings and even private homes were hospitals, filled with wounded soldiers. The Union medical staff that remained were strained to treat so many wounded scattered about the county. To meet the demand, Camp Letterman General Hospital was established east of Gettysburg where all of the wounded were eventually taken to before transport to permanent hospitals in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Union surgeons worked with members of the U.S Sanitary Commission and Christian Commission to treat and care for the over 20,000 injured Union and Confederate soldiers that passed through the hospital's wards, housed under large tents. By January 1864, the last patients were gone as were the surgeons, guards, nurses, tents and cookhouses. Only a temporary cemetery on the hillside remained as a testament to the courageous battle to save lives that took place at Camp Letterman.
As we stood and listened to the events of those three days it was hard to imagine the carnage and death. It was very sad.
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This is how the battlefield looked, imagine
11,500 acres of bloody battles.
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These stone and wooden fences are how they originally
looked as land owners built them. There are cannons in the
places where they were during the battle. |
 
There are a few old homes in the area.
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