Save Five Acres at Gettysburg

The Opportunity

One Chance to Save Five Acres & Expand Our Preservation Footprint at Gettysburg

Two Gettysburg properties — just over five acres altogether — have become available for purchase. Because they border land already preserved, protecting them would strengthen and expand the battlefield we’ve worked together to save.  

The tracts are zoned for residential and commercial development. If we lose these acres to new offices, apartments, or other uses, an important piece of Gettysburg will be gone forever.

The encouraging news is that the longtime owners wanted these properties preserved and gave the American Battlefield Trust the first opportunity to purchase them. The challenge is cost. Together, the properties are valued at $1.765 million.  

Fortunately, anticipated government preservation matching grants and support from a private foundation reduce what we must raise to just the final $320,000 of the purchase price. That means every dollar you give today can be matched $5.50-to-$1!

The History

Day One at Gettysburg

This is the battlefield where 165,000 fought and thousands died, and where the Confederate loss dashed any hopes of a continued Confederate offensive.

No aerial photograph or modern-day walk across these preserved acres can fully convey the courage displayed here — or the terrible carnage that followed. The first day of fighting alone, when major troop movements crossed these very tracts, would have ranked as the twelfth bloodiest battle of the entire Civil War.

Yet by preserving these tracts, future generations can experience the very landscape where extraordinary duty, honor, valor, sacrifice, and humanity were put to the test.

Historian Harry W. Pfanz, in his classic work Gettysburg: The First Day, reminds us that no one arriving outside Gettysburg could have imagined what was about to unfold.

The Union and Confederate armies converging on the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, neither side intending to fight a major battle there. Confederate forces under General A.P. Hill encounter Union cavalry commanded by Brigadier General John Buford, whose men delay the Confederate advance west of town. Recognizing the strategic importance of the high ground south of Gettysburg, Buford makes the critical decision to hold his position until Union infantry can arrive. His cavalry’s stubborn resistance buys precious time for Major General John Reynolds and the Union I Corps to reach the battlefield.

Union forces fight determined defensive actions along McPherson Ridge, Seminary Ridge, Oak Hill, and Oak Ridge against increasingly larger Confederate forces arriving from multiple directions.

The Confederates achieve a tactical victory on the first day by driving the Union army from its initial positions and capturing the town. However, they fail to seize Cemetery Hill while it remains lightly defended. This missed opportunity allows the Army of the Potomac to consolidate on a naturally strong defensive line that would become the focal point of the fighting on July 2 and 3.

Pfanz’s account reminds us how quickly the town of Gettysburg changed that first day. Within hours, ordinary farmland, fields, and streets became the setting for extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and loss.

This is an aerial photograph showing the two properties we hope to save. Both properties lie between the Chambersburg Pike and Fairfield Road, two of the most important corridors of the first day’s fighting.

Together, they tell the remarkable story of the role these five acres played in the opening hours of the Battle of Gettysburg. They witnessed advancing troops, artillery fire, and retreating soldiers, all of which would forever change the lives of those who fought and lived there.

The larger tract is three acres.

Two guns from Battery A of the 2nd U.S. Artillery supporting Buford’s troopers were positioned nearby during the morning’s engagement. Later, infantry from both armies surged across these same acres as the battle intensified, and the Confederates eventually pushed Federal forces back to Cemetery Hill.

One of the most unusual episodes of the battle even unfolded within sight of the property when North Carolina troops formed a defensive square against a cavalry attack — a tactic dating back to Roman times but made famous during the Napoleonic Wars, rarely used during the Civil War.

By day’s end, men under at least three generals’ command had fought on this property.

The second tract is smaller — just over two acres — but no less important.

From this ground, soldiers looked toward McPherson’s Woods, the Chambersburg Pike, Seminary Ridge, and later, Lee’s Headquarters. As you can see on the enclosed map, it became a crossroads for troops moving into battle, withdrawing under fire, and regrouping as the fighting shifted across the landscape.

The famed Iron Brigade crossed here on its way to its storied fight along the banks of Willoughby’s Run. Buford’s cavalry passed over it. Chapman Biddle’s brigade, including Pennsylvania and New York troops, retreated across it under relentless pressure from Confederate artillery. Confederate forces under Abner Perrin, James Lane, and Johnston Pettigrew advanced over this same ground in pursuit.  

Historians believe this tract even served as a temporary burial ground for at least three Confederate soldiers before they were exhumed and reinterred eight years later.

Preserve This Threatened Ground at Gettysburg

These two tracts have long stood out to us as important pieces of Gettysburg’s story. That’s why we’ve waited patiently for the opportunity to preserve them.

This is irreplaceable history. This is Gettysburg. Three days of fighting… 51,112 casualties… 163 years of contemplation and reconciliation, development and preservation… and now, the opportunity to add to that legacy.

Please help raise the final $320,000 to secure these two critical tracts at Gettysburg and preserve the land and stories from the first day of fighting that defined this epic battle. Give while every dollar will be matched $5.50-to-$1.

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