Gettysburg National Park, Gettysburg

Eldred WW11 Museum, Eldred

Eldred WWII Museum
Eldred, Pennsylvania

	Background & Introduction:     The Eldred World War II Museum is located in Eldred, Pennsylvania, 85 miles south of Niagara Falls, New York. During World War II, Eldred was the site of a British and American munitions plant which produced eight million bombs, mortar shells and fuses. Fifteen hundred people worked there, 24 hours a day, from January 1942 to May 1945, supporting the war effort. The Eldred World War II Museum opened on Memorial Day, 1996, dedicated to the memory of the local people who worked in the plant and those who served overseas during the war.
	Map
	Eldred is 80 miles south of Buffalo, NY.
	Museum Hours: 10 AM - 4 PM Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday; 1 PM - 4PM on Sunday; other hours by appointment. Admission Free 201 Main Street P.O. Box 273 Eldred, PA 16731 (814) 225-2220

 Located in Gettysburg, PA

Located 50 miles northwest of Baltimore, the small town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania was the site of the largest Civil War battle ever waged in the Western Hemisphere. The Battle of Gettysburg opened on July 1, 1863 and closed two days later with the climactic "Pickett's Charge". It resulted in a Union victory for the Army of the Potomac and successfully turned back the second invasion of the North by General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Over 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured making it the bloodiest battle of the Civil War. It was also a major turning point in the war. Historians have referred to the Battle of Gettysburg as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy." It was the last major effort by Lee to take the fighting out of Virginia and into northern states. The Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg contains more than 7,000 interments including over 3,500 from the Civil War. It was here that President Abraham Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

Post-battle preservation efforts saved small portions of the battlefield as a memorial to the Union victory. On February 11, 1895, congressional legislation was signed to establish Gettysburg National Military Park as a memorial dedicated to the armies that fought that great three day battle. Gettysburg National Military Park incorporates nearly 6,000 acres, with 26 miles of park roads and over 1,400 monuments, markers, and memorials.

A self-guided auto Tour:  A 18 miles long tracing the three-day battle in chronological order.  It starts at the visitor centre, passes through Gettysburg, and takes about 3 hours to complete.

The visitor's centre and Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War:  Including the Electric Map, a large bookstore, licenses battlefield guides, current schedules of ranger-conducted programs, Civil War exhibits and information.

Operating Hours, Seasons

Park grounds and roads open daily, 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Visitor Center open daily, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Summer hours- 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily.) Cyclorama Center open daily, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Buildings are closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, & New Years Day. The National Cemetery is open at dawn and closes at sunset.

Gettysburg
National Cemetery
in Gettysburg National Military Park
Located in Gettysburg, PA

To properly bury the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg, a "Soldiers Cemetery" was established on the battleground near the center of the Union line. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin supported the proposal with state funds to purchase the cemetery grounds and pay for the reinterment of Union dead from inadequate grave sites that covered the battlefield. It was here during the dedication ceremony on November 19, 1863, that President Abraham Lincoln spoke of "these honored dead..." and renewed the Union cause to reunite the war-torn nation with his most famous speech, the "Gettysburg Address". The cemetery was landscaped by William Saunders, founder of the National Grange. The Cemetery was completed by 1872, and turned over to the care of the Federal government. In 1933 responsibility of the cemetery was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service.

Today, the Gettysburg National Cemetery is the final resting place for American veterans from all of this country's major wars and conflicts. It is closed to new burials. The cemetery is also the site of numerous monuments and memorials including the "Friend to Friend" Memorial in the National Cemetery Annex.

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