STORIES AND LEGENDS: The Gettysburg Civilians

welcome and thank you for joining us for another online program from the adams county historical society my name is antigone lad and i'm delighted to be your host this evening i became involved with this as a board member and chairman of the public outreach committee and have thoroughly enjoyed working with the many many speakers that we have had recently our speaker this evening is going to address a very interesting perspective on the battle of gettysburg steve mock is going to talk about the civilian experience during the battle of gettysburg and address some of the misconceptions and legends that have grown up about the battle let me tell you about our speaker stephen mock has his phd in audiology and spent 40 years in the field he served in the u.s army he was a college professor and he was director of a hospital center he loved his field very much but he says he loves his retirement even better when steve and his wife moved to gettysburg steve became involved with a number of non-profit organizations including the adams county historical society steve also decided to become a licensed town guide and in learning the stories of what happened in the town of gettysburg steve learned that many people come here with mistaken ideas of what occurred false images or stories about the people involved and a lot of stories that are very interesting left untold so tonight he's going to set us straight and i'd like to ask steve to introduce himself by telling us what he learned from the people that he took on the tours what they came here expecting to know and what they already had in their heads so steve i'm going to turn it over to you to set the story straight thank you thank you antigone thank you for the opportunity to present to this fine group out there and also thank you for everything you've done to bring this project to fruition i truly never could have done this without your expertise so again many thanks but answer to your question many people who come to gettysburg know a great deal about the battle that includes the actions the leaders troop movements many of the human interest stories of soldiers in the field but what many of these visitors don't seem to know is that the town of gettysburg and its civilian population figure prominently in the history of the battle itself during and after the battle there are dead and dying in the streets of gettysburg the town has become part of the battlefield while many of the town's population have fled prior to the battle there are many others who decide to stay imagine in today's world that an enemy army takes over your hometown and puts you and your entire family at risk this is what happens to many of gettysburg's residents in 1863 what would you do if an enemy army suddenly overtook your town would you and your family be able to exhibit the courage and gallatry today that these gettysburg civilians showed back in 1863 we're going to tell some of their stories and hopefully you'll be able to make a comparison the battle of gettysburg will be fought on the first three days of july 1863. it's a battle between the forces of the north the union also known as the yankees the yanks and the army of the south the confederates the rebels the rebs gettysburg is going to become one of the most written about battles in the history of mankind gettysburg in 1863 has often been described as a sleepy little town truly it was not it was rather a vibrant and progressive town population of about 2 400 people which by 1860 standards would make it about 100 people short of being considered a small city but on top of this gettysburg had a very vibrant life as well it was the county seat of adams county assist as it is today you had judges you had attorneys you had paralegals you had all sorts of educated people in the town you also had two institutes of higher learning pennsylvania college which today still stands as gettysburg college and the lutheran theological seminary the largest lutheran seminary in the northern states gettysburg hit 44 businesses its most prominent business was carriage making and the associated cottage industries associated with it gettysburg had gas lighting in the streets and in many homes a reservoir north of the town used a system of wooden pipes to pump water directly into many homes that was a big bonus in the winter months that's for sure gettysburg also in 1859 got the railroad a big step in gettysburg's life because most people at that time would travel in a radius of approximately 50 miles from home when the railroad came it opened up the world or at least the world of the united states to gettysburg civilians and many of them took advantages of it but gettysburg also was a road hub it had 10 roads which came together in the town these roads were roads of commerce but in july 1863 they became roads of battle although a progressive town gettysburg did have a problem during the civil war it was only approximately 12 miles north of the mason-dixon line the border between north and south when the civil war began in april 1861 gettysburg like many communities at the time had a militia a home guard originally formed for protection against marauding native americans this problem had long since been solved and now the gettysburg blues as they were known had become more of a social organization weekend drills took on a party-like atmosphere at least until the civil war began in june of 1861 the gettysburg blues traveled by train and headed down to washington dc to serve in the nation's capital defenses it said that the very night after the gettysburg blues left town a rider came riding through town yelling at the top of his lungs the rebels are coming the rebels are coming the citizens of gettysburg were prepared