This interactive Gettysburg map (below) marks the beginning of a larger project to chart the civilian landscape of Gettysburg in new ways. What you see here now has three three layers. Layer One is focused on Confederate burials drawn from Greg Coco’s Gettysburg’s Confederate Burials and similar sources like Find-a-Grave (these are denoted with the red). Each red marker represents a farm or landmark where burials were recorded in the days and weeks following the battle. Clicking a location opens a list of the men buried there, with details about their regiments, dates of death, and links to their Find-a-Grave entries when available. The side panel also gathers together burials that could not yet be placed on the ground and those soldiers who were wounded at Gettysburg but later died in hospitals far from the field.

On Layer Two, you will find notable civilian homes, churches, and businesses with short explanations (these are the blue circles). The blue dots open to short explanatory windows and, where applicable, links where you can read more about the people and events associated with that site.

On Layer 3, you will find in orange residents of Cumberland township with data from their census entry. Hyperlinks for each person are included that will bring you to genealogical data we have culled from the Census and other sites. For some residents, the precise locations of their farms are known, and these have been plotted with GPS coordinates. For most, coordinates are not known, and we had to use the 1858 Adams County PA map to approximate locations. Some errors in transcription and location are likely. As well, some of these plots are capturing farms that might have ranged to 100 to 200 acres. Today’s GPS point may not align to the 1858 map plot point, based on where today’s mapmakers have chose to centralize the property point. So it’s best to think of these points in relation to each other.

In time, additional layers will allow you to toggle between different views of the civilian experience—farms and families, businesses, post-battle hospitals, and even the shifting lines of commemoration. Each will be connected so that the story of Gettysburg’s people can be explored spatially as well as through narrative. The farms plotted so far are only a start: as research continues, more sites will be added and existing points refined for greater accuracy.

The goal is not just to mark dots on a map, but to help you move through Gettysburg as residents experienced it—on farms clustered along Rock Creek, in churches turned into hospitals, or at landmarks like the Black Horse Tavern. Use this map to explore where soldiers were first laid to rest, then return later as new layers are added to see how those same landscapes tied into family histories, community life, and the long memory of the battle.