This peaceful pastoral scene was full of thunder, smoke, screams, yells, flashing metal and booming guns as the Army of Northern Virginia under Lee gave one last desperate charge across these fields to dislodge the Army of the Potomac led by Meade and pull a victory out of the encounter at Gettysburg.

“…that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

—Abraham Lincoln