Gettysburg, before July 1863 was known only to its neighbors, it was neither a place for battle nor a place for immortal oratory.

Gettysburg before July 1863 was a sleepy Pennsylvania village hemmed in by the rolling green ridges of the Appellations and crisscrossed by several dusty farm roads. It is quite difficult to think of it now as it was then. Only the monuments remain and the yellowed pages of the report...

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought on 1st - 3rd July 1863, was a Union victory that stopped Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. More than 50,000 men fell as casualties during the 3-day battle, making it the bloodiest battle of the American Civil War.