Gettysburg Battlefield

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought July 1–3, 1863, was the largest and bloodiest battle of the American Civil War. Over three days, Union forces under General George Meade turned back General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North, in fighting that produced some 51,000 casualties.

Widely regarded as the turning point of the war, Gettysburg was also where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery. The battlefield is preserved today as Gettysburg National Military Park, among the most visited Civil War sites in the country.

In June 1863, General Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north into Pennsylvania, hoping a victory on Union soil might force a negotiated peace. Union and Confederate forces collided by chance at the crossroads town of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.

Over the next two days the armies fought across ground that became famous — Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Cemetery Ridge. The battle climaxed on July 3 with Pickett's Charge, a massed Confederate assault on the Union center that was repulsed with devastating losses. Lee began his retreat to Virginia on July 4.

The battle left about 51,000 men killed, wounded, captured, or missing. That November, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. The grounds were set aside as a national park in 1895 and transferred to the National Park Service in 1933; today the field holds more than 1,300 monuments and markers.