they fouled out of their homes they carried muskets and shotguns they carried pitchforks and hoes and rocks they barricaded the streets they were going to defend the town they waited waited for the rebels to come but after several hours nothing happened and home they went several days later the same thing occurred the rebels are coming the rebels are coming the rider cried and once again the streets were barricaded the people were ready and once again they left disappointed no rebels for two years drawing from 1861 to 1863 this occurrence took place many times and eventually the gettysburg citizens reacted like the boy who cried wolf the rebels are coming oh yeah here comes another one but in june 1863 things changed dramatically general robert e lee who was the head of a confederate army of between 70 and 75 000 soldiers started to march north his goal was to invade the rich northern state of pennsylvania robert e lee came into pennsylvania in mid-june and spread his army out in a 50-mile arc from the southern portion of pennsylvania to the central part of pennsylvania his goal was to forage robert e lee wanted to invade the north because he wanted to win a victory in a northern state he thought to figure in a victory maybe he could get european powers to come in on the side of the confederacy but robert e lee also needed food not only food for his own army but food for the civilians in the confederacy most of the battles of the civil war in the early stages had been fought in virginia and virginia was what was called fought out people were starving as a matter of fact women in the capital city of richmond were staging red riots because they did not have enough food for their children confederate troops actually had to be called out to put down the women of richmond and that was not a very very good political statement for any army at that particular time so robert e lee brought his army into the north to feed his men and to send food back into the south but if he could win a victory here it could be a giant feather in his cap robert e lee's army came into pennsylvania and the citizens of gettysburg could see out to the west of the town on south mountain they could see confederate campfires burning they knew that now the rebels were in the area on june 26 1863 the confederates arrived in gettysburg and they didn't arrive quietly cavalry horse soldiers came riding through the streets of gettysburg shouting and shooting and firing their pistols in the air one of gettysburg's women said they scared us half to death another said when the rebels finally came we were woefully unprepared a ten-year-old boy of gettysburg said at the time it was like watching a wild west show i thought it was pretty neat but those cavalry men were soon followed by about 5 000 infantry under the command of this man general jubal early general lee called jubal early my bad old man and he called him my bad old man because he was supposedly uh he supposedly had quite a temper jubal early came into town and said i demand to meet the burgess the mayor of this town well as the confederates were coming in from the west gettysburg governmental officials were headed east because as governmental officials they were subject to arrest and imprisonment early said i need to speak to someone of authority and so they rounded up david kendall hart david kendall hart was a town councilman at gettysburg he was the one who was selected to meet with the bad old man of general early they met and general early said mr kendall heart i have some demands and if you don't meet these demands i'm going to burn your town these demands included 60 barrels of flour 7 000 pounds of bacon 1200 pounds of sugar 600 pounds of coffee a thousand pounds of salt 400 bushels of onions a thousand pairs of shoes and 500 hats you can imagine how mr kendall hart must have felt about this especially in view of the fact that as the confederate campfires became visible the merchants of gettysburg were loading up train cars and sending all of their goods to philadelphia as fast as they could mr kendall hart said general early with all due respect sir we are a small town we cannot meet these demands but if you spare our town i will have our shopkeepers open their shops i will have the citizens of gettysburg provide what they can at this point in time general early in today's vernacular would say you're sending us on a shopping spree yes sir i am and so the soldiers of general early the confederate soldiers went on a shopping spree in the town of gettysburg you can see in the picture man trying on a new pair of boots you can see in the picture a man has a hoop skirt hopefully to send back home to a sweetheart other men have bottles it was quite a quite a shopping spree that the confederate soldiers went upon problem is the confederates all paid for their goods that they took but unfortunately for gettysburg merchants they paid in confederate currency which was worthless during the confederate shopping spree an interesting story of the civilian of gettysburg kurd and that young man was a young man named charlie mccurdy who lived at 2422 chambersburg street about a half a block from the main square charlie mccurdy was looking out of his bay window on the chambersburg street and looking across the street at one of his favorite buildings in town this was the confectionary of philip winters affectionately known to many as petey petey winners was historic was being inundated by confederates it was said that pd winners made the best molasses candy in the northern part of the united states charlie had been told by his mother do not go outside but charlie's 10 years old charlie's mother's back is turned what do you think happens to charlie down the steps out the door across the street where