The Gettysburg Battlefield is the most well-known battle of the Civil War, and what many consider the turning point for the Union Army. It was a long, deadly, and important three day battle from July 1–3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle originally started with the first shot being fired at Knoxlyn Ridge West of the town and spread 522 acres or around 17 miles to the East stopping at East Cavalry Field.
Robert E. Lee led his 75,000 manned army North from West Virgina in hopes of winning a victory above the Mason-Dixon Line to force a negotiated end to the fighting. At the time, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his 90,000-man Union Army of the Potomac in pursuit, but Hooker was relieved of command in late June. His successor, Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade, continued the army’s movement northward, following orders to keep his army between Lee and Washington, D.C. Lee was informed of Meade's advancing army and took advantage of the local road network, moving his army to concentrate around Gettysburg to force Meade's men into battle. The two armies collided west and north of the town the morning of July 1, 1863. The battle began at Lohrs and Knoxlyn Ridge which was between Cashtown and Gettysburg, in a half moon included Whistler's and School-House were Union cavalry defended McPherson and Herr Ridges. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. John Buford slowed the Confederate advance until the infantry of the Union I and XI Corps under Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds could arrive. Buford held Oak Hill, where Oak Ridge sits, North of town where 159 guns stretched the line. Reynolds was killed, and Confederate reinforcements under generals A.P. Hill and Richard Ewell soon reached the scene. By late afternoon, 30,000 Confederates ultimately overwhelmed 20,000 Union soldiers, who fell back through Gettysburg and fortified Cemetery Hill south of town.
On the second day of battle, the Union defended a fishhook-shaped range of hills and ridges south of Gettysburg with soldiers from the remaining five infantry corps. The Confederates wrapped around the Union position in a longer line. On the afternoon of July 2, Lee launched a heavy assault commanded by Lieut. Gen. James Longstreet on the Union left flank. Fierce fighting raged at Devil's Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard and Cemetery Ridge as Longstreet’s men closed in on the Union position. Little Round Top was unwooded, but its steep and rocky form made it difficult to deploy artillery in mass. However, Cemetery Hill was an excellent site for artillery, commanding all of the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge and the approaches to them. Little Round Top and Devil's Den were key locations for General John Bell Hood's division in Longstreet's assault. Using their shorter interior lines, Union II Corps commander Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock and others moved reinforcements quickly to where they were needed to blunt Confederate advances. On the Federal right, Confederate demonstrations escalated into full-scale assaults on East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill. The Plum Run Valley between Houck's Ridge and the Round Tops earned the name Valley of Death on that day. Although the Confederates gained ground on both ends of their line, the Union defenders still held strong positions as darkness fell on the battlefield.
Early on July 3, heavy fighting resumed on Culp's Hill as Union troops sought to recapture ground lost the previous day. Maintaining the initiative and believing his enemy to be weakened, Lee sought to capitalize on the previous day’s gains with renewed attacks on the Union line. Cavalry battles raged to the east and south, but the main event was a dramatic infantry assault by 12,500 Confederates commanded by Longstreet against the center of the Union position on Cemetery Ridge. The Virginia infantry division of George E. Pickett that had arrived the previous evening constituted about half of the attacking force. The charge would forever carry Pickett’s name and was briefly successful, but was ultimately repulsed by close-range Union rifle and artillery fire at great losses to the Confederates. Unable to continue on offensive, Lee withdrew late on the afternoon of July 4 and led his army on a torturous retreat to Virginia.
At the close of the battle, some of the 22,000 wounded remained on the battlefield and were treated at the outlying Camp Letterman hospital or nearby field hospitals, houses, churches, and other buildings. Dead soldiers on the battlefield totalled 8,900 and contractors were hired to bury the men and animals, many right there were they fell. As many as 51,000 soldiers from both armies were killed, wounded, captured or missing in the three-day battle. It is the most well-known and the bloodiest single battle of the Civil War.
On July 10, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin visited Gettysburg and expressed the state's interest in finding the fallen veterans a resting place. Attorney David Wills arranged for the purchase of 17 acres of Cemetery Hill battlefield land for a cemetery.
On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, which was completed in March 1864 with the last of 3,512 Union reburied. From 1870 to 1873, upon the initiative of the Ladies Memorial Associations of Richmond, Raleigh, Savannah, and Charleston, 3,320 bodies were disinterred and sent to cemeteries in those cities for reburial, 2,935 being interred in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. Seventy-three bodies were reburied in home cemeteries. The cemetery was transferred to the United States government May 1872, and the last Battle of Gettysburg body was reburied in the national cemetery after being discovered in 1997.
