Mike and Roxanne travel east

Gettysburg Aug 30, 2007

Aug 30

I am headed into town to go on a walking tour. It is led by a guide and at first I am going to be the only on the tour. At the last minute a family with three girls around 8-10 join us.

Our guide is Janice Pietrone a licensed tour guide for Gettysburg. We start out just outside the Gettysburg Hotel. The hotel is on a corner in the middle of town.

Our tour will deal with the people of Gettysburg during and immediately after the battle. Since there is only one man on our tour we will be dealing more with the woman's role during the battle. Also since we have three children we will learn about several children and their role during this time.

Our guide starts with the history of Gettysburg. Gettysburg was laid out in 1786 by James Gettys. Ten roads lead into the town, creating a few small but thriving industries and many fertile farms surrounding the towns.

By 1860, the town of Gettysburg had grown to 2,400 citizens. Approximately 450 buildings housed carriage manufacturing, shoemakers, and tanneries as well as the usual merchants, banks and taverns. There were also several educational institutions, Gettysburg College and The Luthern Theological Seminary.

Gen. Robert E. Lee had been massing his Confederate troops in this area for days. If Pennsylvania could be taken there was a chance that the south would be allowed to seceed.

General Meade lead the Union forces in the area which consisted of many men from Pennyslvania. These men would be fighting for their homeland. Began on July 1, 1863 the first battles were on McPhearson Ridge and Oak Ridge on the Northwestern side of town.

As the Confederate troops got the upper hand the Union troops began retreating down Chamsberburg into the center of town. They were being followed by Confederate calvary, infantry and the artillery. They turned to the south and headed down Baltimore with the Feds right behind.

Many Union soldiers fled into cellars and homes of the locals. Likewise the wounded were also being brought into town into private homes that had been turned into hospitals.

We learn of women who were pressed into nursing service, women who were from well-to-do families who had always had servants. They now were waiting on patients and helping the surgeons amputate limbs.

We hear the story of a 9-year old girl who had been sent to her grandparents farm outside of town for safekeeping but was presssed into nursing service by necessity. Even upon returning to the city she continued to help the patients.

In many cases there were only women and children left in town as the husbands and sons were either with the troops or had taken all saleable items and valuable out of town for safekeeping.

We see a home with a mortor still embedded in the wall and also the home where President Lincoln stayed the night before giving the Gettysburg Address.

All homes were searched by the confederate troops looking for Union soldiers. Any found were arrested and if a homeowner was found to be harboring a soldier he was also arrested.

Even with shooting throughout the city and thousands of Confederate troops living in the city the only casualty was Jenny Wade from a stray bullet and was an accident. Lee had ordered his troops to not harm civilians.

In fact many of the people in the city had relatives in the South so had mixed feelings about the war. In some cases two brothers would fight on opposite sides.

The battle only lasted three days but the casualty list was tremendous, over 23,000 men were either killed, wounded, arrested or deserted during this time.

When the Confederate troops retreated in defeat on July 4 nearly 20,000 wounded were left behind for the town to take care. Little food was left as it had either been consumed or carried away with the Confederates.