he now peers into the window of the confectionary about this time a confederate soldier walks out with a hat full of candy charlie looks up at the confederate soldier the confederate soldier looks down at the little boy shakes his head reaches into his hat and gives charlie a handful of candy charlie said after the battle i prayed for that man every day that he might survive the civil war but of course we have no history of whether he survived or not the gettysburg civilians were afraid confederates spent june 26 in the town of gettysburg but in the morning of june 27th the confederates got up and they marched to the east they marched toward york pennsylvania but they were going to get more booty including a large stash of cash the citizens of gettysburg took a deep breath after two years of war the rebels had come and the rebels had left and their town was still intact little did these people know that in only four more days they were going to play host to the largest battle ever to be fought on the north american continent as my one friend once said to me hopefully it will always be the largest battle ever fought on a north american continent the gettysburg civilians probably slept fitfully for a few nights confederates were still in pennsylvania however on the morning of july 1 1863 the sound of small arms and cannon fire to the west of town alerted the civilians to a new action union cavalry had passed through the town of gettysburg the day before and the people in gettysburg had begun to realize that a true battle was about to begin initially on the morning of july first several of the residents headed out to the western part of town to view the action but it didn't take long for those people who had speedly homework as bullets buzzed over their heads but one man in gettysburg did go out to fight and that man was a man named john burns at the time of the battle john burns was 69 years old he was a former constable of gettysburg and a former veteran of the war of 1812. john burns was known in town as a curmudgeon it was said that john burns could not hold a secret and if anyone wanted to have a secret spread all they had to do was tell mr burns but john burns was a soldier and he wanted to fight so when he heard the gunfire on the morning of july first john burns put on a high top hat he pulled on a blue swallowtail coat he got his musket from the war of 1812 and he immediately went to fight the rebs but before he got to the field he walked across the street to his friend david broadhead and he yelled to him broadhead get your musket and get your balls we're going to go fight the rebs broadhead supposedly said i got the musket but i don't got the ball so i'm not gone john burns harangued his neighbor for not having ammunition on hand and eventually another gettysburg neighbor said john burns if you're going out and fight those rebels you better go now and so john burns made his way out to where the fighting was taking place to the west of town john burns switched his 1812 musket to a newer musket but he also joined the union soldiers who were fighting the confederates on the morning of july 1st john burns proved himself to be an excellent soldier the morning of july 1st on the union forces to win to push the confederates back but the afternoon was a different story as more food as more forces came onto the field and late in the afternoon of july first the confederates pushed back union forces all along the line during the retreat john burns was wounded according to him either two or four times but john burns was left lying in the field he threw his musket as far away from him as he could he buried his bullets underneath him but john burns was in somewhat of a difficult situation because he was not in uniform and because he was not in uniform he could be considered treasonous he could be subject to being hanged or shot confederate soldiers moving through the fields von john burns lying on the battlefield a confederate soldier said let's just shoot the old man and get on john burns pleaded for his life i was out here looking for a friend of my wife that got caught in the middle of this i got shot four times we all take me home honor was very important to the civil war and a confederate officer basically said yes sir i guess we can do that and so john burns was picked up by the confederates and taken towards the town they found a neighbor of john burns who had a wagon they deposited john in the wagon and he did make it home john burns became a hero of the battle of gettysburg when president abraham lincoln came to gettysburg in november 1863 to deliver his immortal gettysburg address he asked to meet one citizen that man was john burns john burns rested on his laurels as being the hero of gettysburg he died at a ripe old age and now lies buried in the local cemetery evergreen cemetery under an american flag john burns a hero of the battle of gettysburg one misconception that most gettysburg residents fled the town as the battle began this is indeed true for some but not all many of the residents stayed in their homes at approximately 4 p.m on july 1st the cry came through the town go to your sellers the rebels are going to fire in the town the seller in 1863 was not like the basements of today there was no paneled wall there was no carpeting on the floor and there was no flat screen tv on the wall in 1863 when these families went into their basement they went into dirt floors usually with standing water and darkness indeed the residents are going to be in the dark in more ways than one they're going to be in the dark as to what's going to happen on the battlefield they're going to be in the dark as what's going to happen to their town and most importantly they're going to be in the dark as to whether or not