(CNN) -- When the Battle of Gettysburg was over after three days, the Civil War's bloodiest battle had claimed 51,000 casualties. The Union Army of the Potomac clashed with Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in July 1863. The battle turned against Lee and his invaders on July 3, and Confederate forces returned to Virginia. The ferocious battle, considered a turning point in the war, occurred 150 years ago this week, on land that is now a national military park. Gettysburg anniversary provides a bigger story With soldiers' graves on the battlefield and near a former hospital site, Gettysburg residents pleaded with state officials to create what is now called the Soldiers' National Cemetery.
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Battle of Gettysburg took place 150 years ago at a site that is now a national military park
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Don't miss a visit to the battlefield, "the reason we're all here," says ranger Caitlin Kostic
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At the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Lincoln gave historic Gettysburg Address
Created after the battle, but before the war ended in April 1865, there are 3,500 Union soldiers interred in the cemetery where Lincoln came to deliver his @placeholder.