Lincoln Cemetery – Gettysburg

Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery. His Gettysburg Address, perhaps the single most famous speech in American history, described a "new birth of freedom" that the war might give the country.

While postwar America struggled to make a place for its African American citizens, a group called the Sons of Good Will created the Lincoln Cemetery in 1867 to ensure "the proper burial of Gettysburg's African American citizens and Civil War veterans." Located between South Washington Street and Long Lane, walking distance from the Soldiers National Cemetery, the Lincoln Cemetery holds more than 30 members of the United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.). It is the final resting place of most local U.S.C.T. veterans. The first African American veteran was buried in Soldiers' National Cemetery in November 1884, when the remains of Henry Gooden, 127th United States Colored Troops, were moved from the Alms House burial ground in Gettysburg to the United States Regulars lot. The national cemetery's second African American veteran, Charles H. Parker, 3rd United States Colored Troops, was buried in November 1936 after disinterment from the Yellow Hill Cemetery, north of Gettysburg.