70 Fun Facts About Gettysburg

In which year was the Battle of Gettysburg fought?

The three-day fight of July 1-3 came almost exactly two years into the war, and the loss of a major Mississippi River fortress the next day made it a double blow for the Confederacy.

Gettysburg lies in which US state?

Lee's second invasion of the North carried the war onto free soil; the borough sits only about ten miles above the Maryland line.

Which general commanded the Confederate army that marched into the North and fought at Gettysburg?

The Army of Northern Virginia had never lost a major battle under him; five weeks after this one he offered his resignation to Jefferson Davis, who quickly refused it.

Who commanded the Union army at Gettysburg, having taken command only three days earlier?

Lincoln accepted Hooker's resignation on June 28 and handed the army to its V Corps commander, who then had to fight the biggest battle of the war almost immediately.

Roughly how many combined casualties did the two armies suffer over the three days?

The Union lost 23,055 men and the Confederates roughly 23,000 to 28,000, making it the costliest battle in American history up to that point.

Which besieged Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863?

The two defeats came 920 miles apart on the same day, which is why historians usually pair them as the war's turning point.

Which Union cavalry general held the ridges northwest of Gettysburg on July 1 until infantry arrived?

His dismounted troopers with breech-loading carbines bought the hours that let the Union seize the high ground south of town; he died of typhoid that December.

Which Union corps commander was shot and killed early on July 1 while directing troops near Herbst Woods?

He was the highest-ranking officer killed at Gettysburg, and command of the field passed briefly to Doubleday and then to Winfield Scott Hancock.

With which discretionary phrase did Lee order Ewell to take Cemetery Hill on July 1?

Ewell, used to Stonewall Jackson's blunt orders, decided the assault was not practicable and never made it, a decision historians still call the great missed opportunity of the battle.

The Union defensive line on July 2 is popularly described as resembling what?

The line ran from Culp's Hill to Cemetery Hill and then south along Cemetery Ridge, giving the Union interior lines to shift troops quickly.

Which Union corps commander pushed III Corps to the Peach Orchard against orders and lost a leg?

The former congressman kept the shattered leg bone and donated it to the Army Medical Museum, reportedly visiting it on the anniversary for years afterward.

Which Union engineer rushed troops onto Little Round Top minutes before Hood's Confederates arrived?

A statue of him now stands on the summit; the brigade he diverted arrived about ten minutes ahead of the attackers.

Which regiment on the extreme left of the Union line at Little Round Top finished with a bayonet charge?

Its colonel, a rhetoric professor from Bowdoin College, received the Medal of Honor for the defense some thirty years later.

Colonel William Oates's 15th infantry regiment, which repeatedly assaulted Little Round Top, came from which state?

Oates's men had marched more than 20 miles that day and had sent their canteens off to be filled just before the attack, so they fought thirsty for ninety minutes.

Which 62-year-old brigadier's breastworks held Culp's Hill against a much larger force on the night of July 2?

A former West Point professor and civil engineer, his single brigade held while the rest of the corps had marched off to reinforce the Union left.

Wesley Culp, a Gettysburg native killed near his relative's land on July 3, served in which regiment?

His brother William fought for the Union in the 87th Pennsylvania, so the two Culps ended up on opposite sides of a hill that bore their family name.

Which regiment did the II Corps commander order into an 'almost suicidal' bayonet charge on Cemetery Ridge on July 2?

The regiment lost most of the roughly 260 men who made the charge, one of the highest loss rates of any Union regiment in a single action of the war.

According to local lore, Devil's Den got its name before the battle from what?

The 'Devil' was said to be a huge reptile that lived in the crevices for a quarter century; after the battle the boulder field became a favorite spot for staged photographs of dead sharpshooters.

Roughly how many Confederate soldiers stepped off in Pickett's Charge on the afternoon of July 3?

The attackers came from three divisions, and roughly half of them became casualties in under an hour.

Although popularly named for a division commander, overall command of the July 3 assault was given to which Confederate corps commander, who doubted it could succeed?

Some historians prefer the name Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Assault to spread the credit; the reluctant commander tried to leave the final order to his artillery chief.

How far did the Confederate infantry have to cross open ground to reach the Union line on Cemetery Ridge?

The ground undulates just enough that the columns disappeared from Union gunners' view at moments; the fields today are kept open so visitors can walk the route.

Which cap-on-sword Confederate brigadier made the deepest penetration of the Union line at Pickett's Charge?

The troops that shot him were commanded by his prewar friend leading the Union II Corps, and his Bible was later delivered to that friend's wife.

The 80-yard bend in the low stone wall where the July 3 assault crested became known afterward as what?

The nearby copse of trees is traditionally called the aiming point, though some park historians argue Lee's real target was Ziegler's Grove, 300 yards north.

