A self-guiding twenty-four-mile route through Gettysburg follows the three-day battle in chronological order and includes sixteen stops, a Barlow Knoll loop, a downtown tour, and the East Cavalry Battlefield Site. On July 1, 1863, the battle began west of the McPherson barn when Union cavalry confronted Confederate infantry advancing along Chambersburg Pike, fighting spread along McPherson and Oak ridges, Robert E. Rodes's Confederates attacked from the hill at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, and by late afternoon the Union line had fallen back to Cemetery Hill, leaving the Confederates with the upper hand as Lee chose to continue the offensive against Meade's larger army. On July 2, the opposing armies formed parallel fishhook-shaped lines from Seminary Ridge and north of Cemetery and Culp's hills to Cemetery Ridge and the Round Tops, Longstreet placed Confederate troops along Warfield Ridge and began assaults against Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, and the Union left, quick action by Gouverneur K. Warren helped bring reinforcements to Little Round Top, heavy fighting ravaged the Wheatfield and Peach Orchard, Union troops retreated across Plum Run, artillery held the line on Cemetery Ridge, Confederates attacked at Spangler's Spring and East Cemetery Hill, and by day's end the Union army had held both flanks while Meade resolved to stay and fight. On July 3, the open field east of the Virginia Memorial became the site of Pickett's Charge, and after a two-hour cannonade about seven thousand Union soldiers near the Copse of Trees, the Angle, and the Brian Barn repulsed the bulk of the twelve thousand Confederate assault at the High Water Mark, the climactic moment of the battle; on July 4 Lee's army began retreating after total casualties of twenty-three thousand for the Union army and as many as twenty-eight thousand for the Confederate army. The tour also includes the National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, the David Wills House where Lincoln finished the address the night before, the Gettysburg Train Station where Lincoln arrived on November 18 and which aided postbattle recovery, and the East Cavalry Battlefield Site, where on July 3 David McM. Gregg's Union cavalry intercepted and checked J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry during the cannonade preceding Pickett's Charge.
