The inattention paid to the Gettysburg National Cemetery enclosures during the administration of the National Park Service has contributed significantly to their threatened condition today. Up until the last few decades of its own administration, the War Department paid particular attention to the enclosures and the condition and appearance of the Cemetery as a whole. It was not until near the
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approach of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg that this attention began to devolve solely upon the upkeep of the grounds and new buildings. The preoccupation with cutting the grass and building new visitor and maintenance facilities 88 arrived on the scene almost immediately after the passing of the disabled-Civil-War-veteran superintendent. 89

These early War Department appointees had a personal interest in the National Cemetery, since all of them had been disabled themselves by wounds in the same war in which this cemetery was founded. The War Department itself was still staffed by career officers who served during the Civil War. And Gettysburg National Cemetery and the battlefield were a Mecca to thousands of Civil War veterans annually, whose one most cherished stop was the solemnity and tranquility of the cemetery grounds. Many still came in those post-war years to visit the grave of a brother or other relative, and to talk personally with the superintendent about the care of the grave

Because of the personal nature of the cemetery in those years, pride was taken in not only the upkeep of the graves, but in the enclosures, planting, and approaches to the cemetery. Even though William Saunders later criticized the army for disrupting his original landscaping (by planting more and more trees on the open expanse of the grave section and diminishing the spectacle of the simple

88 The new superintendent's lodge and office was built in 1907, the comfort station in 1927, gates widened to accommodate vehicular traffic in 1939, and gravestones in the historic section set flush with the ground in 1934 (to facilitate mowing operations? They originally stood some 6"-9" up out of the ground so that they, not the grass, would be noticeable as a symbol of a nation's gratitude to its soldier dead). The brick stable and storage shed built in 1897, was intended to house the cemetery's one horse or mule and store the four cannon and terra cotta vases during the winter months. It has since been converted to a garage to store trucks, lawnmowers, and snow plows.
89 The last such disabled veteran at Gettysburg was Calvin Hamilton, who died while serving as superintendent in 1914.
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Yet, with the influx of more and more tourists and fewer and fewer returning veterans, the emphasis shifted from the exterior view of the cemetery to the interior view, from "simple grandeur" to visitor comfort. Competition with other structures, improved roadways, and attractions diminished the approaches and scenic quality of the cemetery's exterior. More attention was paid to the interior visual impact and less to the exterior. More trees were planted, avenues were hard-surfaced, lawns were manicured, "unsightly" fencing and plantings replaced. Less attention was therefore directed to the stone wall, gates, and iron fences, but more attention was focused on converting the cemetery to an isolated, closed in, memorial park. The Soldiers' National Monument was no longer billed solely as a monument to the soldiers but as the site of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. To the average tourist/visitor of the twentieth century, the monument is just another memorial monument on the huge battlefield, and nothing significant. But, by dropping the headstones to a ground level in 1934 and adding interior arbor vitae and trees to the grave section, the Soldiers' National Monument was given physical significance while denying any physical significance whatsoever to the soldiers' graves. The whole raison d'etre for the National Cemetery was transferred under the National Park Service from a fitting "final resting place" for Gettysburg casualties to a memorial park to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The interpretation was assisted by the Lincoln Speech Memorial, a speaker's rostrum, and de-emphasis on the Civil War graves. The monumental attractions also included the immense New York monument--an uncalled-for distraction from the simplicity of the National Cemetery--and regimental markers and monuments, interpretive
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As a result, cyclical maintenance of National Cemetery structures has been sacrificed to the expediencies of keeping up this memorial park appearance. Lawns are kept immaculate and well trimmed, trees are attended annually by tree surgeons, roadways are well paved and plowed in winter. The views from the auto and bus have been upgraded, so that they are really better than the pedestrian has. The visitor who wants to experience the "simple grandeur" of this "hallowed ground" is punished for his efforts. On examination, the stone enclosing wall is seen to be crumbling, even threatening this poor pedestrian by momentarily crushing him if it collapses. The iron fencing, alas, is rusted through and pitted, and its roughness hurts his hand when he pauses to touch it. The headstones are barely readable, their legends wearing away and covered with mown grass. The marble stones of the unknown section are chipped by mowers and disrupted by tree roots and sod.

