Evergreen Cemetery – formerly called Citizen's Cemetery and Ever Green Cemetery – is a historic 29.12 acre rural cemetery located just outside Gettysburg Borough, in Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania. It is part of Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District, and is surrounded by Gettysburg National Military Park and Soldiers' National Cemetery. The cemetery played a strategic role in the July 1 to 3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. Four months after the battle, at the dedication of the immediately-adjacent National Cemetery, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his "Gettysburg Address" from a platform in Evergreen Cemetery. History Founding The Ever Green Cemetery Association of Gettysburg was established at a November 29, 1853 meeting. The association managed the property and oversaw selection of its caretakers. By April 3, 1854, 118 lots had been sold, and the association members' first payments were due. The first interment took place on October 29. Opening ceremonies were held on November 7, 1854, and in his dedication address Reverend John H. C. Dosh asked, "Could a more lovely spot have been chosen?" The Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse was designed by Philadelphia architect Stephen Decatur Button, built by local contractors George and Henry Chritzman, and completed in November 1855. The Italianate gatehouse served as the caretaker residence. Battle of Gettysburg Evergreen Cemetery is eponymous with Cemetery Hill, the landform noted as the keystone of the Union position during the Battle of Gettysburg. Major-General Oliver Otis Howard lined the cemetery's high ground with cannons, turning it into an "artillery platform," and made its gatehouse into XI Corps (Union Army) headquarters. At dusk on July 2, 5 Louisiana regiments under Brigadier-General Harry T. Hays and 3 North Carolina regiments under Colonel Isaac E. Avery commenced the Battle of East Cemetery Hill, charging Howard's artillery batteries from the east. "Federal soldiers in the Cemetery laid many of the tombstones on the ground" to limit damage, and some of the XI Corps batteries and infantry used the grave monuments "for shelter from the enemy's fire". Historian Frederick Hawthorne wrote of Howard's successful defense: “Lying in reserve in the Evergreen Cemetery, they (73rd Pennsylvania Infantry) rushed out through the cemetery gateway to help drive the Confederates away from Rickett’s and Weidrich’s batteries.” Evergreen experienced three days as battlefield, and its resulting condition inspired a Union officer to lament: "A beautiful cemetery it was, but now is trodden down, laid a waste, desecrated. The fences are all down,