Help Save 15 Hallowed Acres at Gettysburg

Gettysburg Preservation Update: Spring 2025

Just over two years ago, we set out to save 15 acres of hallowed ground at Willoughby’s Run, a key site in the Battle of Gettysburg. Once slated for an apartment complex, this land was nearly lost—until we secured a $3 million agreement to preserve it forever.

Thanks to generous supporters, we’ve made incredible progress. With a donor pledging to match half the cost, we raised the first $1.5 million. Now, we’re in the home stretch: just $475,000 remains to meet our goal.

This is the moment to ensure that history is protected, not paved over. Every donation brings us closer to securing this land forever. Will you help us cross the finish line?

The Opportunity 

We must work urgently to raise the remaining funds — $475,000 — to complete this preservation effort at Gettysburg before July 1 in time for the 162nd anniversary of Gettysburg.

These acres bore witness to the first moments of what would become the best-known battle ever fought on American soil. Considered by many a major turning point in the war, Gettysburg has long captivated students of history of all ages.

Tens of millions of Americans have traveled to Gettysburg to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, to contemplate what they did there, and marvel at the flow of the Civil War’s greatest battle. No one would want to see inappropriate development at one of the nation’s most sacred sites.

This is a rare opportunity to ensure that the legacy of all those who fought, bled, and died at Willoughby’s Run will endure, to the 162nd Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg and beyond.

LIMITED-TIME BONUS: Make a gift of $63 or more today and you’ll be one of the first to receive a new exclusive book — Battle Maps of the Civil War: The Gettysburg Campaign — an essential part of your Civil War history collection!

Donate now

The History

Gettysburg was not only the costliest battle of the Civil War but also the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil.

If the battle had ended as the sun set on July 1, 1863, the first day alone would now be remembered as the 12th bloodiest battle of the Civil War. That’s how intense the first day of fighting was.

The violent combat at McPherson’s Ridge, Oak Hill, Oak Ridge, Seminary Ridge, and Barlow’s Knoll produced more than 16,000 Americans killed, wounded, captured, or missing.

First-hand battle accounts describe the carnage in gruesome detail and record the staggering and heartbreaking scale of human loss. The 13th North Carolina alone lost 83% of its men at Gettysburg.

One captain from the 2nd Wisconsin who fought with the Iron Brigade at Seminary Ridge later wrote:

“As if every lanyard was pulled by the same hand, this line of artillery opened, and Seminary Ridge blazed with a solid sheet of flame, and the missiles of death that swept its western slopes no human beings could endure.”

To stand on this property during the heat of battle on the afternoon of July 1, 1863, you would have been surrounded by gunfire, while your eyes would have been stung from smoke.

Situated between the critical battle arteries of the Chambersburg Pike and Fairfield Road, and bordering land preserved by the National Park Service and by the American Battlefield Trust, this tract hosted Union and Confederate movements and fighting on the battle’s first day, was used as a reserve position on the next day, and later served as or was right next to a temporary cemetery for Confederate soldiers killed nearby.

The initial deployments of the Union cavalry and horse artillery moved on part of the tract, while the Iron Brigade crossed it en route to its famous fights near Willoughby’s Run and the Railroad Cut. Commander Chapman Biddle’s brigades of Pennsylvania troops crossed over it again and again as they tried to move out of the path of incoming projectiles, some of which doubtless fell upon the tract.

Biddle’s brigade also retreated through this swale, followed by Generals James Pettigrew’s and James H. Lane’s North Carolina troops, and by Colonel Abner M. Perrin’s men from South Carolina.

The Land at Gettysburg Today

While preservation campaigns (including our efforts!) eventually took hold in one direction, and commercial development steamrolled on in another, this 11-acre plot stayed nearly the same for more than a century and a half. It’s in nearly pristine condition!

It’s a two-minute walk from the Lutheran Seminary. It’s a three-minute walk to the famed spot where the Three Confederate Prisoners were photographed in one of the most iconic images of the Civil War.

It’s about 1,200 feet from the monument that marks the place where Gen. John F. Reynolds lost his life, and barely 1,600 feet from Lee’s Headquarters. That’s how central this tract is to the battlefield and the first day of fighting!

Please give what you can today to help save this hallowed land.

Donate now