The worse insult our walking visitor must bear, though, is the climax of National Park Service inattention and "misinterpretation." By forsaking the idea of a national cemetery in favor of a Gettysburg Address and Lincoln Memorial Park, we have inflicted upon Gettysburg National Cemetery what other Civil War-related national cemeteries do not have to bear--continual vehicular traffic. The Park's absorption in the Gettysburg Address is transmitted by rangers, guides, and exhibits alike, and the sum total of our fixation resides in the Soldiers' National Monument as the purported site of the Gettysburg Address.

The monument no longer stands to the memory of the fallen soldiers but we insist on misinterpreting the monument as a memorial to the site of Lincoln's immortal Gettysburg Address. It is now no longer enough for the monument to symbolize Columbia paying tribute to her sons who fell in battle, but we feel

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And while our pedestrian looks at the Soldiers' National Monument, 90 he will undoubtedly have a bus or auto idling nearby while visitors are told about Lincoln standing where the monument is. But the marble figures (disfigured and discolored most probably by the effects of the pollutants transmitted by the vehicular traffic) on the monument are not portrayals of Lincoln or characters out of the Gettysburg Address. They are the genius of Liberty, History, War, Plenty, and Peace. Each figure is representational, while the whole monument tells about the Union soldier's hopes during the Civil War. A Union infantryman represents War, and he tells the story of his deeds to a seated woman scribe (History), whom he hopes will remember his sacrifices and hardships. The end result of the war, according to the soldiers' hopes, was not death, reconstruction, or revenge, but a nation returned to Peace and able to pursue its peaceful labors to restore the nation to Plenty. And above it all, resting on the firm foundation of the states themselves, is Liberty, more important to the soldiers and the nation than the other four combined. (Reminiscent of Patrick Henry's famous "Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?") We dare not speak of such noble sentiments anymore, since they might embarrass the visitor, but reduce the monument to little more than a Victorian conversation piece marking the much less important site of Lincoln's two feet (if indeed it does).

90 Name virtually unknown by Gettysburg area residents and visitors, who may refer to it variously as National Monument, Speech Monument, Gettysburg Address Monument, etc.

 

 

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The end result is that vehicles drive through the cemetery, pausing briefly to hear about Lincoln (what he said, where he is supposed to have said it), and receive a momentary impression of tall monuments, quaint rostrums, Lincoln, short grass, and a garden of tree varieties. The enclosures, of course, are secondary to the visitor because they are virtually obscured by vegetative growth and are only seen at a distance as the vehicle rolls along. On top of it all, the cemetery loses its meaning and the poor soldiers, who hoped History would remember them, lie in intentionally obscured graves.

One need only visit Antietam National Cemetery as a comparable site to see the glaring differences between the two cemeteries. Antietam has removed the original horse-drawn carriage avenues, and has barred vehicular traffic altogether from the cemetery. The entranceway is immaculate with its ornaments still gilded regularly, while the fencing (both iron and limestone) is well cared for. The enclosures and entrance invite the visitor to disembark his vehicle and walk through the cemetery grounds. The experience is one of "simple grandeur" and not "rushed conglomerate." All painting and repointing of the enclosures there are cyclical yet, and the condition of the gateway is so much like new that the original gates are still hanging, with the foundry's name still legible thereon. Antietam National Cemetery has no special claim to fame as a site of a world famous speech, yet the cemetery itself is more striking to the visitor than Gettysburg's because it is properly maintained, properly interpreted, and properly visited.

If the National Park Service intends to perpetuate its present Memorial Park interpretation of the cemetery, and continue vehicular traffic, it would be advisable and economical to simply remove the "substantial" enclosures altogether and replace them with an easily maintained chain-link fence. After all, the

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