Jennie Wade's Gettysburg

hi everybody i'm andrew dalton the director of the adams county historical society in gettysburg pennsylvania and for tonight's program we're actually going to be hitting the road we're going out with historian tim smith to some sites in gettysburg and around gettysburg that have to do with the life of jenny wade the famous citizen of gettysburg who was killed on the morning of july 3rd 1863. it's a fascinating story and you may recognize some places we're going to visit but you may not actually have been to some of the others and also i hope that you'll consider hitting the donate button on the post tonight we're in the middle of a exciting capital campaign to build a new museum and education center for the adams county historical society we have millions of artifacts that we're trying to preserve i hope you'll check that out and also hit the donate button on the video tonight if you enjoy the program so without further ado i'm going to kick things off to tim i will be visiting some of these sites around gettysburg and i hope you enjoy the program thanks there were over 50 000 casualties at the battle of gettysburg killed wounded captured or missing there were some 30 casualties that were civilians at the time of the battle and uh there were some wounded civilians there were some capture civilians there were civilians that died as a result of the battle in the days and weeks afterwards but there was only one civilian fatality during the battle mary virginia wade so mary virginia wade was born in this house on may 21 1843 she was 20 years old at the time of her death her parents james wade and marianne philby wade were renters they moved around quite a bit her father was a tailor and at the time of her birth they had just moved into the house and james wade had a tailor shop here that house on baltimore street was built around 1820 jenny had uh was one of six children born to james and mary in philly and uh there's a plaque on the front of the house denoting that she was born here this plaque was placed here by her sister and a historian named john way johnston in 1922. johnston had purchased this house and he had hoped to open up a museum that would have artifacts in it associated with the life of jenny wade and of course his hero john burns that he also did a lot of research on one of the interesting things about it you might remember from our program uh a couple weeks ago is the fact that there's a mile marker here that says 52 m2b 52 miles to baltimore and of course this one replaced the original one that is on will be on display at the new adams county historical society museum we're on breckenridge street in gettysburg in 1853 mary in philby wade managed to scrape enough money together to buy a lot on breckenridge street and by 1854 a small house was built at the site and this is where the wade family lived at the time of the civil war in gettysburg there are actually three houses associated with the story of mary virginia wade the house in which he was born the house in which he lived at the time of the battle and a house in which she was killed and all three of them are marked by historic plaques we're standing in front of a very important spot in the life of mary virginia wade the adams county jail her father knew the jail very well the original jail building here on high street in gettysburg was built in 1804 it burned in a fire in january 1850 and the current jail was built at that time in the 1880s a third story was placed onto the jail but it retains much of its civil war appearance james wade was born in virginia in 1812. it's not known when he first moved into the area but he was here at least by 1838. on april 13 1838 james wade quote with force of arms did commit fornication with a certain mary kuhn single woman and a male bastard child on the body of her that said mary did then and there beget the case was heard on in august of 1839 james pleaded not guilty but the resulting child born in february 1839 was named james ade wade and was acknowledged by the family as jenny's half-brother on april 15 1840 mr james wade of james city county virginia was married to mary ann philby of gettysburg by the reverend john ulrich of bendersville manellan township on the evening of may 15 1841 someone set fire to charles myers stable in bendersville the next day myers swore out an affidavit with the justice of peace nicholas bushy that the deponent have good cause to suspect and does therefore suspect the said james wade of setting the stable on fire three months later a trial was held james wade was arrested at the trial wade was found not guilty apparently based on the fact that no one had actually seen him set the fire and after spending three months in the adams county jail he was replaced something that is not usually placed in context with this is the fact that georgia ian wade was born while he was in prison in 1842 he was found guilty of assault and battery and sentenced to two weeks in the county jail in 1843 he was again charged with assault and battery but the charges were again dropped for a time thereafter it seemed as wade had become a respected citizen from 1842 until at least 1845 he served as captain as one of the local militia companies an 1846 newspaper advertisement advertised that james wade had reopened his towering business on high street adjoining the lutheran lecture room and nearly opposite the jail at this very site it appears it all was well with the wade family it wasn't long however until james fell into his old habits in early 1850 there was another charge of assault and battery then in september of 1850 james wade was indicted on charles charges of felony and larceny in november that year he was sent into two years of solitary confinement in the eastern state penitentiary in philadelphia before his release mary wade petitioned to have her husband declared insane and eventually he was committed to the adams county arms house where he remained until his death jenny was baptized at the trinity reform church on january 1st 1845 and upon her death jenny was initially buried behind her house and then later her body was moved to the trinity reformed cemetery into the family plot and along with a sister who had died young jenny was buried just over there according to a map associated with the early cemetery in 1927 the bodies were removed from trinity reform churchyard to evergreen cemetery they were placed in eight rows the stones were placed flat on the ground and they are no longer in their family plots but here in this row is the grave of martha m wade jenny's sister who died at four months of age in 1849 we're standing at the saint james lutheran church on york street in gettysburg originally the wade family used the trinity reform church but eventually they started to attend saint james lutheran church and a lot of people don't realize it but mary virginia wade was confirmed at this church in 1862 and that fact is actually noted on the historical marker in front of the church doors we're standing just a little northeast of the town of gettysburg along the old harrisburg road not far from the site of the original adams county alms house it was here according to the records of the arms house that georgian wade mary virginia wade and her mother mary wade were residents of the institution from january 18 1846 until april 20 1846 although they appear on the list