GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK
This vast memorial park covers 24 square miles and is arced around the City of Gettysburg. This was the Civil War’s bloodiest battle; 7,058 people died, 33,264 were wounded and more than 10,000 were missing. 5,000 horses and mules died during the battle, as well.
Completed in 1914, this national park hosts 1,328 monuments and points of interest including:
• The National Cemetery is the final resting place of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg. Unnamed markers are in the ground that represented the fallen and several cannons are on the field.
• The white Pennsylvania State Memorial Monument – the largest on the Gettysburg Battlefield towering at 110 feet tall. Columns, towers, arches topped by a granite dome and a spiral staircase that leads visitors to an observation deck.
• A granite pedestal, 100-feet long on each side, holds bronze tablets that list the 34,530 soldier’s names that fought in the battle.
• A bronze statue of “Nike – the Goddess of Victory and Peace” that towers 21-feet high and weighs 7,500 pounds.
• A bronze statue of President Lincoln and seven other bronze statues honoring soldiers who were killed or mortally wounded. This is where the president made his famous Gettysburg address
• More than 20 bas-relief panels of military scenes during the war.
• 75 bronze plaques memorializing Pennsylvania units.