The Hauntings:
There are tons of locations to search for the paranormal: Devils Den, Round Top/Cemetery Hill, and Iverson's Pit... but here are some of the locations inside:
The Children's Orphanage- where children were abused and kept in a dungeon of a basement when they misbehaved. topped with the battle that surrounded the home, the house is well-known for its ghostly activities. It was a happy homestead in its infancy, even once visited by Ulysses S. Grant in a campaign to drum up donations in support of the orphanage. But after its initial headmistress was replaced, it promptly went to hell in a handbasket.A wickedly evil disciplinarian by the name of Rosa J. Carmichael soon took over operations of the orphanage and treated these poor, innocent orphans like dirt. She even went so far as to utilize the home’s basement as a dungeon. This dungeon was used to discipline “unruly” children, with its history becoming notorious for the makings of ghostly lore.
Some have said that they’ve witnessed the ghostly apparition of a small boy who seems to appear from the shadows of the basement’s corners, only to quickly vanish when the witness attempts to take a photograph, and the sightings of strange mists that appear to linger where this make-shift dungeon once operated.
The Jennie Wade House- She was killed in her home at the age of 20, she was the only direct civilian casualty of the battle. Wade, her mother, and two younger brothers left their home in central Gettysburg and traveled to the house of her sister, Georgia Anna Wade McClellan at 528 Baltimore Street to assist her and her newborn child. It was July 1, 1863, during the first day's fighting of the Battle of Gettysburg. More than 150 bullets hit the McClellan house during the fighting.
About 8:00 a.m. on July 3, Wade was kneading dough for bread when a Minié ball traveled through the kitchen door and the parlor door of her sister's house and hit her. It pierced her left shoulder blade, went through her heart, and ended up in her corset. She was killed instantly.
Wade's mother heard her fall to the floor and went to tell her sister Georgia in the other room that her sister had been shot dead; two Union soldiers came from upstairs when they heard the screams of the women. They temporarily buried Wade's body in the back yard of the McClellan house. Her final resting place is in the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg.
The house is now a museum, the same floors are still intact and still covered in blood from when Jennie fell to the floor after being shot. Also, on display are several photographs and there is a tour which shows videos and EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) recordings are played to prove the paranormal activities within the home.
Many witnesses have claimed over the years that they have seen her walking through the Wade home, while others have spotted her wandering the surrounding countryside.
The Tillie Pierce House Inn- Matilda J. “Tillie” Pierce was born in 1848 in Gettysburg. She was 15 years old when the Battle of Gettysburg was fought in July of 1863. She watched the Union army march through town, and at the urging of her family, Tillie and some friends left the town and went to what they thought would be a safe farmhouse. Jacob Weikert’s farmhouse was located at the base of Little Round Top.
During the battle, Tillie provided water and food to the soldiers and assisted the surgeons and nurses caring for the wounded. On July 7, 1863, she went back to her home. She said, “The whole landscape had been changed and I felt as though we were in a strange and blighted land.” She continued to help care for the wounded after the battle. Twenty-five years later, she wrote a book about her experiences during that time. “At Gettysburg, Or What A Girl Saw And Heard Of The Battle” is still in print today and available for purchase at the Inn.
Considered the most haunted room in all of the inn, the “Blue Room” is said to be inhabited by soldiers who were once treated by Tillie. Their footsteps can be heard marching through the halls and in the attic above. Patrolling troops have been witnessed by guests, with one such apparition that routinely wanders up and down the stairs. Guests have even been scared out of their wits upon entering their rooms and seeing a ghost sitting on the edge of their bed.
Ghostly children have been encountered playing within the bed and breakfast, only to vanish right before guests’ eyes. Strangely, there is even the poltergeist of a cat that has been seen scampering about. While there are many sightings of apparitions, never have any of them appeared to be malevolent in any manner; always helpful and friendly to all who visit the inn.
Doubleday Inn- near an area known as Iverson’s Pit, where a North Carolina brigade was once slaughtered. It was also once a mass grave site for the fallen soldiers. The death of these Confederate soldiers brings this Inn it's ghostly activity.
On July 1, 1863, the men of General Alfred Iverson’s North Carolina Brigade had arrived at Gettysburg and were set up to go around the Union First Corps at Oak Hill. There, they formed into their line of battle and set out to advance toward a line of trees nearly 300 yards away. On their left sat a stone wall, but this was foolishly disregarded, their plan was to rush through the woods and roll up the flank of the Union troops lying in wait on the other side.
Suddenly, as they were just about rush in wooded area, a roaring wall of fire erupted from behind the stone wall. Federal soldiers who were crouched down behind the wall leaped over the top of the wall and shot hundreds of Confederates dead. Shortly after the battle, they were buried in an unmarked mass grave known today as Iverson’s Pit.
Pictures taken with the inn have also helped to conclude that it is haunted. Several have appeared to show ghostly apparitions who take the form of Confederate soldiers, while others portray orbs, streaks of light, and other bizarre forms. Reports of strange smells and unexplained noises during people's stay, such as: loud knocking on their room’s door, only to find that no one was outside, or opening the door and wafts of smoke could be detected.
The most amazing accounts are full body apparitions; apparition of different soldiers and a female have been claimed on multiple accounts.
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