The National Cemetery is across the street from the Visitor Center. This is where President Lincoln delivered what became known as the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863. The cemetery was new and being dedicated that day. Lincoln was not the primary speaker, but no one remembers anything else that was said except his speech. This is a memorial that was built to commemorate that speech.
We took part of a Ranger tour there in late afternoon. It was the same Ranger that had given the Day One talk yesterday. There were 53,000 casualties over those three days. What a tragedy the whole war was, but I know a lot more about the Civil War than I did a week ago.
The Cemetery closed in 1972, although plots remain for dependents of veterans already interred.
There is another Ranger talk tonight at 8 p.m. so we returned the rental car, went to the Farnsworth House in Gettysburg for dinner and hurried to the amphitheatre. It's exhausting being a tourist.
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