they or their families are going to live or die a terrible situation for the citizens of gettysburg and one citizen will stand out with her problems only on the afternoon of july 1st this is a young woman by the name of katherine foster catherine foster lives with her family on a house on the corner of high and washington street katherine foster is a school girl she lives with her older parents and her cousin belle stewart during the fighting of july 1st the foster house is hit by several artillery projectiles and so the fosters go to their basement as they are sitting in their basement suddenly their cellar door is banged upon and they open it to find a union soldier this union soldier says hide me hide me i don't want to be captured by the rebels and so they bring him in and they look where can we hide him let's put him in the closet no they'll look there let's put him under the bed that's the first place to look i know let's put him in the potato bin and so purple wilcox of pennsylvania is placed in the potato bin he's covered up with potatoes it's not long thereafter when the cellar door flies open again it's a bunch of confederate soldier they come into the basement the confederate officer yells at catherine foster are there any yankees in here to which ms foster replies well sir i ain't a word i guess you could say we're all yankees in here the officer became embarrassed no ma'am no ma'am i meant are there any union soldiers in here well not that i am aware of but you may search the house and indeed they do search the house and they find a number of union soldiers hiding in the closets and under the bed but they don't find corporal wilcox hiding in the potato bin he spends the three days of battle in the foster's potato bin finally the battle ends he is able to leave and rejoin his unit now this is where it comes in where i tend to find it's a great legendary story because one of the things that happened during the confederate occupation of the town of gettysburg from july 1st to july 3 is that many confederate soldiers would go from door to door to civilians begging for food back then they called it bumming and confederates were great bummers you would think that they would look at this potato pile and say oh there are spuds and began to take out potatoes but for some reason it never happened at least according to corporal wilcox's memoirs so corporal wilcox is able to rejoin his unit and survive the civil war an interesting addendum to the foster story would involve the daughter also known as catherine mary catherine but after the death of her parents mary katherine foster moved from gettysburg to johnstown pennsylvania in 1889 she was involved in the great johnstown flood it was said by mary catherine that she jumped from her house roof to a flat roof in order to save herself from the flood waters of the johnstown flood can you imagine this woman survived both the battle of gettysburg and the great johnstown flood and she is now buried in the evergreen cemetery almost directly across the street from the front of the katherine foster house now you can see a very nice green lawn behind a house it looks very nondescript to today's tourist in gettysburg but back in 1863 that house and that yard were the providence of this man this handsome gentleman is mr solomon powers solomon powers was a stone cutter extraordinaire he had one of the best stone cutting businesses in the eastern part of pennsylvania judging from his picture mr powers doesn't look like he's very happy but yet people described mr mr powers as an uncouth elephantine man whose heart was ten times bigger than one of normal size solomon powers had five daughters you can see they obviously took after their father but on the other hand it must be said that these five women that uh have this have had this picture taken later in life but solomon powers was extremely happy with his five daughters all five daughters were teachers and in july of 1863 these five teachers were all home on summer vacation now during the afternoon and evening of july 1 1863 the union forces are retreating or have retreated through the town of gettysburg but many of these union forces are captured by confederates and now solomon power stone cutting area is going to be a holding area for these union prisoners the power sisters the fact that bullets may still be raining through the air decided to come out and talk to these soldiers after a battle was over one of the most important duties of a civil war soldier was to write a letter home dear family it was a terrible battle that was fought here but i am well family waited for these letters but yet if these prisoners were going to be marched into the south they would have no opportunity to write these letters home so the power sisters despite the whizzing bullets moved out into the stone cutting area took the names and addresses of all of these prisoners went into the house and began to write letters home the families would find that their sons might not have been killed or wounded in the battle they may be prisoners they may not hear from them for a long time but at least they would have hope only three doors north on high street from the powers home lived another gettysburg resident named sally myers sally myers was 21 years old at the time of the battle she also was a teacher also home on summer vacation sally myers lived close by saint francis xavier roman catholic church during the retreat of the union forces on july 1st almost all large buildings in town including saint francis xavier became hospitals the hospitals filled up with the wounded the surgeons in the hospital were overworked and understaffed one of the surgeons found out that there was a young woman down the street who might be available to help nurse the