Gettysburg National Military Park Gettysburg National Park (1893) Gettysburg Park | |
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Nearest city | Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Coordinates | 39°48′31″N77°14′12″W / 39.80861°N 77.23667°W |
Area | 6,032 acres (24.41 km2) (as of 2020) [1] 2009: 3,965 acres 1963: 2,871 acres 1932: 2,530 acres 1916: ~2,302 acres [2] 1900: 1,221 acres 1888: 540 acres |
Established | 1966: added to NRHP 1895: national park designation 1893: federal protection 1864: GBMA protection 1863: initial protection |
Visitors | 1,031,554[ citation needed ](in 2010) |
Governing body | 1933: National Park Service 1896: War Department 1864: Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association |
Website | Gettysburg National Military Park |
Gettysburg National Military Park | |
Architect | Emmor Bradley Cope; William Saunders |
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NRHP reference No. | 66000642 [3] |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
The Gettysburg National Military Park protects and interprets the landscape of the Battle of Gettysburg, fought over three days between July 1 and July 3, 1863, during the American Civil War. The park, in the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania area, is managed by the National Park Service. [4] Totaling 3,785 acres (1,532 ha) of area, it is mostly located in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, [5] where it takes up almost 20% of the municipality's area. [6] Portions of the park extend into the Gettysburg borough limits, [7] including the Soldiers' National Cemetery, [8] and an exclave is in Mount Pleasant Township. [9]
The park's properties include most of the Gettysburg Battlefield, many of the battle's support areas during the battle, including reserve, supply, and hospital locations, and several non-battle areas associated with the battle's aftermath and commemoration, including the Gettysburg National Cemetery, where the Gettysburg Address was delivered by then President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863. [10] Many of the park's 43,000 American Civil War artifacts are displayed in the Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center. [11]
The park has more wooded land than in 1863, and the National Park Service has an ongoing program to restore portions of the battlefield to their historical non-wooded conditions, as well as to replant historic orchards and woodlots that are now missing. In addition, the NPS is restoring native plants to meadows and edges of roads, to encourage habitat as well as provide for historic landscape. There are also considerably more roads and facilities for the benefit of tourists visiting the battlefield park.
Attendance in 2018 was 950,000, a decline of 86% since 1970. The five major Civil War battlefield parks operated by the National Park Service (Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Chickamauga/Chattanooga and Vicksburg) had a combined 3.1 million visitors in 2018, down 70% from 10.2 million in 1970. [12]
The park was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. [10] [13]
The 1864 Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association and later veteran's associations acquired land for memorials and preservation (e.g., the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument tract with the statuary memorial depicted on the 2011 America the Beautiful Quarter dollar). Federal acquisition of land that would become the 1895 national park began on June 7, 1893, with nine monument tracts of 625 sq ft (58.1 m2) each and a larger 10th lot of 1.2 acres (4,900 m2) from the Association, as well as 0.275 acres (1,110 m2) from Samuel M Bushman. [2] In addition to land purchases, federal eminent domain takings include the Gettysburg Electric Railway right-of-ways in 1917 (cf. 1896 United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co. ). Donated land included 160 acres from the 1959 Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association and 264 acres (107 ha) from the W. Alton Jones Foundation. [14] : 42 The Gettysburg Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit philanthropic, educational organization that operates in partnership with the National Park Service to preserve Gettysburg National Military Park and the Eisenhower National Historic Site, and to educate the public about their significance. [15] (e.g., the Foundation raised funds for and built the new Museum and Visitor Center, opened in 2008, and secured funds for the creation of a new cannon shop that daily preserves the nearly 400 cannons representing actual artillery lines on the battlefield. In addition, the Gettysburg Foundation has provided approximately $20 million in direct support of the National Park Service just since 2009. The Visitor Center houses the Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War and the 19th century, painting in the round, the Gettysburg Cyclorama) [16]
The park officially came under federal control on February 11, 1895, with a piece of legislation titled, "An Act To establish a national military park at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania." This piece of legislation officially allowed the transfer of the deed for the park to go from the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial National Park Association, to the Secretary of War. [17]
In February 2009, The David Wills House where Lincoln completed his Gettysburg Address was added to the national park and is operated by Gettysburg Foundation. [18] In 2010, an effort to expand the amount of the federally-owned GNMP land failed in Congress. [19]
The Park has been a highly symbolic venue for memorials and remembrance. On November 19, 1963, a parade and ceremony was held in Gettysburg commemorating the centennial of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given less than five months after the Battle of Gettysburg. The actor, Raymond Massey, playing the role of President Lincoln, arrived by 1860s period steam train at the Gettysburg station. He rode, in the parade as did Lincoln, on horseback to the National cemetery where actor Massey gave the President's famous address (this time for brevity, Edward Everett's preceding two-hour speech was not read). The parade followed the same route that President Lincoln and Gov. Andrew G. Curtin took 100 years before. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower—who lived nearby—was there, accompanied by Gov. William W. Scranton. The attendance at the 1963 commemoration was lower than the 20,000 to 30,000 persons who attended the original address by President Lincoln in 1863. Thousands of photographers attended the 1963 event while U.S. Air Force aircraft passed overhead. Also attending the event were the 28th Division of the Pennsylvania National Guard headed by Maj. Gen. Henry F. Fluck, the U.S. Marine Band, and the 3rd Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) of the U.S. Army. The parade ended at the rear entrance into the Gettysburg National Cemetery. [20] It was not until the installation of a monument to General Lee in 1917 that Confederate memorials were included, which first took the form of individual monuments symbolizing a specific Confederate state. [21]
The Gettysburg National Military Park is administered in the North Atlantic–Appalachian region, also known as the Northeast region. [22]
Former and current Superintendents of the Gettysburg National Military Park.
