On March 4, 1851, Robert McCurdy, Josiah Benner, and Henry Myers secured a charter for the Gettysburg Railroad Company.

[1] The groundbreaking was on February 22, 1856;[1] the first mortgage was issued in 1857,[2] and the railroad opened between Hanover Junction[3] and New Oxford on January 6, 1858[4] (the first passenger train had entered Adams County on September 14, 1857).

[2] The last spike was driven at Gettysburg on December 16, 1858 (12:30 a.m.); and that day at Hanover, company representatives met an official "party of Baltimoreans" with the Blues Band from Calvert railway station.

The group arrived at Gettysburg at 3 p.m. where a reception was held at "a large and recently furnished building near the depot".

On November 18, 1863, President Lincoln used the line to attend the consecration of the Soldiers' National Cemetery where he delivered the Gettysburg Address.