As the Confederate lines advanced on July 3, waiting Union soldiers began chanting the name of which earlier battle, a Union disaster of December 1862?

There the Union had made repeated hopeless charges up a slope at an entrenched Confederate line; now the roles were exactly reversed.

Told by Lee to rally his men after the charge, what did George Pickett allegedly reply?

Pickett's after-action report was reportedly so bitter that Lee ordered it destroyed, and no copy has ever been found.

In which year was Lieutenant Alonzo Cushing, killed at Gettysburg, awarded the Medal of Honor?

He was hit three times, the last in the mouth, yet stayed with his last two cannons; the award came 151 years later after a campaign by a Wisconsin constituent.

Which Confederate cavalry commander was absent with his best brigades for the first two days at Gettysburg?

He rode all the way around the Union army and only reached Gettysburg around noon on July 2, by which point the battle's shape was already set.

Which future Little Bighorn commander helped repulse Confederate cavalry east of town on July 3?

He had been a brigadier general for less than a week; some of his Michigan troopers carried Spencer repeating rifles that multiplied their firepower.

Historians doubt the tale that the battle began with Confederates seeking what supply?

The tale traces to Henry Heth's memoirs; skeptics note that Jubal Early's troops had already passed through days earlier and would have known there were no shoe factories.

Which Union unit's black Hardee hats 'astonished' Confederates advancing through Herbst Woods on July 1?

Formed from Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin regiments, it captured brigadier James Archer that morning, the first general officer of Lee's army ever taken prisoner.

The battle's first shot is credited to Lt. Marcellus Jones of a cavalry regiment from which state?

Jones fired at a man on a gray horse more than half a mile away, an act his own comrades called merely symbolic; a marker on the Chambersburg Pike commemorates it.

What was Jennie Wade, the battle's only civilian casualty, doing when a stray bullet hit her?

Her mother baked 15 loaves from the dough the next day, and in 1882 the Senate granted her a pension on the grounds that her daughter died serving the Union cause.

John Burns, the 69-year-old Gettysburg civilian who fought as a volunteer on July 1, was a veteran of which earlier war?

Wounded several times, he survived, met Lincoln when the president visited in November, and lived until 1872; a statue of him stands on McPherson Ridge.

After the battle, townsfolk fell ill from the stench of what being burned in piles south of town?

More than 3,000 dead horses had to be disposed of, on top of some 8,900 human dead who were hastily buried in shallow battlefield graves.

What stopped Lee's retreating army at the Potomac near Williamsport, Maryland, for more than a week?

Torrential rain that began on July 4 made the fords impassable, and Union cavalry had destroyed the pontoon bridge; the army finally slipped across on the night of July 13.

How long was the Confederate wagon train John Imboden escorted south from Gettysburg?

The wagons rolled without stopping through Cashtown and Greencastle; any that broke down were simply abandoned by the roadside.

Which II Corps commander at Gettysburg declared 'Very well, sir, I select this as the battle-field' on July 1?

He was badly wounded on July 3 while directing the repulse of the great charge, and his old friend on the other side was mortally wounded by his troops the same afternoon.

On what date did Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the soldiers' cemetery?

The ceremony came four and a half months after the battle, while thousands of Union dead were still being reburied from shallow field graves.

Who delivered the two-hour main oration at the cemetery dedication before Lincoln rose to speak?

His 13,607-word speech was the day's official centerpiece; the next day he wrote to Lincoln that he wished he had come as close to the central idea in two hours as the president had in two minutes.

Roughly how long is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?

Ten sentences delivered in under two minutes reportedly caught the photographers off guard, which is one theory for why so few images of the moment exist.

How many known copies of the Address in Lincoln's own handwriting exist?

Two went to his secretaries and three were written out afterward for charity auctions; the last, titled, signed and dated, is treated as the standard text.

Where did Oscar Cintas's will require the Bliss copy of the Address be kept?

Cintas paid $54,000 for it at auction in 1949, a record for a document at the time, and willed it to the American people on condition it stay in the Lincoln Room; it is the text carved into the Lincoln Memorial.

Which newspaper dismissed the Address as 'silly, flat and dishwatery utterances'?

The Democratic paper's verdict aged badly; the Republican-leaning New York Times printed the full text approvingly the same week.

Lincoln was diagnosed with a mild case of which disease soon after the Gettysburg Address?

Modern clinicians think he was in the early stage of the illness as he spoke; his valet, William Johnson, caught it and died.

A durable myth says Lincoln dashed off the Address on the train the day before. On what, supposedly?

In reality he arrived with a draft on Executive Mansion stationery and finished the second page in pencil in his host's house that night.

Which local attorney, chief organizer of the new cemetery, hosted Lincoln the night before the speech?

A crowd serenaded the house that evening demanding a speech; his brick home on the town square is now part of the national park.

The only confirmed photograph of Lincoln at the Gettysburg dedication was taken by which photographer?

