Town · Gettysburg, Adams County
Gettysburg
A brick-and-clapboard crossroads town wrapped by the battlefield, with Lincoln Square, the house where Lincoln stayed the night before his famous address, a college campus and orchard country close by.
Gettysburg was a market town of a few thousand people when two armies met here on July 1, 1863, and the fighting swept through its streets; a few buildings still carry the scars of bullets. Today it is a lively college town wrapped by the battlefield, with museums, ghost tours and a square where Lincoln spent the night of November 18, 1863, in the David Wills House, finishing the address he gave the next day.
Give the battlefield at least a full day, starting at the museum and visitor center. On Seminary Ridge, the cupola that Union cavalry used as a lookout on the first morning of the battle is part of a museum, and Eisenhower's farm is just south of town. In autumn the orchards of Adams County, north and west of town, are heavy with apples, and Caledonia State Park offers shady trails along the Appalachian Trail in the mountains to the west.
Make a day of it
In and around Gettysburg
National military park · Cumberland Township, Adams County
Gettysburg National Military Park
The fields, ridges and woods of the Civil War's bloodiest battle, fought in July 1863, with more than 1,300 monuments, the great cyclorama painting and the cemetery where Lincoln spoke.
Photo: David Dugan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
History museum · Gettysburg, Adams County
Seminary Ridge Museum
This seminary building served as a Union lookout and field hospital on the battle's first day; today it's a museum of that fighting and its wounded, with guided climbs into the historic cupola.
Photo: Smallbones, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
National historic site · Cumberland Township, Adams County
Eisenhower National Historic Site
Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower's farm beside the Gettysburg battlefield, the only home they ever owned, where Ike relaxed, raised Angus cattle and entertained world leaders.
Photo: Jack E. Boucher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
State park · Greene Township, Franklin County
Caledonia State Park
The rebuilt stack of Thaddeus Stevens' iron furnace, burned by Confederate troops on the road to Gettysburg, anchors this South Mountain park, with the Appalachian Trail, a big pool and summer theater.
Photo: Whytecypress, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Also nearby
Nearby
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Seminary Ridge Museum
This seminary building served as a Union lookout and field hospital on the battle's first day; today it's a museum of that fighting and its wounded, with guided climbs into the historic cupola.
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Gettysburg National Military Park
The fields, ridges and woods of the Civil War's bloodiest battle, fought in July 1863, with more than 1,300 monuments, the great cyclorama painting and the cemetery where Lincoln spoke.
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Eisenhower National Historic Site
Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower's farm beside the Gettysburg battlefield, the only home they ever owned, where Ike relaxed, raised Angus cattle and entertained world leaders.
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Michaux State Forest
South Mountain's big working forest, where Pennsylvania's first forestry school took root, crossed by the Appalachian Trail and dotted with rocky overlooks and charcoal hearths from the old iron-furnace days.
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Caledonia State Park
The rebuilt stack of Thaddeus Stevens' iron furnace, burned by Confederate troops on the road to Gettysburg, anchors this South Mountain park, with the Appalachian Trail, a big pool and summer theater.
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Appalachian Trail
The Maine-to-Georgia footpath crosses about 230 rocky miles of Pennsylvania; at Pine Grove Furnace, near its halfway point, an old gristmill houses the Appalachian Trail Museum.
