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General Lee's Headquarters
You now stand where the last remnants of organized Union forces held off determined Confederates on July 1, 1863. The Federals were soon forced to retreat, however, and the Southerners took possession of Seminary Ridge and Gettysburg itself. Confederate General Robert E. Lee arrived in time to witness his victorious soldiers advancing toward the town.
General Lee's staff selected this site at the widow Mary Thomson's house as army headquarters. This nerve center bustled with activity with couriers moving in and around the stone house and numerous headquarters tents spread out in the nearby fields. Key decisions that led to the Confederate assaults at Gettysburg were made here> In the battle's wake, dead and wounded soldiers littered the ground around you.
In the years and decades after the battle, the Thompson house became a popular attraction among battlefield visitors. In 1913, the Chambersburg Pike became part of the famed Lincoln Highway, and the road soon bustled with automobiles. Before long, campgrounds and cottages occupied the site and a museum was opened in the Thompson house. By the 1960s, Larson's Motel complex and a large restaurant surrounded Lee's Headquarters Museum.
In 2014, the Civil War Trust purchased the Thompson house and the surrounding properties and is now restoring the site to its 1863 appearance. When completed, the grounds and a new interpretive trail will be opened to the public.
On July 1, 1863, the 143rd Pennsylvania Infantry was posted behind the fence at the western boundary of this property along with three pieces of James Stewart's Battery B, 4th US Artillery. This was part of a much larger Union line that buckled under the weight of the Confederate attack. Southerners placed artillery on this site for the next two days of the battle.
This stone house was built in the 1830s and during the Battle of Gettysburg was owned by Thaddeus Stevens, in trust for Mary Thompson. By 1850, Mary was widowed and living with her eight children in this house. When the battle raged here in 1863, Mary Thompson, visible at center, was the sole resident. |