Through the Eyes of the Children at Gettysburg

The town of Gettysburg was Adams County Seat; it was the intersection of at least ten different highways. The town was laid out with brick row houses in the center and large homes on the outskirts. The streets were dirt and paved sidewalks with its tree-lined streets gave the town a peaceful atmosphere.

Not only did the Battle of Gettysburg affect the adults, men, women and soldiers, but also the children. What the children saw and heard affected them throughout their life. What gruesome and horrid sights and smells must of shocked their hearts and minds.

For weeks before the battle, rumors almost everyday was heard that the rebels were coming. The 2,400 residents of the town of Gettysburg reacted to these rumors by hiding their valuables, food and sending livestock away. Many of the husbands were gone, either in the army or away with the family's horses, leaving the women and children to face the awful "Rebels". The women had to run the family businesses, farms and provide for their children and sometimes older parents.

When the battle started and the sounds of fighting were heard in town, the children were frightfully scared. Never before had this quiet little Pennsylvania town seen or heard what war was really like. It's very different from reading in newspapers about battles and actually hearing and seeing battles between two determined armies.

At first some of the children was curious and wanted to see the action up close, but when shells started to fly, they ran home scared. The girls mostly helped their mothers tend to younger siblings and cooking of food for the family and soldiers. The children were pressed into duties that no child should have to see or do. Some carried water and food to the wounded; many cried and got sick over the awful suffering and groans of the soldiers.

Tillie Pierce was 15 years old at the time of the battle. She was the daughter of butcher James Pierce and Margaret Pierce. Her house was on the southwest corner of South Baltimore Street and Breckenridge Street, it is still standing today. On the morning of the first day of the battle, Tillie and Mrs. Shriver, a neighbor, went to Mrs. Shriver's' father's place, the Jacob Weikert farm. Thinking that it would be a safer place away from the battle, but in fact it was right in the middle of some of the heaviest fighting. Tillie carried water to the passing soldiers and to the wounded, which were many in the house and barn. At one point she and Beckie Weikert, the daughter of Jacob Weikert when out to the barn to see what was going on, she states "Nothing before in my experience had ever paralleled the sight we then and there beheld. There were the groaning and crying, the struggling and dying, crowded side by side, while attendants sought to aid and relieve them as best they could. We were so overcome by the sad and awful spectacle that we hastened back to the house weeping bitterly."[1]

Nellie Auginbaugh, 17 years old lived with her family on Carlisle Street, and was warned by a rebel officer to leave their home because the town was going to be shelled. Nellie said "We left town and walked past the Cemetery where the tombstones were chipped from having been used as shields. Hundreds of wounded and dead lay on every side and we often had to pick our steps over them. All called for water and many times Father took a canteen from a dying man and went the long way back to the pump we had passed, filling it and giving him water. We passed many killed in the act of getting over a fence. A few had no heads. Sometimes a head would be sticking between the rails of a fence with no body.[2]

Some children acted bravely and saved lives as did 16 year old Julia Jacobs. She lived on West Middle Street and right next to her door was the intersection of Washington Street and Middle Street. Every time a union soldier would cross the intersection he would be shot by confederate pickets. Henry E Jacobs said of his sister Julia "My sister Julia was only 16 years old then. She stood the situation as long as she could. Then she went to the front door of our house, from which approaching Union soldiers could see her and began to call to them as they approached the corner: "Look out! Pickets below! They'll fire on you! She became a living danger signal, and a most effective one. The men, as they caught her words, halted, watched their opportunity, and made their passage of the death spot in flying dashes. She saved many lives."[3] Julia Jacobs was a brave girl, when the confederate realized what she was doing, they fired on her, and so she retreated back into the hallway and continued to warn the soldiers.

Most of the residents of the town stayed in their basements or in their neighbor's basement during the three day battle, coming out only at night. What the children and their family seen as they carefully moved about was the dead and wounded that lay every where, on the sidewalks, in the streets, on their porches, many in the homes. The sight and terrible smell must have been an enormous shock to them. Not only were there dead and wounded soldiers, but dead horses were also present.

Nellie Aughinbaugh recalled: "We could not open our windows for weeks because of the terrible stench"[4] The residents carried bottles of pennyroyal and peppermint oil to offset the awful stench. Albertus McCreary only 15 years old recalls: "In going over the field that first day after the fight, the many strange and terrible sights made a strong and lasting impression on my mind. In one place there were as many as forty dead horses where a battery and been planked; the bodies were much swollen, the feet standing up in the air. Broken wagons and guns, belts, cartridge-boxes and canteens, blankets and all sorts of soldier equipment were lying around everywhere. Dead soldiers were everywhere. Near a small house lay the bodies of two Confederate soldiers, and on looking into the house, I saw two others, one on a bed and the other on the floor."[5]

One tragic story is that of young Mary Virginia Wade, known as Jennie Wade. She was only 20 years old and has the dubious honor of being the only civilian killed in Gettysburg during the battle. Jennie was born in Gettysburg on May 21, 1843 to James Wade Sr and Mary Wade. On the morning of July 1, Jennie and her Mother and two boys went to Jennie's sister's house located near Cemetery Hill. Her sister Georgia just had a baby and Jennie could help her take care of it. During the first and second day of the battle, Jennie would give water to the Union soldiers that were near the house, often at great danger to her. On July 3^rd she was baking bread and a bullet penetrated two thick wooden doors and hit her in the back killing her instantly. The last words that her sister, Georgia had heard Jennie say was "If there is anyone in this house that is to be killed today, I hope it is me, as George has that little baby".[6]

Many of the children of Gettysburg of 1863 went on to grow up into adulthood and lived successful lives. Even after many years the memories of what they experienced was still fresh in their minds. The awful sights of bloated dead bodies, that once were viable living beings, thousands of horses that were burned, creating a stench that stayed with the people for many months forever changed the way the young minds saw the world and that war and soldiers killing one another holds no glory.

[1] At Gettysburg or What A Girl Saw and heard of the Battle by Mrs. Tillie Pierce Alleman

[2] Firestorm At Gettysburg, Civilian Voices June-November 1863 by Jim Slade & John Alexander

[3] Firestorm At Gettysburg, Civilian Voices June-November 1863 by Jim Slade & John Alexander

[4] When The Smoke cleared at Gettysburg by George Sheldon

[5] Firestorm At Gettysburg, Civilian Voices June-November 1863 by Jim Slade & John Alexander

[6] The Jennie Wade Story by Cindy L. Small