The image was shot from a distance hours before the speech; Lincoln is a small hatless figure that took decades to identify in the crowd.

Roughly how many of the 3,512 Civil War burials in the Soldiers' National Cemetery are unknown soldiers?

The graves are arranged in concentric semicircles by state around the Soldiers' National Monument, with officers and enlisted men buried side by side.

Gettysburg is the county seat of which county, created in 1800?

The town itself is older: Samuel Gettys opened a crossroads tavern there in 1760, and his son James laid out 220 lots in 1786.

Which Soviet leader visited the retired president's Gettysburg farm in September 1959?

The Eisenhowers had bought the run-down farm for $40,000 in 1950; other guests included de Gaulle, Churchill and Governor Ronald Reagan.

The Eisenhower farm beside the battlefield was also a working operation with a show herd of what?

Ike liked to prod a bull's rump with his shotgun to show guests the quality of steak it would yield, to the alarm of his Secret Service detail.

Eisenhower's first independent command, Camp Colt at Gettysburg in 1918, trained men for what new weapon?

He and Mamie were newlyweds living across the street from Gettysburg College; the camp sat on the field of Pickett's Charge.

Which abolitionist congressman founded both Gettysburg College and the town's Lutheran seminary?

The college opened in 1832; its main building, Pennsylvania Hall, served as a signal station and field hospital during the battle.

The Gettysburg Cyclorama, the giant round painting of Pickett's Charge, was made by an artist of what nationality?

Paul Philippoteaux built a wooden platform on the field, interviewed veterans, and finished the first version in 1883; the copy on display is 42 feet high and 377 feet around.

In which year did the battlefield become the federal Gettysburg National Military Park?

The Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association had been buying land since 1864; the War Department ran the park until the National Park Service took over in 1933.

The bronze Nike crowning Gettysburg's Pennsylvania memorial, the largest state monument there, was cast from what?

The memorial lists the names of 34,530 Pennsylvanians who fought in the battle; the swords-into-plowshares gesture was deliberate.

Which president dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial at the 1938 veterans' reunion?

Two aged veterans, one from each side, unveiled the flame; the oldest attendee, William Barnes of the US Colored Troops, was said to be 112.

Which scientist spoke at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial's 1988 rededication, comparing Gettysburg to the nuclear age?

The gas flame had been switched off during the 1974 oil crisis and replaced with an electric light; it was restored for the 125th anniversary.

A preservation trust paid $6 million in 2015 for the Gettysburg stone house that served as whose headquarters?

The house sits on Seminary Ridge outside the park boundary, which is why a private trust rather than the Park Service had to buy it and tear down the motel built around it.

The 1993 film Gettysburg was adapted from which Pulitzer Prize-winning 1974 novel?

Michael Shaara's book took its title from a line about man being 'a murderin' angel'; it sold slowly at first and then more than two and a half million copies.

Michael Shaara's Gettysburg novel was Joss Whedon's inspiration for which TV series?

Whedon read it and imagined the losing side's soldiers drifting to the frontier, which became the space-Western premise of the show.

At four hours and 14 minutes, the theatrical cut of the 1993 Gettysburg movie holds what distinction?

It was shot as a TNT miniseries until the network's owner saw the footage and put it in cinemas through New Line, which he also owned.

Who played Colonel Joshua Chamberlain in the 1993 film Gettysburg?

The soundtrack releases include his recitation of the Gettysburg Address; he returned to the role for the 2003 prequel Gods and Generals.

Which media mogul, whose company financed the 1993 film, appears uncredited as Colonel Waller T. Patton?

Documentary maker Ken Burns also has a cameo as an aide, and thousands of reenactors volunteered to fill out the battle scenes.

Which actor played the Confederate commander, General Lee, in the 1993 film Gettysburg?

Duvall took over the part for the prequel Gods and Generals; the film's Lee is shown as feverish and stubborn on the third day.

How many days before the battle began did Lincoln relieve Joseph Hooker and hand the army to Meade?

Lincoln had first prodded Hooker to pursue Lee north after the Confederate victory at Chancellorsville.

Around which town, eight miles west of Gettysburg, did Lee order his army to concentrate on June 29?

It sits at the eastern base of South Mountain; from there Pettigrew's brigade probed toward Gettysburg the next day.

Which Pennsylvania town was most notably forced to pay an indemnity to the invading Confederates?

During the invasion Confederates also seized dozens of northern African Americans, many of them free, and sent them south into slavery.

Which patch of vegetation just south of The Angle marked the target of Pickett's Charge?

The Union line briefly broke at the stone-fence jog beside it before reinforcements sealed the breach.

Roughly how large was Lee's army as it marched north for the Gettysburg campaign?

Lee hoped to reach Harrisburg or Philadelphia and convince Northern politicians to end the war.