Final resting place of 3,512 Union dead dedicated by Abraham Lincoln
...On July 10th, just a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg, the War Governor
of the State of Pennsylvania, Andrew Curtin, came to Gettysburg to view the
carnage. He was given a tour of this battlefield by a 32-year old attorney by the
name of David Wills. What the Governor of Pennsylvania saw sickened him. There
were 8,900 men who died on the field without seeing a doctor. Two thousand more
died at Gettysburg hospitals over the next 60 days. The majority of the 8,900 men
who died of terrible wounds on this battlefield were pretty much buried where
they fell. Right after the Battle of Gettysburg, there were days of rain that
washed out the graves. There were puddles with arms and legs and skulls sticking
out of the mud...
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