Revised Report of the Select Committee Relative to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, Together with the Accompanying Documents, as Reported to the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
1865
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, and was part of the Gettysburg Campaign. Casualty estimates vary, but up to 51,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed or injured in the brutal, three day battle.
Gilbreath’s Regiment suffered more losses in the war than any other Indiana regiment. Of the 1403 who originally volunteered in the 20th Indiana, 201 soldiers were killed and 570 were wounded. Gilbreath attempted to collect from the War Department the names of those who had fallen, but the conditions of the records were too fragile. Gilbreath maintained his own records of officers who were killed or succumbed to their injuries.
Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery there, which was later renamed Gettysburg National Cemetery. He used his speech to honor the fallen and define the Civil War as a struggle for equality.
