Looking at this spot on the map, you're seeing the cemetery built for Union dead of the Battle of Gettysburg, now part of Gettysburg National Military Park.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1748–1972
The short answer
Gettysburg National Cemetery was built in Cumberland Township, Pennsylvania, for Union dead of the July 1863 battle, after heavy rain exposed shallow graves across the fields. David Wills bought 17 acres on Cemetery Hill, and workers reburied 3,512 soldiers there, among them Sergeant Amos Humiston, identified by a photograph of his three children found on his body.
Gettysburg Battlefield, Pennsylvania, digital copy from slide. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com. — 1978 · Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China · CC0
July to November 1863
Thousands of scattered Union dead were reburied on Cemetery Hill
Gettysburg National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in Pennsylvania, built for Union soldiers killed in the Battle of Gettysburg. It now sits inside Gettysburg National Military Park, its graves arranged in curving rows around a tall stone monument.
The ground tells a grim story first. After the battle ended on July 3, 1863, nearly 7,000 dead lay scattered across farms and fields. Union burial parties dug shallow graves in a hurry. On July 4, heavy rain washed the soil away, and blackened bodies pushed up through the mud, with the smell reaching into the town itself.
Pennsylvania's governor, Andrew Curtin, came to see the damage on July 10. Andrew Curtin was horrified by what he found: ruined farms, wounded men filling every house, and the dead buried without names or markers. A Gettysburg lawyer named David Wills became the state's agent and bought 17 acres on Cemetery Hill for $2,475.87.
Reburial work began on October 27, 1863. Wills hired local Black laborers, supervised by photographer Samuel Weaver, to dig up the scattered dead and move them here. Each body went into a wooden coffin. Weaver collected personal items from the bodies to send back to families, cataloguing 287 of them by December. Over five months, workers reinterred about 3,512 Union soldiers.
One of them was Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Infantry. Amos Humiston died on July 1, found in town clutching a photograph of his three children, with no name on him. The photograph spread through Northern newspapers.
By November 19, the cemetery was ready enough for its dedication. Edward Everett spoke for two hours. Then Abraham Lincoln rose and spoke for two minutes, delivering the Gettysburg Address.
November 1863
Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in two minutes
Lincoln finished the speech he gave the next day that evening, in the upstairs bedroom of David Wills's house in town. Edward Everett, who had spoken for two hours before him, wrote to Lincoln afterward praising the shorter address. Lincoln's 272 words reframed the war as a test of whether a nation built on liberty could survive. The crowd that day numbered 15,000 to 20,000 people.
1865 to 1872
A 60-foot monument rose over the graves' half circle
The cornerstone for the Soldiers' National Monument went down on July 4, 1865. It took four more years to finish. General George Gordon Meade, who had commanded the Union army at Gettysburg, spoke at its dedication on July 1, 1869. The finished monument stood 60 feet tall, with five marble figures representing war, peace, liberty, history, and plenty, standing over the graves arranged in a half circle around it.
In the 1870s, Confederate dead left behind in scattered battlefield graves were dug up by Southern veterans' groups and carried home. About 3,200 of them were moved out of Pennsylvania entirely. The cemetery stayed a Union burial ground. In 1872, control of it passed from Pennsylvania to the federal government.
1884 to 1898
Black soldiers were buried here decades after the battle
On November 8, 1884, Henry Gooden was reburied here among the U. S. Regulars, having served with the 127th U. S. Colored Troops and died in 1876. He remains the only confirmed Black soldier from the Civil War buried in the cemetery.
In 1898, four more Black soldiers were buried after dying of disease during the Spanish-American War: Clifford Henderson, Emmert Martin, Nicholas Farrell, and Harry S. Prager. The cemetery had widened by then to hold soldiers from wars still to come.
1933 to 1972
Burial rights widened to veterans of later wars
The National Park Service took over the cemetery's care in 1933. Burial sections opened for veterans of the World Wars and the Vietnam War, and for their spouses. By 1968, a 17-acre annex opened along Steinwehr Avenue with room for 1,700 more graves.
