The Lutheran Theological Seminary gives its name to the geographical feature, Seminary Ridge, which was the site of fierce fighting on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. Schmucker Hall, as well as adjacent homes of the professors, was used for weeks after the battle as a temporary field hospital before its last patients were moved to the Camp Letterman military hospital.

Founded in 1826, the oldest continuing Lutheran seminary in America is located “up on Seminary Ridge” across from Gettysburg College. Samuel Simon Schmucker, a leading churchman in American Lutheran circles in the mid-19th century, founded the seminary and neighboring Gettysburg College.

On July 1, 1863, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the campus became a battleground and then the center of the Confederate line for two days. Early on the first day of the battle, Union General John Buford viewed advancing Confederate forces of General James Archer and coordinated his cavalry's defenses from the building's cupola while waiting for I Corps Commander General John Reynolds and the infantry to join in the engagement.