· Zach Bolitho: 2014-2014 [27]
· Zach Bolitho: 2019-2019 [34]
As the Gettysburg National Military Park increases in popularity it has run into ecological changes caused by this popularity and also natural causes.
There are an estimated annual 2 million people visiting the park a year, and with this large influx of visitors concerns have arisen on its effects on the environment. Natural areas like wooded areas, thickets and wetlands, have been stressed by pollution caused by traffic, and the issue of invasive species threatening the ecology of the park. [36]
Vandalism at Gettysburg National Military Park is also a challenge to the integrity of the premises. The National Park Service released a statement on August 21, 2024, that spray paint and graffiti caused damage to the War Department Observation Tower and a large rock. The park staff were able to clean and revive both objects to their original condition. [37]
Gettysburg is a borough in Pennsylvania and the county seat of Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the borough had a population of 7,106 people.
Adams County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,852. Its county seat is Gettysburg. The county was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County, and was named for the second President of the United States, John Adams. On July 1–3, 1863, a crucial battle of the American Civil War was fought near Gettysburg; Adams County, as a result, is a center for Civil War-related tourism. The county is part of the South Central Pennsylvania region of the state. Adams County comprises the Gettysburg metropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Harrisburg–York–Lebanon combined statistical area.
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the 4-acre (1.6 ha) site of the first shot at Knoxlyn Ridge on the west of the borough, to East Cavalry Field on the east. A military engagement prior to the battle was conducted at the Gettysburg Railroad trestle over Rock Creek, which was burned on June 27.
Cemetery Hill is a landform on the Gettysburg Battlefield that was the scene of fighting each day of the Battle of Gettysburg. The northernmost part of the Army of the Potomac defensive "fish-hook" line, the hill is gently sloped and provided a site for American Civil War artillery.
The Peach Orchard is a Gettysburg Battlefield site at the southeast corner of the north-south Emmitsburg Road intersection with the Wheatfield Road. The orchard is demarcated on the east and south by Birney Avenue, which provides access to various memorials regarding the "momentous attacks and counterattacks in…the orchard on the afternoon of July 2, 1863."
Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the home and farm of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, and its surrounding property of 690.5 acres (279.4 ha). It is primarily located in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, just outside Gettysburg. Purchased by then-General Eisenhower and his wife Mamie in 1950, the farm served as a weekend retreat for the President and a meeting place for world leaders, and became the Eisenhowers' home after they left the White House in 1961.
Seminary Ridge is a dendritic ridge that served as an area of military engagements during the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, which was fought between July 1 and July 3, 1863 in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Seminary Ridge also served as a military installation during World War II.
Rock Creek is an 18.9-mile-long (30.4 km) tributary of the Monocacy River in south-central Pennsylvania and serves as the border between Cumberland and Mount Joy townships. Rock Creek was used by the Underground Railroad and flows near several Gettysburg Battlefield sites, including Culp's Hill, the Benner Hill artillery location, and Barlow Knoll.
The Cyclorama Building at Gettysburg was a historic modernist concrete and glass Mission 66 building dedicated November 19, 1962 by the National Park Service (NPS) to serve as a Gettysburg Battlefield visitor center, to exhibit the 1883 Paul Philippoteaux Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama and other artifacts, and to provide an observation deck. The building was demolished in 2013.
