A self-guiding twenty-four-mile route through Gettysburg follows the three-day battle in chronological order, beginning west of the McPherson barn on July 1, 1863, where Union cavalry met Confederate infantry advancing along Chambersburg Pike and fighting spread along McPherson and Oak ridges until Union forces fell back to Cemetery Hill; that afternoon Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes's attack from the hill at the Eternal Light Peace Memorial threatened Union positions, and by day's end Lee chose to continue the offensive with about 70,000 men against Meade's 93,000. On July 2, Confederate and Union lines formed parallel fishhooks from Seminary Ridge, through town, and across Cemetery Ridge, Cemetery Hill, Culp's Hill, and the Round Tops; Longstreet's assaults began from Warfield Ridge against Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and the Union left, while fighting at places including Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Plum Run, Pennsylvania Memorial, Spangler's Spring, and East Cemetery Hill left both Union flanks attacked but holding by nightfall, and Meade resolved to stay and fight. On July 3, the open field east of the Virginia Memorial became the scene of Pickett's Charge, and after a two-hour cannonade about 7,000 Union soldiers near the Copse of Trees, The Angle, and the Brian Barn repulsed the bulk of the 12,000-man assault at the High Water Mark, the climactic moment of the battle. Lee's army began retreating on July 4 after total casualties over three days reached 23,000 for the Union army and as many as 28,000 for the Confederate army. The route also includes the National Cemetery, where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, downtown sites linked to Abraham Lincoln and David Wills, and the East Cavalry Battlefield Site, where on July 3 Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg checked Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry.
