As of May 2023, the Rose Farm & Rose Lane are closed to all visitation. The house will undergo a full rehabilitation. This work prohibits the use of the area around the house and lane during construction. Worker safety and resource protection are key.
The David Wills House closed in October 2024 due to a burst water line and will remain closed for the remainder of 2025. No known reopening date is available. Please visit our David Wills House web page for more information and a 3D tour of the house. More
We're excited to offer all our visitors the opportunity to experience the battlefield no matter where you are! This Virtual Tour is led by Christopher Gwinn, Chief of Interpretation and Education at Gettysburg National Military Park.
Our Virtual Tour is built around each of the sixteen Auto Tour stops and provides a comprehensive and immersive experience of the Battle of Gettysburg. Best of all, you can visit the battlefield anytime and from anywhere! Experience the battlefield from home or take us along when your visit brings you to the hallowed ground of Gettysburg itself. We hope you enjoy your Virtual Visit to the battlefield!
Start your visit to the battlefield at the Museum and Visitor Center. This includes the Gettysburg Museum of the American Civil War, the orientation film, A New Birth of Freedom, narrated by award winning actor Morgan Freeman, and the Cyclorama painting depicting Pickett's Charge.
The Civil War is in its third year. General Robert E. Lee and his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia begin to march north where he hopes to engage the Union Army of the Potomac now under the leadership of General George Meade. Ranger Chris Gwinn describes how these two armies came to Gettysburg.
The Battle of Gettysburg began about 8 a.m. to the west beyond the McPherson barn as Union cavalry confronted Confederate infantry advancing east along Chambersburg Pike. Heavy fighting spread north and south along this ridgeline as additional forces from both sides arrived.
At 1 p.m. Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes’s Confederates attacked from this hill, threatening Union forces on McPherson and Oak ridges. Seventy- five years later, over 1,800 Civil War veterans helped dedicate this memorial to “Peace Eternal in a Nation United.”
Union soldiers here held stubbornly against Rodes’s advance. By 3:30 p.m., however, the entire Union line from here to McPherson Ridge had begun to crumble, finally falling back to Cemetery Hill.
Early in the day, the Confederate army positioned itself on high ground here along Seminary Ridge, through town, and north of Cemetery and Culp’s hills. Union forces occupied Culp’s and Cemetery hills, and along Cemetery Ridge south to the Round Tops. The lines of both armies formed two parallel “fishhooks.”
In the afternoon of July 2, Lt. Gen. James Longstreet placed his Confederate troops along Warfield Ridge, anchoring the left of his line in these woods.
Longstreet’s assaults began here at 4 p.m. They were directed against Union troops occupying Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield, and Peach Orchard, and against Meade’s undefended left flank at the Round Tops.
Quick action by Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, Meade’s chief engineer, alerted Union officers to the Confederate threat and brought Federal reinforcements to defend this position.
The Union line extended from Devil’s Den to here, then angled northward on Emmitsburg Road. Federal cannon bombarded Southern forces crossing the Rose Farm toward the Wheatfield until about 6:30 p.m., when Confederate attacks overran this position.
While fighting raged to the south at the Wheatfield and Little Round Top, retreating Union soldiers crossed this ground on their way from the Peach Orchard to Cemetery Ridge.
Union artillery held the line alone here on Cemetery Ridge late in the day as Meade called for infantry from Culp’s Hill and other areas to strengthen and hold the center of the Union position.
About 7 p.m., Confederates attacked the right flank of the Union army and occupied the lower slopes of Culp’s Hill. The next morning the Confederates were driven off after seven hours of fighting.
Late in the afternoon, after a two-hour cannonade, some 7,000 Union soldiers posted around the Copse of Trees, The Angle, and the Brian Barn, repulsed the bulk of the 12,000-man “Pickett’s Charge” against the Federal center. This was the climactic moment of the battle. On July 4, Lee’s army began retreating.