Pennsylvania Route 134 (PA 134), also called Taneytown Road, is a north–south, two-lane state highway in Adams County, Pennsylvania. It runs from the Maryland border at the Mason–Dixon line in Mount Joy Township north to U.S. Route 15 Business in Gettysburg. PA 134 runs through farmland between the Maryland border and an interchange with the US 15 freeway. North of here, the route passes through Round Top and serves Gettysburg National Military Park before reaching its northern terminus. Taneytown Road was created in 1800 to connect Gettysburg with Taneytown, Maryland. The road was used during the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg for the procession to the cemetery consecration at which the Gettysburg Address was delivered. PA 134 was designated to its current alignment in 1928, with the section north of Round Top paved. The southern portion of the route was paved in the 1930s.
The Brian Farm is an American Civil War area of the Gettysburg Battlefield used during the Pickett's Charge. On January 23, 2004, the farm's buildings, Boundary Stone Wall, and ID tablet were designated historic district contributing structures after the tract was used for the 1918 Camp Colt and other postwar camps.
The Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District is a district of contributing properties and over 1000 historic contributing structures and 315 historic buildings, located in Adams County, Pennsylvania. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 19, 1975. Most of the contributing elements of the Gettysburg Battlefield are on the protected federal property within the smaller Gettysburg National Military Park.
Round Top is a populated place in Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, near Little Round Top. It is notable for two Battle of Gettysburg hospitals, the 1884 Round Top Station, and several battlefield commemorative era attractions such as Round Top Park and the Round Top Museum. The unincorporated community lies on an elevated area of the north-south Taneytown Road with three intersections: at Blacksmith Shop Road to the northeast, Wheatfield Road, and Sachs Road.
Plum Run is a Pennsylvania stream flowing southward from the Gettysburg Battlefield between the Gettys-Black Divide on the east and on the west, the drainage divide for Pitzer Run, Biesecker Run, Willoughby Run, and Marsh Creek.
Greenmount is a populated place in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located southwest of the Gettysburg Battlefield, at Marsh Creek along the Emmitsburg Road, in Cumberland Township.
United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co., 160 U.S. 668 (1896), was a case to prevent trolley operations on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The dispute began in August 1891 when the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association's board approved attorney Samuel Swope's motion to deny trolley right-of-way along GBMA roads. Despite the 1896 US Supreme Court ruling that the railway could be seized for historic preservation, as well as earlier legislative efforts to appropriate federal acquisition funds, create a War Department commission, and form the Gettysburg National Military Park; the trolley continued operations until obsolete in 1916.
Barlow is a populated place between the Gettysburg Battlefield and the Mason–Dixon line in Adams County, Pennsylvania, United States, situated at the intersection of Rock Creek and Pennsylvania Route 134. North of the creek on the road summit is the principal facility of the rural community: the 1939 community hall at the Barlow Volunteer Fire Company fire station. The hall is a Cumberland Township polling place and was used by Mamie and Dwight D. Eisenhower after purchasing their nearby farm. Horner's Mill was the site of an 1861 Union Civil War encampment, and the covered bridge was used by the II Corps and General George G. Meade en route to the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg.
Emmor Cope (1834-1927) was an American Civil War officer of the Union Army noted for the "Map of the Battlefield of Gettysburg from the original survey made August to October, 1863", which he researched by horseback as a sergeant after being ordered back to Gettysburg by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. Cope is also noted for commemorative era battlefield administration and designs, including the layout of the 1913 Gettysburg reunion. Cope had enlisted as a Private of Company A,, temporarily detached to Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery, and mustered out as a V Corps aide-de-camp of Maj Gen Gouverneur K. Warren.
The Wheatfield Road is a Gettysburg Battlefield crossroad from the Peach Orchard east-southeastward along the north side of The Wheatfield, north of the Valley of Death, and over the north foot of Little Round Top. In addition to modern tourist use, the road is notable for Battle of Gettysburg use and postbellum trolley use associated with the 1892-1896 US v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. case of the US Supreme Court.
The Spangler–Benner Farm is an historic, American farm and national historic district that is located in Mount Joy Township in Adams County, Pennsylvania.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Gettysburg Natl Mil Pk
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Historic easements are very stringent, … they only occur inside the Park boundary. … In essence a conservation easement preserves a residential property … but limit changes to the exterior of properties.kanagy
All of the following are filed under Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania: