The battlefield of Gettysburg is better marked, both topographically
and by monuments, than probably any other battlefield in the world.
Over a million dollars have been expended on the grounds and
monuments. The "Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association,"
representing the soldiers engaged, has marked all the important
points, and the tracts along the lines, over four hundred and fifty
acres, have been acquired, so as to thoroughly preserve all the
landmarks where the most important movements were executed. There are
some five hundred monuments upon the field, placed with the utmost
care in the exact localities, and standing in woods or on open ground,
by the roadsides, on stony heights and ridges in gardens, and of all
designs, executed in bronze, marble, granite, on boulders and
otherwise. Marking-posts also designate the positions of the various
organizations in the opposing armies. To the north and west of
Gettysburg is the scene of the first day's contest, but the more
interesting part is to the southward. Ascending the Cemetery Hill,
there is passed, by the roadside, the house of Jenny Wade, the only
woman killed in the battle, accidentally shot while baking bread. The
rounded Cemetery Hill is an elevated and strong position having many
monuments, and here, alongside the little village graveyard, the
Government established a National Cemetery of seventeen acres, where
thirty-five hundred and seventy-two soldiers are buried, over a
thousand being the unknown dead. A magnificent battle monument is here
erected, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and at the base of the
shaft having figures of War, History, Peace and Plenty. This charming
spot was the centre of the Union line, then a rough, rocky hill. The
cemetery was dedicated in November, 1863, Edward Everett delivering
the oration, and the monument on July 1, 1869. At the cemetery
dedication President Lincoln made the famous "twenty-line address"
which is regarded as the most immortal utterance of the martyr
President, and has become an American classic. The British
_Westminster Review_ described it as an oration having but one equal,
in that pronounced upon those who fell during the first year of the
Peloponnesian War, and as being its superior, because "natural, fuller
of feeling, more touching and pathetic, and we know with an absolute
certainty that it was really delivered." The President was requested
to say a few words by way of dedication, and drawing from his pocket
a crumpled piece of paper on which he had written some notes, he spoke
as follows:
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this
continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a
great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation, so
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the
final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that
nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should
do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot
consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and
dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to
add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we
say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us,
the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that
they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to the cause for which they
here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain--that the nation
shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the
earth."
A mile across the valley the Lutheran Seminary is seen, the most
conspicuous landmark of the Confederate line. To the southeast from
the cemetery is Culp's Hill, strewn with rocks and boulders and
covered with trees. The Emmettsburg road goes southward down the
valley, gradually diverging from the Union line, and crossing the
fields that were the battleground on the second and third days. It is
bordered by numerous monuments, some of great merit, and leads to the
"Peach Orchard," where the line bends sharply back. Peach trees are
replanted here as the old ones fall. The "Wheat Field" is alongside,
now grass-grown. Beyond it the surface goes down among the crags and
broken stones of the "Devil's Den," a ravine through which flows a
stream, coming from the orchard and wheat field, and separating them
from the rocky "Round Tops," the sandstone cliffs of the "Little Round
Top" rising high above the ravine. The fields sloping to the stream
above the Den are known as the "Valley of Death." Among these rocks
there are many monuments, made of the boulders that are so numerous. A
toilsome path mounts the "Big Round Top" beyond, and an Observatory on
the summit gives a good view over almost the entire battlefield. This
summit, more than three miles south of Gettysburg, has tall timber,
preserved as it was in the battle. There are cannon surmounting the
"Round Tops," representing the batteries in action. Across the valley
to the west is the long fringe of timber that masked the Confederate
position on Seminary Ridge. A picnic-ground, with access by railway,
is located alongside the "Round Tops." The lines of breastworks are
maintained, and upon the lower ground, not far away, are preserved the
rough stone walls, and to the northward is the little umbrella-shaped
grove of trees at which Pickett's charge was directed. The Twentieth
Massachusetts regiment brought here a huge conglomerate boulder from
New England and set it up as their monument, their Colonel, Paul
Revere, being killed in the battle.
There was no fighting along the Confederate line on Seminary Ridge
until the scene of the first day's conflict is reached, to the
northwest of Gettysburg. Here is marked where General Reynolds fell,
just within a grove of trees, and a fine equestrian statue of him has
been erected on the field. From his untimely death, Reynolds is
regarded as the special Union hero of the battle, as Armistead was the
Southern. Nearby a spirited statue, the "Massachusetts Color-Bearer,"
holds aloft the flag of the Thirteenth Massachusetts regiment,
standing upon a slope, thus marking the spot where he fell at the
opening of the conflict. Such is the broad and impressive scene of one
of the leading battles of the world, and the greatest ever fought in
America. But happily the passions which caused it have been stilled,
and the combatants are now again united in their patriotic devotion to
a common country. As Longfellow solemnly sounds his invocation in the
_Building of the Ship_, so now do all the people in the reunited
Union:
"Thus too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!"