Soldiers’ National Cemetery

This cemetery in Gettysburg National Military Park holds the remains of 3,555 Union soldiers.

After the Battle of Gettysburg, burials began immediately in what would become the Soldiers’ National Cemetery.  The cemetery was dedicated in November of 1863, the occasion of President Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address.”  The cemetery contains 3,555 Union graves (as well as graves of U.S. soldiers from other wars), arranged in a circle to face a central monument.  That monument was erected in 1869, and features marble representations of war, peace, liberty, history, and plenty. The Soldiers’ National Cemetery became part of the larger national cemetery system in 1872.

William Saunders’ original plan for the cemetery separated it from the battlefield, to be a place of contemplation in which to tell the story of the soldiers’ sacrifice. However, as roads were established through the grounds leading to the battlefield, the effect shifted from one of “destination” to one of “transition.” The cemetery was closed to burials in 1971, and closed to traffic in 1989.