Of the eighty-three cemeteries in the United States dedicated
exclusively to the burial of soldiers, that at Gettysburg was the first.
A few days after the battle, Governor A. G. Curtin, of Pennsylvania,
solicitous for the welfare of the soldiers, came to Gettysburg and
appointed David Wills, a leading attorney, to act as his agent in the
work of establishing a cemetery. Correspondence with the governors of
other States was begun. Grounds were selected by Mr. Wills, and by the
direction of Governor Curtin purchased for the State of Pennsylvania, to
provide a burial-place for soldiers who fell in the battle.
Lots in the cemetery were tendered without cost to each State having
dead upon the field. The expense of removing the bodies, laying out,
ornamenting and enclosing the grounds, erecting a lodge for the keeper,
and erecting a suitable monument to the memory of the dead, was to be
borne by the several States, assessed in proportion to their population.
The seventeen acres of land which were purchased lie on Cemetery Hill
adjoining the Citizens’ Cemetery, at the apex of what had been the
triangular battle-line of the Union Army, and an important tactical
position on July 2nd and 3rd. At the time of the battle this land was a
cornfield, divided by stone fences which were used to great advantage by
the infantry of the Union Army. The most elevated portions had been
points of vantage for many batteries of artillery.
The land was surrounded on the west, east, and north by a substantial,
well-built wall of native granite, topped by a heavy dressed coping. A
division fence of iron was erected between the Soldiers’ National
Cemetery and the Citizens’ Cemetery.
The plans and designs for the laying out of the cemetery were prepared
by William Saunders, an able landscape gardener of the Department of
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. A semi-circular plan for the arrangement
of the graves was adopted. The ground allotted to each State converges
upon a central point. The size of each plot was determined by the number
of graves belonging to each State. The bodies were placed side by side
in parallel trenches with a space of twelve feet to each parallel and
with a grass path between the rows of graves. The outer section is
lettered A, and so on in alphabetical order. Two feet of space was
allowed to each body, and a person standing in the center of the
semi-circle and facing the circumference reads the names from left to
right. The bodies are laid with the heads towards the center. The
headstones are uniform in size and contain the name, regiment and
company of each soldier so far as it was possible to obtain them.
Another lot was set apart for the soldiers of the Regular Army. The
graves of the unknown dead are located at each end of the semi-circle.
On the 27th of October, 1863, the work of exhumation was begun under the
supervision of Samuel Weaver, a citizen of Gettysburg. It was completed
on March 18th, 1864. The number of bodies exhumed and interred in the
cemetery was 3,512, including 158 taken up by the authorities of Boston.
Of the total number, 979 were unknown. Later other bodies were
discovered and added, and the total interred was 3,734. Many other Union
dead were sent to their family burial places. The Confederate bodies
remained in the original trenches until 1870-73, when 3,320 were
transferred to southern cemeteries.
The central point of the semi-circle from which Lincoln delivered his
address is now occupied by the National Monument, one of the finest on
the field. It is 60 feet in height; the pedestal, 25 feet square at the
base, is crowned by a colossal statue representing the Genius of
Liberty. Projecting from the angles are four buttresses, each supporting
an allegorical statue. War is personified by an American soldier.
History, a figure with stylus and pen, records the achievements and
names of the dead. Peace is typified by a statue of an American
mechanic; Plenty by a female figure with a sheaf of wheat. The main die
of the pedestal is panelled. Upon one of the panels is inscribed an
extract from Lincoln’s Address.
From the point where this monument stands, a magnificent view is
presented to the beholder. Sloping gradually toward the north and the
west, the entire cemetery is spread out as a beautiful panorama, showing
on a carpet of green the semi-circle of graves, the driveways lined with
rows of splendid maples, spruces, birches, magnolias, and many other
trees, as well as many clumps of shrubbery filling the intervals
between. A view from this point as the sun sinks behind the distant
range of the South Mountain is one long to be remembered.
Standing at the upper end of the cemetery is a lesser monument in the
form of an exedra, the center of which contains a bust of Lincoln. Two
panels, one to the left, the other to the right, contain inscriptions;
one giving David Wills’ letter of invitation to President Lincoln to
attend the dedicatory exercises on November 19th, 1863; the other,
Lincoln’s immortal address in its entirety.
Opposite this monument is the Rostrum from which the memorial addresses
are now delivered. The first memorial exercise was held on May 30th,
1868, establishing a custom continued until this day. Among the speakers
of recent years, either in the cemetery or on adjoining sections of the
Park, have been Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, and
Hoover; Vice-President Curtis; Pennsylvania Governors Sproul and
Pinchot, and Honorable James J. Davis.
[Illustration: Airplane View.—The National Cemetery with its curving
rows of headstones]