Downtown Gettysburg Self-Guided Walking Tour

As Confederate troops advanced on Gettysburg in 1863, Jennie Wade and her mother fled here to stay with Jennie’s sister Georgia. They were terrified of the coming battle and what it would mean for their town. When the fighting erupted a few days later, the family huddled together and prayed no one would break down their door with bayonets drawn.

Teams of soldiers went out and buried these men where they had fallen, Union and Confederate alike. Most graves were only 12 inches deep. The army had other battles to fight and no time to properly bury their dead.

When Hettie Shriver fled to her parent's farm, she wasn’t alone. She also took her family and her 15-year-old neighbor Tillie Pierce. Pierce was enthralled by the prospect of battle and had stood outside to watch Union soldiers ride by. Once the cannons began booming she realized she wasn’t safe. But even after fleeing with Hettie to the farm, she couldn’t escape the horrors of battle.

While the Civil War battle here made a name for this town, there are far more stories to tell than just those of soldiers and armies. With this walking tour, get ready to find out what the Civil War Gettysburg meant for everyday people caught up in it all. Note: This 1+ mile-long tour covers the essentials of Downtown Gettysburg in 1-1.5 hours.

This is one of the largest private collections of Civil War artifacts in the entire country, featuring more than 4,000 total artifacts. Collections like this one were obtained legally, but Gettysburg has seen its fair share of looting over the years. Even with the joint effort of residents and the government in 1863, some bodies and bits of gear were left on the battlefield. Whether they were in shallow graves or just hard-to-find places, those remains simply disappeared over time.

The battle isn’t the only reason this tree is special. Abraham Lincoln also rode directly past this tree on his way to deliver the Gettysburg Address.

As the battle raged around the residents of Gettysburg and the wounded piled up, any and all available buildings became hospitals. Wounded soldiers were rushed into shelters like this courthouse, where doctors did everything they could to tend to their wounds.

This was home to Hettie Shriver, a mild-mannered woman whose story was all too familiar to Gettysburg residents after the battle. When the fighting first broke out, Hettie decided to flee with her family to her parents’ farm three miles south of town.

David Wills was an attorney and a pillar of the Gettysburg community. He was also the man responsible for organizing the creation of the Gettysburg National Cemetery!

This building dates all the way back to 1797, though it wasn’t always the Gettysburg Hotel. It started out as a humble tavern which for a time was owned by the prominent McClellan family.

The man standing next to Lincoln doesn’t have a name — and that’s exactly the point! He’s “the common man.” The idea is to illustrate the continued importance of Gettysburg and Lincoln to everyday folks in the modern era.

This is the Grand Army of the Republic Building or GAR for short. The government established it after the war to support Union veterans. Here, veterans would gather, share stories, and look after one another in times of need.