2026 News

Gettysburg Foundation today announced the launch of A Field of Remembrance, a national commemorative campaign that invites the public to sponsor American flags in memory of the more than 51,000 Americans killed, wounded, captured or missing at the Battle of Gettysburg as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding.

Each flag, sponsored for $18.63—the year of the battle—is an act of remembrance. Together, the campaign will place 7,000 flags near the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, making the human cost of Gettysburg visible beyond what statistics alone can convey. The field opens to the public on Nov. 12 as part of Gettysburg's PA250 Adams County commemorative activities.

The field will reflect the estimated number of soldiers killed during the battle, while remembering all who were killed, wounded, captured or missing at Gettysburg.

Participants may sponsor one or more flags, with tribute naming available at all levels. Together, those acts of participation create a field shaped entirely by public choice, one flag at a time, before it opens in November.

The campaign launches with early support from Friends of Gettysburg member John Cronin, whose leadership gift will sponsor more than 500 flags in the field.

“Gettysburg asks each generation to remember what was sacrificed here and what it still requires of us,” said Cronin. “This campaign creates a way for people across the country to participate in that remembrance together.”

The campaign runs from Flag Day through Veterans Day. The field installation will remain on view from Nov. 12 through Nov. 23.

"This campaign begins with remembrance, but it leads to something we can see and stand within," said Barbara Sardella, interim president of the Gettysburg Foundation. "Each flag marks an individual act of recognition. Together, they create a field that reflects the scale of what happened here and what it still asks of us."

Flag sponsorships are now open at gettysburgfoundation.org/a-field-of-remembrance.

The flag installation and the David Wills House reopening are both part of Gettysburg’s PA250 Adams County commemoration: one makes the human cost of the battle visible; the other returns visitors to the room where Lincoln shaped the words that have carried that cost forward ever since.

Proceeds support the Gettysburg Foundation's preservation and education work, in partnership with the National Park Service, helping preserve the places where Americans continue to confront sacrifice, citizenship and what democracy still requires, including the reopening of the David Wills House, where Lincoln finalized the Gettysburg Address, and stewardship of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial.

Once installed near the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, the field will stand as a public act of remembrance at a place where the work of remembrance and the obligation that comes with it continue.

Read more about the story.