In October 1972, the cemetery closed to new burials, except for the wives and husbands of those already resting there. Only one veteran has been buried here since.
Today
Humiston's name was restored by a children's photograph
About 300 yards south of the monument, a limestone memorial carries the text of the Gettysburg Address beneath a bronze bust of Lincoln, sculpted by Henry K. Bush-Brown.
Sergeant Amos Humiston lies among the New York dead, his name restored to him by the photograph his wife recognized in a newspaper. The Soldiers' National Monument still stands at the center, its granite faces worn but legible, the same ground where blackened bodies once surfaced in the mud after July's rains.
The graves curve outward from the monument in quiet rows, open to visitors as part of Gettysburg National Military Park.
Read the ground you are standing on
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and Strata will dig the ground under your feet instead, wherever that is, in about a minute, with every source shown.
Built in 1855 and standing at the crest of Cemetery Hill, the gatehouse was used to shelter wounded men and took damage during the fighting that raged in front of it.
Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York was mortally wounded on July 1, 1863, and found dead clutching an ambrotype of his three children, with nothing else to identify him.
The picture found in Humiston's hand was printed and circulated nationally until a Portville, New York family recognized their own children and identified their father.
Union burial parties hastily interred the fallen in shallow graves across farmland that summer, and heavy rain on July 4 later exposed blackened bodies in the heat.
Samuel Weaver personally supervised workers disinterring bodies from battlefield plots, church cemeteries and field hospitals, placing each in a coffin and cataloguing 287 personal effects for relatives.
On November 19, 1863, after Edward Everett's two-hour oration, Abraham Lincoln rose and spoke for about two minutes, reframing the war as a test of whether a nation conceived in liberty could endure.
A 20-year-old seamstress, Ginnie Wade was struck by a stray bullet while baking bread for soldiers and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery just past this ground.
Dedicated in 1869 with General George Gordon Meade as speaker, Randolph Rogers's 60-foot granite monument stands at the hub of the concentric state burial sections.
Between 1870 and 1873, southern veterans' societies relocated about 3,200 Confederate dead from scattered battlefield graves, most of them to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.
Henry Gooden, who served with the 127th U.S. Colored Troops and died in 1876, was reburied in the Regulars section in 1884 — the only African American Civil War soldier confirmed buried here.
After the 1968 annex filled, the National Park Service officially closed Gettysburg National Cemetery to new burials except for spouses of those already interred.
What happened at Gettysburg National Cemetery in 1863?
After the Battle of Gettysburg, burial parties reinterred nearly 7,000 Union dead who had been hastily buried across the battlefield. David Wills purchased 17 acres on Cemetery Hill, and over five months workers moved about 3,512 Union soldiers into the new cemetery, which was dedicated on November 19, 1863, with Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.
What was here before Gettysburg National Cemetery was built?
The ground had been part of farmland and battlefield where nearly 7,000 dead lay scattered after the fighting of July 1863, buried in shallow graves that heavy rain later washed open.
Who was Amos Humiston and why is he connected to this cemetery?
Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Infantry died on July 1, 1863, found clutching a photograph of his three children with nothing else to identify him. The photograph circulated in newspapers until his wife recognized it, restoring his name before he was buried among the New York dead.
Who is buried at Gettysburg National Cemetery besides Civil War soldiers?
Veterans of the World Wars and the Vietnam War, along with their spouses, were buried here after the National Park Service took over the cemetery's care in 1933, until it closed to new burials in October 1972 except for spouses of those already interred.
When did Gettysburg National Cemetery close to new burials?
The cemetery closed to new burials in October 1972, after a 17-acre annex along Steinwehr Avenue had opened in 1968 with room for 1,700 more graves.
What does the Soldiers' National Monument mark?
The Soldiers' National Monument, dedicated on July 1, 1869, with General George Gordon Meade as speaker, stands 60 feet tall at the center of the cemetery's concentric burial sections, its five marble figures overlooking the graves arranged in a half circle around it.
