After Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, news traveled northward, causing national divisions to turn local in south-central Pennsylvania. More than two years later, a handful of United States and Confederate officers who served at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1861 confronted one another again at Gettysburg in July 1863—some of whom directly impacted affairs at the Lutheran Seminary. And, throughout the postwar monumentation era that followed, scores of aging veterans delivered dedication speeches in which they clarified Sumter’s status as the origin of the conflict that brought Gettysburg its fame.

Join Codie Eash as he explores the ties—both literal and symbolic—between the site that sparked the Civil War, and the site of its costliest encounter.

- FREE with General Museum Admission -

Lydia Ziegler Clare Education Center

Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center