Gettysburg
| Gettysburg | |||
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 Memorial |
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| Location in Pennsylvania | |||
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1780 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Pennsylvania | ||
| County : | Adams County | ||
| Coordinates : | 39 ° 50 ′ N , 77 ° 14 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Eastern ( UTC − 5 / −4 ) | ||
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Inhabitants : - Metropolitan Area : |
7,620 (as of 2010) 102,180 (as of 2016) |
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| Population density : | 699.1 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 11.1 km 2 (about 4 mi 2 ) of which 10.9 km 2 (about 4 mi 2 ) is land |
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| Height : | 162 m | ||
| Postal code : | 17325 | ||
| Area code : | +1 717 | ||
| FIPS : | 42-28960 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 1213625 | ||
| Website : | www.gettysburg-pa.gov | ||
| Mayor : | William E. Troxell | ||
Gettysburg [ ˈgɛtɪzbɝːg ] is a small US town in Adams County in southern Pennsylvania , near the Maryland border , and is best known around the world through the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War . Almost 8,000 people live in Gettysburg today and it is visited by around 2 million people annually.
history
In 1786, the Irish settler James Gettys (1759-1815) laid the city and named it Gettystown. In 1800 it was named the county seat of Adams County and Gettysburg.
From July 1 to July 3, 1863, Gettysburg was the site of one of the decisive battles of the American Civil War. Around 6,000 men were killed and 27,000 wounded. On November 19 of the same year, then-US President Abraham Lincoln visited Gettysburg for the inauguration of the new cemetery and at the end of the ceremony gave a three-minute speech, now known as the Gettysburg Address and considered one of the most important speeches in American history . The Gettysburg National Military Park was created around the cemetery and battlefield .
Veterans held a fraternization ceremony in Gettysburg on the 50th anniversary of the battle in the summer of 1913. On July 3, 1938, the 75th anniversary, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and an estimated 250,000 onlookers visited Gettysburg to inaugurate the Eternal Peace Light Memorial.
In 1950, the future US President Dwight D. Eisenhower acquired a farm in Gettysburg as a retirement home. The then Soviet head of government Nikita Khrushchev was received there in 1959 .
literature
- Mark A. Snell: My Gettysburg: Meditations on History and Place. Kent State University Press, Kent 2016, ISBN 978-1-60635-293-9 .