of pulpers mary was pregnant at the time and was confined to the olms house where doctors and nurses were in residence and considering their age just four years old for george and two years old for jenny it makes sense that the two girls were also admitted with her mom on march 11 1846 marianne gave birth to john james wade at the adams county arms house georgia and jenny's brother also listed as the arms house register for 1846 is james a wade the bastard son of james wade at seven years of age he was admitted to the poor house it's unclear whether he had any association with his family uh his father or his family at this time or even his mother who i suspect had died but records indicate that he was bound out to samuel folk on october 5th 1846. also it was here in january 1852 upon his release from the eastern state penitentiary in philadelphia that james wade was confined in the 1860 census he is listed as very insane we know from other records that the insane individuals who were kept here were in the basement of one of the buildings and were chained to large blocks he was here at the time of the battle in the alms house and he died here in july of 1872. we're standing in evergreen cemetery just south of the town of gettysburg and we're at the grave of johnston h skelly jr of course this was jack skelly jenny's boyfriend jack's father was a tailor jenny's father was a tailor and the two fathers worked together jenny and jack would have known each other from early childhood in 1861 jack joined company e second pennsylvania infantry and later company f 87 pennsylvania at the battle of winchester virginia on june 15 1863 jack was wounded into fighting as luck would have it the 87th pennsylvania fought against the second virginia infantry and in that unit was wesley kolp born in adams county raised in gettysburg moved to virginia prior to the outbreak of the war wesley call joined the second virginia infantry and at the battle winchester the two units faced against each other after the fighting wesley culp was going along the battlefield and noticed the wounded jack scaling they conversed and according to legend jack gave wesley some sort of message if he ever found himself back in gettysburg he could deliver to his family wesley was in gettysburg a couple weeks later and on the evening of july 1st 1863 wesley visited his sister on middle street in the town and wesley told his sister that he had a message for jack's mom he said he would return when he could and to have mrs kelly available so he could tell her the message from jack but of course wesley was killed in the fighting somewhere east of town near the hill named after his great grandfather and never delivered the message of course a very popular part of the story is that the message was partially for jenny wade and jenny wade never received the message because she was killed on the morning of july third eventually jack skelly succumbed to his wounds and died in a hospital in winchester virginia never learning that jenny was killed in the battle and of course jenny died never learning that jack had been wounded in the fighting today jack and jenny are buried very near each other in their respective family plots in evergreen cemetery this actually was not her home her sister georgia wade mcclellan lived in this house at the time the house was built about 1842 as a duplex it was owned by john howe who owned many houses in the area georgia wade mcclellan jenny's sister was a renter at the time of the battle she probably rented the house starting about 1862. jenny was with her sister georgia who gave birth to a child on june 26 1863 jenny her mother and her brother and a crippled boy were also in the house at the time of jenny's death on july 1st 1863 thousands of union soldiers retreated through the town and up onto cemetery hill behind us along the baltimore pike jenny stood out near the road and handed out water from the well on july 2nd and 3rd the family huddled inside the north side of the house on the morning of july 3 about 8 30 a.m jenny was killed in the north side of the house the bullet went through two doors and killed her while she is kneading dough to preparation for making biscuits for the soldiers soldiers burst into the room they decided immediately to remove the family from the place of danger bullets were flying they took jenny's body and the family upstairs through a hole that they created in the wall that an artillery shell had hit the previous day and they enlarged the hole brought the body through to the mclean side down the stairway out the door we are looking at and into the cellar and for some 20 hours until the next day jenny's body remained in the cellar until it was buried in the backyard of the house on july 4th 1863. we're in the attic of the historic farnsworth house at the time of the battle this home was owned by harvey sweeney a gettysburg butcher during the first day of the fighting the southern army captured the town and he placed her marksman to southern edge of the town and fired up at northern sharpshooters on cemetery hill and northern soldiers fired back it was during this violent sharpshooter action on the morning of july 3 that jenny wade was accidentally killed in the 1970s battlefield guide eugene sickles became convinced that the bullet that killed jenny wade came from this house he made a diorama he did measurements he determined it was 612 feet from the window of the farnsworth house to the door at the georgia wade mcclellan or jenny wade house he made this diorama uh illustrating the proximity of the buildings and the path of the bullet he drew maps and he's really the one who promoted the idea that jenny was killed the one thing that i always like to point out is that people imagine that jenny was killed by a single stray bullet but in fact there were dozens of sharpshooters all the way across the southern edge of the town maybe hundreds and dozens if not hundreds of union sharp shooters firing back she's she was actually killed in a serious sharpshooter action and the board could have come from anywhere initially jenny was buried in the backyard of the mcclellan house where she was killed eventually she was buried in the german reform church at the corner of high street and stratton street and then she was moved up to evergreen cemetery jenny is buried here with her mother her father and one of her uncles in the family plot in 1901 the woman's relief corps of iowa of which georgia wade mcclellan her sister was a prominent member erected a statue to the memory of jenny wade and you might read the plaque mary virginia wade of course the name jenny comes from her middle name jenny in 1910 an american flag was placed over a grave and today the flag is allowed to fly 24 hours a day people often ask me why we make such a big deal out of the death of jenny wade she was just a girl who was baking bread for the soldiers and was accidentally killed but it's exactly those circumstances that made her famous there are thousands of soldiers that were killed in the fighting but here was an innocent girl that was doing what she could to help the cause and gave her life you

Channel: Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg

Views: 19,097

Rating: 4.9524617 out of 5

Keywords: Gettysburg, Civil War, Battle of Gettysburg, Adams County

Id: 1EJWQg4BrhU

Length: 20min 59sec (1259 seconds)

Published: Fri May 14 2021