Picture this rural burial ground once called Citizen's Cemetery, resting quietly outside town in Cumberland Township, part of Evergreen Cemetery. This is part of the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District and today is surrounded by Gettysburg National Military Park and the Soldiers' National Cemetery. Imagine this quiet slope in July 1863, when the grounds played a strategic role in the Battle of Gettysburg from July 1 to 3.
Four months after that terrible contest, at the dedication of the immediately-adjacent National Cemetery, President Abraham Lincoln mounted a platform here and delivered his brief, immortal "Gettysburg Address. Turn back a decade and you feel the founding energy: the Ever Green Cemetery Association was formed on November 29, 1853; by April 3, 1854, 118 lots had been sold and first payments were due. The first interment took place on October 29, and opening ceremonies followed on November 7, 1854, when Reverend John H. C. Dosh asked, "Could a more lovely spot have been chosen?
That mixture of civic pride and solemn memory still marks this ground, from the first burial in 1854 to the words Lincoln spoke within your sight.