The Eternal Light Peace Memorial is a 1938

Gettysburg Battlefield The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the site of the first shot ...

monument dedicated on July 3, 1938, commemorating the

1913 Gettysburg reunion The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg's 50th anniversary. The June 29–July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans (~8,750 Confederate) was the largest ever Civil ...

for the 50th anniversary of the 1863

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of the Po ...

on July 3, 1913. The

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

flame A flame (from Latin ''flamma'') is the visible, gaseous part of a fire. It is caused by a highly exothermic chemical reaction taking place in a thin zone. When flames are hot enough to have ionized gaseous components of sufficient density they ...

in a one-ton bronze urn is atop a tower on a stone pedestrian terrace with views from the terraced hill summit over about , and the flame is visible from away.

History

In 1887, "the

Philadelphia Brigade The Philadelphia Brigade (also known as the California Brigade) was a Union Army brigade that served in the American Civil War. It was raised primarily in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the exception of the 106th regiment which cont ...

, Col. Cowan and others" advocated a "grand monument to American Heroism on this battlefield", and President

William McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. As a politician he led a realignment that made his Republican Party largely dominant in ...

spoke to Cowan about North/South peace in 1900. The "first tentative program" of October 1910 for the

planned a "Peace Jubilee" to be held on "National Day" with an oration by President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

and the cornerstone placement for the "Great Peace Memorial" at noon. However, after being "presented, January 11th, 1912, to the Joint Committee of the Congress orthe Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg", funding was "found, in March 1912, impossible of accomplishment in the

62nd Congress The 62nd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1911, to M ...

". Instead of the laying of a cornerstone, on July 3 during the New York Veterans' Celebration in the 1913 Great Tent, Colonel Andrew Cowan gave a speech advocating the memorial, and "steps to accomplish such purpose were immediately taken … which resulted in the Gettysburg Peace Memorial Association being formed. … That Association's Bill was, on December 20th, 1913, presented to Congress…creating the Gettysburg Memorial Commission." The original plan was for a $250,000 "monument of peace" at

The Angle The Angle (Bloody Angle colloq.) is a Gettysburg Battlefield area which includes the 1863 Copse of Trees used as the target landmark for Pickett's Charge, the 1892 monument that marks the high-water mark of the Confederacy, a rock wall, and seve ...

, but despite 1914 "Peace Memorial Bill" presentations to the

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

that compared the planned memorial with

Christ the Redeemer of the Andes ''Christ the Redeemer of the Andes'' ( es, Cristo Redentor de los Andes) is a monument high in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes at 3,832 metres (12,572 ft) above mean sea level on the border between Argentina and Chile. It was unveil ...

and the

Lincoln Memorial The Lincoln Memorial is a U.S. national memorial built to honor the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument, and is in the ...

, federal funding remained "postponed". In August 1936, the memorial's commission issued 10,000 four page circulars to publicize the plan, and Virginia in 1936 was the first to appropriate funds. In 1937 the Pennsylvania legislature began planning a peace memorial on Big Round Top, and the state's "Peace Memorial Bill" was signed on February 24, 1937, to appropriate $5,000 for the state's "Gettysburg Peace Memorial fund". The peace memorial committee selected from the 6 designs by August 1937 and on December 10, 1937,

Lee Lawrie Lee Oscar Lawrie (October 16, 1877 – January 23, 1963) was an American architectural sculptor and a key figure in the American art scene preceding World War II. Over his long career of more than 300 commissions Lawrie's style evolved through ...

was announced as the sculptor for the structure "''overlooking''

Big Round Top Big Round Top is a boulder-strewn hill notable as the topographic high point of the Gettysburg Battlefield and for 1863 American Civil War engagements for which Medals of Honor were awarded. In addition to battle monuments, a historic postbellu ...

Little Round Top Little Round Top is the smaller of two rocky hills south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—the companion to the adjacent, taller hill named Big Round Top. It was the site of an unsuccessful assault by Confederate troops against the Union left fla ...

". With additional funding by New York, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, and Wisconsin; the $60,000 monument was instead completed northwest of

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

. Groundbreaking was on February 14, and the last foot of piping for the flame's gas supply was placed on May 31.

Dedication

Attendance for the memorial's dedication at the

1938 Gettysburg reunion The 1938 Gettysburg reunion was an encampment of American Civil War veterans on the Gettysburg Battlefield for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The gathering included approximately 25 veterans of the battle with a further 1,3 ...

on July 3 was 250,000; a further 100,000 attempted to attend but failed to arrive due to congested roads. President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

arrived at a temporary platform on his special train via the

Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

from the North after leaving Springwood at Hyde Park NY that morning. The U.S. 3d Cavalry Division escorted the President's motorcade to the memorial on Oak Hill, and Roosevelt's open car arrived with a

21 gun salute A 21-gun salute is the most commonly recognized of the customary gun salutes that are performed by the firing of cannons or artillery as a military honor. As naval customs evolved, 21 guns came to be fired for heads of state, or in exceptiona ...

. Roosevelt used "a new Mobile sound system unit" to address the audience including the veterans on specially-constructed grandstands under a canopy. As his nine-minute speech ended at sunset, the Peace Memorial covered by a 50-foot flag was unveiled by Union veteran George N. Lockwood and Confederate veteran A. G. Harris (both age 91) with two regular army attendants a photocell automatically lit the flame

Grand Army of the Republic The Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army (United States Army), Union Navy (U.S. Navy), and the Marines who served in the American Civil War. It was founded in 1866 in Decatur, Il ...

chaplain Martin V. Stone ended the ceremony with a benediction prayer, and on the way to his car Roosevelt spoke with the oldest attending veteran, William Barnes of the US Colored Troops, age 112. A Sixth Field Artillery battery near Oak Hill fired a 21 gun salute as the President departed at 7 p.m. (His train to Washington used the

Western Maryland Railway The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) which operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation. The WM beca ...

.) The flame was reduced to a pilot light during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

(from December 25, 1941) and just prior to the 1946 Paris peace conference, President Truman commented about the inscribed motto, ''Peace Eternal in a Nation United'': "That is what we want, but let's change that word (nation) to world and we'll have something." The deteriorated Alabama limestone in the lower section that had been approved for use by the

Bureau of Standards A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...

was replaced with gray granite in June 1941, and repairs were also made in 1950. A 1962 protest against nuclear arms and testing was held at the memorial, and the flame was extinguished in 1974 for the oil crisis after the

93rd United States Congress The 93rd United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1973, ...

prohibited such flames (except for the

John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame The John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame is a presidential memorial at the gravesite of assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. This permanent site replaced a temporary grave and eternal flame ...

), and the extinguished gas flame was replaced by an electrical light in 1976. A Gettysburg Peace Celebration committee had been formed by June 1988, and the gas flame was restored at their Fiftieth Anniversary Rededication on July 3.

References

{{Reflist, 35em

External links

PSU.edu: President Franklin Roosevelt's Gettysburg address
!--text of address on p. 44 at psu.edu--> Gettysburg Battlefield monuments and memorials Eternal flames Peace monuments and memorials Limestone buildings in the United States Stone sculptures in Pennsylvania Towers in Pennsylvania 1938 sculptures Buildings and structures completed in 1938 1938 establishments in Pennsylvania 1938 establishments in the United States Paul Philippe Cret buildings