Oak Ridge on the Gettysburg Battlefield was significant both during and after the Civil War. On July 1, 1863, fighting known as the Battle of Oak Ridge unfolded there during the opening day of Gettysburg, and afterward Confederate Whitworth rifled cannon on nearby Oak Hill fired toward Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill, underscoring the ridge's place in the larger battle. In later decades, Oak Ridge became a major commemorative landscape with numerous battle monuments and the 1895 Oak Ridge Observation Tower. Its importance as a place of remembrance was reinforced when President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the Eternal Light Peace Memorial there during the 1938 Gettysburg reunion.