wounded and so he sent his emissary down to sally myers home sally myers was asked if she would come to saint francis xavier church to help nurse the wounded despite a fear of blood sally acquiesced yes she would go you can imagine her feelings as she walked the short distance from her home to the church but she got her courage up she got to the church she walked into the door and she went to the first wounded soldier that she met what can i do to help you she asked the soldier looked up at her and said nothing i'm gonna die sally immediately ran from the church sat in the steps and cried her eyes out but eventually she regained her courage and went back in she nursed those soldiers during the time of the day state and saint francis xavier but the number of wounded kept piling up piling up and there was no more space one of the surgeons asked sally if she would be willing to take some of the wound into her own home sally said yes she would do that among the six wounded that went to sally's home was the man who said he was going to die that was alexander stewart of jamestown pennsylvania out on the western border of the state cared for alexander stewart spiritually and physically but eventually he fulfilled his own prophecy and he did pass away sally wrote letters to his family detailing how the man had been cared for and the family responded in kind thanking her graciously for what she had done for alexander stewart several months after the battle sally was visited by alexander stewart's widow and also by his brother henry henry and sally found love at first sight henry returned to jamestown pennsylvania but he and sally carried on a relationship via letter and eventually henry stewart proposed marriage sally accepted and eventually they were married and sally left gettysburg and went out to the western part of pennsylvania now henry stewart was also a veteran of the civil war and he had also suffered a wound but it wasn't a wound of battle henry had suffered a camp wound in which part of his foot was cut off by an axe unfortunately at that time medical science was not what it is today and henry's wound continued to fester eventually on september 20th 1868 less than a year after they were married henry passed away sally was with his child the child was born and sally named him henry alexander stewart sally remained in jamestown pennsylvania but now she became the ward of henry and alexander's father the father basically said this is how i would like my grandson to be raised and sally said no i can't agree to that this is not what your son and i agreed to and the grandfather said look if you don't like it then you can leave despite having nothing sally returned to gettysburg she again accepted teaching jobs she taught for many years including several at what was known as the colored school at that time but for her son she gave everything henry stewart wanted for nothing he went to medical school he became a prominent physician in gettysburg one of the founding members of the adams county historical society sally myers continued to teach eventually in 1922 she passed away sally's grave site is at the evergreen cemetery it's a very interesting tombstone because sally it details her life her death it basically says born june 24 1842 married october 17 1867 parted september 20th 1868. and reunited meaning getting back together with her husband on january 17 1922 the tombstone has faded over time but if you look very closely at the bottom of the tombstone you can find an epitaph that epitaph states civil war nurse wife sister and daughter of a soldier faithful unto death but most of all a mother sally myers is one of my heroes a little further up the street at the corner of baltimore street and high street we have the home of james mccreery james mccreary is a widower at the time of the battle he lives there with daughters and his son albertus and approximately four o'clock on july 1st 1863 the macquarie family is just getting ready to sit down to their evening meal all of a sudden the cry comes through the town the rebels are going to shell gettysburg get to your sellers and so indeed the mcqueries went to their sellers they waited they waited and eventually a group of confederates came into the house james mccrary met them the confederates asked are there any yankees in here you've heard that refrain before james mccurry replied there are no yankees in this house and once again the cry came searched the house and indeed what those confederates found were 13 union soldiers hiding in various places in the house and now james mccreary was a little bit afraid he was afraid that he was going to be arrested for aiding and abetting the enemy but as he stood there in a stance with the confederate officer gazing at each other not knowing what to do next mr mccrary happened to look over the confederate officer's shoulder the dinner table had been set mr mcquarrie said would you boys like something to eat it immediately diffused the situation why yes sir i think we'd like that very much and so the confederates went around the mccreary table for dinner but what was even more interesting is that not only did the confederate sit meat but they invited their union prisoners to join them it was like a dinner party the confederates and yankees interacted oh yeah we saw your unit down in fredericksburg oh yeah did you get across that river okay the union and confederate soldiers interacted and finished their meal when the meal was done these soldiers all got up graciously thanked mr mccreary and moved on to confederates back to their unit the union forces are going to be heading south as prisoners of war but i mentioned earlier that mr mccreary had a son named albertus albertus mccreary was 14 years old but he looked old for his age