Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
July 1–3, 1863

For three days in the summer of 1863, the eyes of the nation were fixed on the small crossroads town of Gettysburg. The Army of Northern Virginia had invaded the North for the second time, engaging the Union Army of the Potomac in the largest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. Approximately 170,000 men in blue and gray entered the fight, and 51,000 became casualties.

The unprecedented bloodletting transformed Gettysburg into a mecca for those who sought to commemorate the sacrifices made there and on other fields during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln's timeless address struck a chord with the American public that still resonates more than 140 years later. Today the battlefield—dotted with thousands of markers, monuments and historic tablets—is visited by nearly 2 million people each year.

Threat: Although a proposal to build a 5,000-slot gambling facility one mile from the battlefield was defeated in December 2006, development pressures on the Gettysburg Battlefield continue unabated.

Spurred by the continuing expansion of the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore suburbs, this once quiet, rural area dominated by orchards and family farms is quickly becoming home to large-scale commercial and residential development. According to The Gettysburg Times, the Adams County Office of Planning and Development estimates that some 1,100 homes are either already under construction or slated to begin shortly. An additional 14,000 units have been proposed by developers, and 6,500 more are foreseeable in the near future. Such extensive construction could increase the county's population by 30 percent.

Priority: CWSAC classified Gettysburg as a Priority I, Class A battlefield—its highest designation.

Please note that no attempt is made to rank the sites within History Under Siege— instead, the battlefields are listed in alphabetical order.