East Cemetery Hill

East Cemetery Hill, a low rise on Gettysburg’s battlefield, was important because its high ground helped anchor the Union line during the fighting on July 2, 1863. Its history reaches back before the Civil War, from an 1785 survey and an early turnpike to its renaming in 1858 after Evergreen Cemetery was established nearby. Earthworks from the battle still survive as artillery lunettes. After Gettysburg, the hill remained tied to military and memorial uses, with a Union camp, Camp Hancock, an observation tower, later inclusion in Gettysburg National Military Park, and additional landscape changes that made it part of Gettysburg’s enduring commemorative setting.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania · United States