The Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center in Gettysburg

"It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it."  Confederate General Robert E. Lee






The new Gettysburg National
Military Park Museum &
Visitor Center opened in
in 2008.






The old museum building was emptied and torn down.

This Visitor Center is a lot

bigger than the old one.

Visitors can buy tickets to
view a film, the Cyclorama
& visit the Museum.

The Refreshment Saloon

The Gift Shop is large with a huge variety of souvenirs to choose from.

The Museum's exhibits are wonderfully done. The origins of the Civil War and its first two years are the prelude to the Battle of Gettysburg.

Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia marched north from Virginia into Pennsylvania in May and June, 1863.  A victory on northern soil would raise spirits in the South and demoralize the North.

Lee's Army's movement was detected and General George G. Meade, newly appointed commander of the Army of the Potomac, rushes troops northward to meet the Confederates.  Among his orders from President Lincoln were to defeat Lee and his Army.

The Confederate lines, in red,

are about five miles long.

The Union lines, in blue, are 

three miles long.

I see that General Meade's 93,921 Union Troops are more concentrated.  Men and supplies can be moved around easily.  General Lee's command totals 71, 699 and the men are more spread out.  It would have to take longer to shift men and supplies up and down the Confederate lines.

The battle at Gettysburg would rage for three days.

After we watched the film, A New Birth of Freedom, Eric and I joined fellow visitors to view the Cyclorama.  Before film and moving pictures, artists painted scenes in the round depicting a timeline of an event.  The very long paintings were mounted on the interior of a viewing area.  Visitors stand in the center of the room to view the multi-part scene before them.

In the 1880s French artist, Paul Philippoteaux, went to Gettysburg to research the three day battle. He walked the battlefield with a guide, spoke with veterans and had photographs taken before he started work on his project. It took a year for Philippoteax and a team of artists to paint the 42 foot by 377 foot Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama.

Fighting around the Codori 

Farm, south of Gettysburg

on July 2.

The Union lines on Cemetery

 Ridge on July 3

The cannons roar...

Frenzied fighting, dead horses,

a broken caisson at Cemetery

Ridge on July 3.

The Cyclorama was removed from the old Visitor Center, restored and mounted in the current Visitor Center and Museum.

The Battle of Gettysburg started on July 1.  A total of 165, 620 Union and Confederate soldiers engage in the fighting.  Union troops totaled 93,921.  Confederate troops totaled 71, 699. General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and General Meade's Army of the Potomac start to disengage as the Confederate assault on Cemetery Hill is repulsed on July 3.

Total estimated casualties: The dead, wounded, missing or captured totaled 51,112 men.
Union losses: 3,155 killed; 14,529 wounded; 5,365 missing or captured    Total: 23,049
Confederate losses: 3,903 killed; 18,735 wounded; 5,425 missing or captured   Total: 28,063

"Ye advocates of war,
come here & look, & answer
what compensation is there
for this carnival of death."
Philadelphia Public Ledger,
July 15, 1863.

The Gettysburg National Cemetery

was established to provide a

dignified final resting place

for the over 3,000 Union

soldiers who died in three

day battle at Gettysburg