and many of the confederates could not believe that such a boy was not in the army during a lull in the fighting albertus mccreary left the house and walked out onto high street in the middle of the street he found a union keppy a union hat and he immediately put it on his head and he was immediately surrounded by confederates you can imagine albertus yelling dad dad help mr mccurry came out and tried to convince the confederates that this was not a soldier but rather a misguided youth confederates at first didn't believe him but neighbors came out and they finally convinced the confederates that albertus was nothing more than a misguided boy once again the honor of the civil war comes through these soldiers were not looking to injure civilians albertus was able to return and in later years wrote many valuable memoirs about his time during the battle of gettysburg alberta's house is no longer present in its place stands the prince of peace church prince of peace episcopal church which was the 25th anniversary monument to the battle of gettysburg in the tower there are numerous memorials that have been placed to both union and confederate soldiers who fought during the civil war an interesting visit if you could find a time to visit the church after the confederates had taken control of the town of gettysburg they would be in control of the town for the three days of the battle the confederate line of battle extended down middle street all the way down to the end of the town confederate line is going to extend about five miles long but in the middle of gettysburg there are confederates who are going to be camped right underneath this window on middle street this home is the home of william maclean he's a lawyer mr mclean also has two daughters his one daughter is about four years old and as she looks out the window she sees the confederates down on the street below and she says daddy i want to sing to the soldiers attorney mclean says no honey they don't want to hear you sing daddy i want to sing to the soldiers no honey they don't want daddy i want to sing what do you do with a four-year-old who won't let up mr mclean throws open the front window looks down at the confederates and says gentlemen my little girl would like to sing for you would that be okay and at that point the confederates all said yes yes so young mrs mclean comes to the front of the window and begins to sing to the confederate soldiers hang jeff davis from a sour apple tree attorney mclean immediately pulls his daughter back slams down the window and proceeds to think he is going to be beaten the confederate soldiers look up at the window and start to laugh once again many of these soldiers have family at home and they understand what little children can do there were other civilians outside of the town of gettysburg who are going to become deeply involved in the effects of the battle one of these is a man named james warfield who was a 42 year old widower with four daughters when he moved to gettysburg from maryland in 1862 mr warfield developed a reputation as being one of the finest blacksmiths in the area he developed a strong following among the local population and became quite successful in a short period of time he owned land a house and orchard animals and crops in the field he was living the american dream however the confederate surge into gettysburg presented mr warfield and his family with a special problem because the warfields were free african americans and if captured they would be taken south and sold into slavery despite the fact that they were free blacks at that time mr warfield and his family wisely left town however when they returned after the battle they found their farm in shambles his blacksmithing tools were gone his animals missing his crops and fences destroyed and his house badly damaged mr warfield filed a claim after the battle for damages incurred and it was initially denied although he later did receive a small compensation check it nowhere compensated him for his loss mr warfield eventually was forced to put his property up for sale but no one showed any interest the war fields were forced to leave their form and relocate the american dream of the war fields ended as an american nightmare as an aside the warfield house located at the corner of west confederate avenue and the millerstown road on the battlefield is undergoing an extensive renovation by the national park service to return it to its civil war appearance it's worth a drive by just to check it out it's very nicely done what is being done after the three days of battle gettysburg could be called nothing more than hell on earth you have 7 000 dead soldiers lying in shallow graves you have 34 000 wounded soldiers after the battle robert e lee is going to send a wagon train 17 miles long filled with his wounded to try to make it home to the southern states even without the 12 000 soldiers you are still going to have approximately 22 000 wounded in the area of gettysburg 22 000 for a town of approximately 2 400 residents after the battle you're going to have millions and millions of flies to send on the field you're going to have 3 000 to 5 000 dead horses and mules lying in the field the stench the stench that was present after the battle is going to be such that the citizens of gettysburg the residents of gettysburg can't even open their windows during july and august this stench is going to continue until the first frost in october 1863 after the battle of gettysburg the question is what do we do how do we honor these dead soldiers plans are made for a soldiers national cemetery to be developed in gettysburg and that cemetery will be dedicated on november 19 1863 the dedication will include the burial of more than 3 500 soldiers but of these 3500 