The Phillip Snyder Farm near Gettysburg.
Gettysburg NMP
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On February 11, 1895, the United States Congress enacted legislation to establish Gettysburg National Military Park as a memorial park dedicated to the two armies that participated in that great battle. The new park was administered by a specially appointed commission of Civil War veterans under the United States War Department. What lay ahead of the commissioners was not an easy task. Important features of the battlefield required preservation while they had to be made accessible to the public. Wishes of the veterans was also a major consideration in marking the battlefield and historic accuracy was of prime importance. Inheriting lands previously held by the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, the commission set about the design and construction of avenues, bridges, unit markers, and landscape work throughout the battlefield. Their work took years of toil and hard work, and by 1913 on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the park commission's project was complete. Little could those aged commissioners realize how popular Gettysburg would become! Today, the park hosts more than 1.8 million visitors annually, a far cry from the several hundred who visited the park at the turn of the century. For those of you who cannot physically visit the site, the National Park Service has devised this way to let you tour the park and discover the Gettysburg story via the internet.
The Gettysburg Battlefield Virtual Tour will take you to significant points of interest in the park. Our tour includes a brief overview of those three terrible days, descriptions by veterans of the battle, features on important episodes of the battle and personalities of both armies, and highlights many of the park's monuments and memorials in the park. The pages are loaded and may take some time to load onto your computer, so be patient. We think it will be worth it! So, if you're ready, let's get started! Pull up your chair, get your mouse comfortable and visit the park through...
The Gettysburg Battlefield Virtual Tour
National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite 100
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Experience your National Parks on the world wide web at www.nps.gov
