United States v. Gettysburg Electric Ry. Co., 160 U.S. 668 (1896), was a case to prevent trolley operations on the Gettysburg Battlefield. The dispute began in August 1891 when the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association's board approved attorney Samuel Swope's motion to deny trolley right-of-way along GBMA roads.^[3] Despite the 1896 US Supreme Court ruling that the railway could be seized for historic preservation,^[1] as well as earlier legislative efforts to appropriate federal acquisition funds, create a War Department commission, and form the Gettysburg National Military Park; the trolley continued operations until obsolete in 1916.

Near the end of the 19th century, tourists to the 1863 Gettysburg Battlefield typically arrived at the borough by train and paid fees for horse-drawn jitney taxis to travel over the battlefield on primitive wagon roads of the private Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. The GBMA owned less than 600 acres (240 ha) of the battlefield's much larger area,^[4] and nearly all military engagement areas were privately owned and had twelve small GBMA-owned monument plots of 25 ft × 25 ft (7.6 m × 7.6 m).^[5] Some owners rented land for camping, sold souvenirs/refreshments, and by 1894 required top dollar prices for real estate purchases.^{[6][7]: '93} Similarly, the original battlefield roads had fallen into disrepair after the GBMA funds had become nearly exhausted by late 1882.^[8]: 4 Despite the preceding 1884 Round Top Branch steamtrain railroad that operated across the field of Pickett's Charge and Hancock Avenue to Round Top Station, an 1892 meeting next-door at the Round Top School formed an opposition committee of Cumberland Township voters (William H. Tipton was the only attendee favoring the trolley,^[9] and the township subsequently granted road right-of-way.)^[10]

US v. Gett. Elec. Ry. Co. began with the GBMA's April 7, 1894, bill in equity to block trolley use of a particular railway section over Hancock Avenue^[26] as recommended by the 72nd PA Infantry committee in 1893: "set aside spots right in the route of the trolley".^[17] Likewise, the US District Attorney^[27] of a strip^[where?] of 7.02 acres (2.84 ha)^[28] of land on May 3, 1894;^[29] and the trolley company responded with a bill in equity to stop the US eminent domain acquisition c. June 11.^[13] The US motion to stop construction was dismissed c. June 20 by Judge Dallas of the United States Circuit Court:^[30] "powers of congress are distinctly enumerated in the constitution, and in that enumeration none is included to which the uses for which it is proposed to condemn this land can be related, without, in my opinion, enlarging the constitutional grant by grafting upon its express terms a construction so lax and comprehensive as to be subversive of its limited character."^[30][31]

Judge Dallas swore in the jury of Adams County residents on June 29, 1894;^[32] and the local hearing in front of the jury was September 11–15 after which "they adjourned for argument in Philadelphia."^[7]: '94 On November 3, 1894, the jury identified $30,000 "as the measure of damage that would be done the Trolley by the proposed change".^[33] Both parties appealed the jury amount as too high/low (the company on November 12, 1894),^[7]: '94 and the company agreed on November 13 to move tracks from the vicinity of Devil's Den and Tipton Station if the expense would be paid (refused c. December 4).^[34] The US attorney Ellery P. Ingham filed an additional petition for condemning a second tract^[where?] in January 1895,^[35] which along with his June 7 petition^[36] were denied by the Philadelphia federal court.^[31] The 1896 reversal by the Supreme Court of the United States ruled historic preservation "seems" to be "a public use".^[1]

"The impression in the town" was the Secretary of War would not pay the $30,000 nor "take further steps" to acquire the railway,^[37] and the trolley operated even after the Commission—following a May 7 federal hearing^[7]: '01—acquired 2 William H. Tipton tracts of 14.2 acres (5.7 ha) on December 31, 1901.^[5]: 321 In 1908, Borough of Gettysburg vs. Gettysburg Transit Co. required trolley payment of "car tax" assessed after the company failed to perform agreed maintenance of borough streets^[38] (reversed August 1908).^[39] In 1909, C. Taylor Leland vs. The Gettysburg Transit Company ordered a trustee's auction in the foreclosure of the 1898 mortgage^[40] (purchased in September),^[41] and an injury lawsuit was initiated^[42] for trolley cars colliding on August 15 near Devil's Den.^[43] Trolley operations ended in November 1916 when the railway had become obsolete with disrepair^[44] and increased use^[45] of battlefield avenues that had been improved with War Department Telford piking.^[7]