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The Gettysburg National Military Park Quarter
The Gettysburg National Military Park quarter is the first to be released in 2011, and the sixth overall in the America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. The Battle of Gettysburg, the Union victory in the summer of 1863 that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North, was a turning point in the Civil War. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion," it was among the war's bloodiest battles, with 51,000 casualties. It also provided President Abraham Lincoln with the setting for his most famous address. It was the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, a group of concerned citizens, that first set out in 1864 to preserve the battlefield as a memorial to the Union troops who fought there. The park is well-known for its many monuments and memorials, the majority of which were placed by veterans of the battle. On February 11, 1895, the battlefield was transferred to the federal government as Gettysburg National Military Park (28 Stat. 651).
The reverse image depicts the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument, which is located on the battle line of the Union Army at Cemetery Ridge. Inscriptions are GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, 2011 and E PLURIBUS UNUM. Design candidates were developed in representatives of Gettysburg National Military Park.
The series features the 1932 portrait of George Washington by John Flanagan, restored to bring out subtle details and the beauty of the original model, on the obverse. The reverse depicts the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument, which is located on the battle line of the Union Army at Cemetery Ridge.
These striking numismatic collectibles are produced with an uncirculated finish and display a "P" mint mark for the United States Mint at Philadelphia, where they are struck. The coins are encapsulated, set in a protective outer box, and accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. These coins are produced in limited quantities and demand will be great.
The Battle of Gettysburg was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.
After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade.
Elements of the two armies initially collided at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, as Lee urgently concentrated his forces there, his objective being to engage the Union army and destroy it. Low ridges to the northwest of town were defended initially by a Union cavalry division under Brig. Gen. John Buford, and soon reinforced with two corps of Union infantry. However, two large Confederate corps assaulted them from the northwest and north, collapsing the hastily developed Union lines, sending the defenders retreating through the streets of town to the hills just to the south.
On the second day of battle, most of both armies had assembled. The Union line was laid out in a defensive formation resembling a fishhook. In the late afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault on the Union left flank, and fierce fighting raged at Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, Devil's Den, and the Peach Orchard. On the Union right, demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. All across the battlefield, despite significant losses, the Union defenders held their lines.
On the third day of battle, July 3, fighting resumed on Culp's Hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates against the center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, known as Pickett's Charge. The charge was repulsed by Union rifle and artillery fire, at great losses to the Confederate army. Lee led his army on a torturous retreat back to Virginia. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers from both armies were casualties in the three-day battle. That November, President Lincoln used the dedication ceremony for the Gettysburg National Cemetery to honor the fallen Union soldiers and redefine the purpose of the war in his historic Gettysburg Address.