aside from a few mismarked soldiers they're the union dead the confederate dead are going to lie in the fields of gettysburg in their shallow graves until the early 1870s when finally those bodies will be disinterred and sent back to the south where they might sleep in their native soil on november 19 1863 gettysburg is going to have another invasion because now people are going to flock to the town to dedicate the national cemetery and to hear abraham lincoln the president of the united states give a two-minute address that many consider to be the most famous presidential speech ever given it's interesting to note however that the president himself after he spoke those immortal words said to his chief of staff from washington the speech was not a success in lincoln's words the speech didn't scour how little we know how little he knew that the gettysburg address would become one that would be memorized by school children for generations to come and even today holds a very important place in presidential history the enormity of the need for medical care and space spread throughout the area one of the buildings that became a hospital would be old dorm on the campus of the lutheran theological seminary one of the two institutes of higher learning in gettysburg the building still stands today and now houses the seminary ridge museum and educational center however in 1863 the building was the home of the ziegler family who serves as a caretaker of the building one of the members of the ziegler family was 10 year old hugh ziegler looking at the slide of the building i would call attention to the lowest row of windows medical care in the civil war was a lot different than what we have today there were no wonder antibiotics or micro surgeries back at the time of the civil war if a soldier is shot in the head or the torso his chances of dying are approximately 90 percent many of these wounded soldiers grievously wounded soldiers will be given a bible taken to the shade of a tree and told to make peace with god but if a soldier is shot in the arm the leg the hand the foot the finger of the toe the surgical treatment at that time would be amputation the limb would be severed in order to save the body amputations took place throughout the first floor of the seminary ridge old dorm building once a limb was amputated it literally was thrown out of the window to the ground below ten-year-old hugh ziegler was given the charge to gather up these amputated limbs put them in a wagon and have them carried away for burial or burning a ten-year-old boy is charged with this you can imagine the trauma that he faced back in those days we had no post-traumatic stress disorder no ptsd but yet hugh zigler wrote years after the battle i think about that every day a ten-year-old boy whose life is going to be changed dramatically because of civil war medicine in the old dorm at the lutheran theological seminary personal honor was very important at the time of the civil war union and confederate soldiers would fight each other to the death on the battlefield but after the fighting was done union medical staff would care for wounded confederates and vice versa not far from the old dorm building at the corner of west confederate avenue and middle street is a beautifully renovated residence known as the schultz house at the time of the battle this house was the home to maria and cornelia schultz these were 30-something unmarried women and like almost all of the women in gettysburg they became nurses because of the close proximity to old dorm they nursed in that facility one of the wounded soldiers who was being cared for in that facility was a wounded confederate and his name is henry kidd douglas henry douglas had the reputation of being the best looking soldier in the confederate army and maria and cornelius schultz were smitten by henry douglas they cared for him and he wrote that he was very impressed with the fact that they would care for the enemy but they cared for henry douglas a great deal to such an extent that whenever the ward doctor was not there they would come with civilian clothing they would take henry down into the town of gettysburg and as he wrote in his memoirs we would usually wound up at a watering hole named duncan even after the battle and even after all of the carnage that took place in the town of gettysburg the birds and the bees still flew around at times civilian stories and legends from the battle of gettysburg seem endless but i thank you for allowing me to share tonight just a small portion of them with you also i would be remiss if i did not give a giant thank you to antigone ladd who guided me through this project and to andrew dalton executive director of the adams county historical society as most of you are probably aware the adams county historical society is in the midst of a capital campaign to raise funding for a new home for our adams county treasures and stories i would encourage any of you who are able to support this awesome endeavor and contribute to our building fund thank you once again and good night thank you steve for sharing those insights on the civilian experiences during the battle of gettysburg i know from our discussions that you have dozens more stories and i'm hoping we can talk you into returning to give us another recap of stories and legends from the civilians of gettysburg 1863 thanks to all of you for being in our audience this evening and thank you for those who have donated to the adams county historical society look forward to seeing you next week you

Channel: Adams County Historical Society at Gettysburg

Views: 8,711

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Id: XICkDdCak6g

Length: 50min 31sec (3031 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 22 2021