Virtual Tour

• Introduction

  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.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 5 seconds

• Tour Stop #1a - McPherson Ridge

  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.

  Duration:

  8 minutes, 10 seconds

• Tour Stop #1b - McPherson Ridge

  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.

  Duration:

  5 minutes, 32 seconds

• Tour Stop #2 - Eternal Light Peace Memorial

  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.”

  Duration:

  4 minutes, 26 seconds

• Tour Stop #3 - Oak Ridge

  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.

  Duration:

  5 minutes, 16 seconds

• Tour Stop #4 - North Carolina Memorial

  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.”

  Duration:

  3 minutes, 34 seconds

• Tour Stop #5 - The Virginia Memorial

  The large open field to the east is where the last Confederate assault of the battle, known as “Pickett’s Charge,” occurred July 3.

  Duration:

  5 minutes, 37 seconds

• Tour Stop #6 - Pitzer Woods

  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.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 21 seconds

• Tour Stop #7 - Warfield Ridge

  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.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 37 seconds

• Tour Stop #8 - Little Round Top

  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.

  Duration:

  8 minutes, 34 seconds

• Tour Stop #9 - The Wheatfield

  Charge and countercharge left this field and the nearby woods strewn with over 4,000 dead and wounded.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 46 seconds

• Tour Stop #10 - The Peach Orchard

  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.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 48 seconds

• Tour Stop #11 - Plum Run

  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.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 43 seconds

• Tour Stop #12 - Pennsylvania Memorial

  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.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 37 seconds

• Tour Stop #13 - Spangler's Spring

  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.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 31 seconds

• Tour Stop #14 - East Cemetery Hill

  At dusk, Union forces repelled a Confederate assault that reached the crest of this hill.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 42 seconds

• Tour Stop #15 - High Water Mark

  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.

  Duration:

  9 minutes, 43 seconds

• Tour Stop #16 - National Cemetery

  This was the setting for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, delivered at the cemetery’s dedication on November 19, 1863.

  Duration:

  8 minutes, 5 seconds

Credits