Text and photograph from <i>Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War</i>, Vol. II. Negative by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, text and positive by Alexander Gardner.
Gettysburg, the scene of Lee's defeat in 1863, is a post borough and capital of Adams county, Pennsylvania, on the turnpike from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, one hundred and fourteen miles west of the former city. It stands on elevated ground, in the midst of a fertile farming country. The Court-House and public offices are handsome and commodious; and the private residences are all built in a neat and substantial manner. The town has a flourishing Lutheran Theological Seminary, with a library of about ten thousand volumes; and is also the seat of Pennsylvania College. The manufacture of carriages is carried on to a greater extent than any other business. A number of copper mines have been opened in the neighborhood, and worked with considerable success. The town numbers about four thousand inhabitants.
It was back of this place that the Federal cavalry first met the Confederate infantry, on the 1st of July, 1863, and on the left of the picture can be seen Seminary Ridge, where General Reynolds was killed. This view is taken from Cemetery Ridge, where our artillery was massed, and against which the Confederates directed their most terrible assaults in the last day's fight. The town suffered considerably from the fire of our artillery, and the houses in some parts of the place were covered with indentations of musket balls. Very few of the inhabitants were injured, however, most of them taking refuge in their cellars and other sheltered places.
