Other Interesting Sites We Saw on Sunday 5/10/2009

Jennie Wade House:The house is named for Jennie Wade, whose statue is located on the west side of the house. However, she did not live here, and this was a double house. Her brother-in-law, John Louis McClellan (1838-1913), owned the north (left) side of the structure, and Catharine McClain (1829-) owned the south (right) side of the building.
On June 26, 1863, Jennie’s sister, Georgia Wade McCellan (1841-1927) had a baby in this house. Louis Kenneth McClellan (1863-1941) was born on the day that Confederate Jubal Early’s Confederates first entered Gettysburg. Jennie and her mother, Mary Ann Filby Wade (1820-1892) lived on Breckinridge Street with Mary’s sons Samuel Wade (1851-1927) and Harry Wade (1855-1906), and with Isaac Brinkerhoff (1857-). They would all be at the McClellan House to take care of Georgia and to hopefully escape from the battle which began northwest of town on July 1, 1863.
As Union soldiers retreated through the town and past the McClellan/McClain House, located near the foot of Cemetery Hill, Jennie Wade brought water from a well located on the east side of the house for the soldiers.
By the evening of the first day, the battle lines became stabilized, with Union troops in this area on Cemetery Hill, and Confederates occupying the houses a couple of hundred yards away (such as the Sweney House, Garlach House, and Winebrenner House). Although this house was not used to house Union troops, the Union soldiers were constantly skirmishing around the house, and frequently coming to the house to ask the occupants for food.
Union soldiers were wounded (some mortally) around the McClellan House, and the vacant lot in front of it on July 1, 1863. That night, Jennie Wade came out of the house to bring the soldiers food and water.
While many other families in the town hid in the basements/cellars, the residents of this house were not as careful. The McClains on the right (south) side of the house were using the upper floors on July 1st and July 2nd. The Wades/McClellans on the left (north) side of the house all had their beds or other furniture items on which to sleep on the first (main) floor.
The McClellan House was not a very safe place, as over the three days of battle, it was stated that over 150 bullets hit the sides of the structure. Minie Ball damage is visible below this window on the north side of the house.
The morning of July 2, 1863, the skirmishing between the two sides began in earnest, and would continue throughout that day.
And while Confederate bullets were peppering the sides of the house, especially the west, and here the south side, Jennie Wade and her mother were inside the kitchen baking bread for the many hungry Union soldiers in this area.
That afternoon a Confederate artillery shell hit the southern part of the house, near the roof. It did not explode, but Jenny Wade fainted.
The artillery shell made a large hole in the wall separating the McClellan and McClain sides of the building. It alerted the McClain family on this south side of the house to their dangerous situation, and they finally went to their basement for the rest of the battle.
The Wade/McClellan Family, on this north side of the house, closer to the enemy, continued to stay on the main floor.
The fire kept the occupants on edge. They had not slept well the night of July 1st, and Confederates from Louisiana would attack Cemetery Hill just east of the house on the evening of July 2, 1863.
The United States soldiers finally drove the Confederates off the top of Cemetery Hill that night, but Jennie and her mother kept baking bread.
The night of July 2, 1863, Jennie and her mother were running out of flour. Soldiers came to the door to beg for bread as late as 9:00 PM, after the fighting was over behind the house at the top of the hill. Jennie and her mother had to start more yeast, which was mixed into sponge late that night. It was left to rise the morning of July 3, 1863.
At 4:30 in the morning of July 3, 1863, Jennie and her brother Harry went outside to retrieve wood for the fire to bake the bread dough. Therefore, in the dark house on the United States skirmish line that morning, a fire was burning.
A soldier came to the door that morning to ask for food, and was told to come back after the bread was ready. The family had their breakfast, and Jennie then laid down on a lounge in the north parlor. She began to read her Bible.
She was reading from Psalms 27 and Psalms 30, especially the verses that included the words, “The Lord is my light and my slavation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” Her sister Georgia became very uncomfortable hearing these words, and asked that Jennie stop reading the passages. Jennie said, “If there is anyone in this house that is to be killed today, I hope it is me, as George has that little baby.”
Around 7:00 AM, Confederates fired multiple shots towards the north side of the building. One bullet entered the right (west) window, struck Georgia’s bedpost, hit the wall, and fell at the foot of the bed where Georgia and her baby were laying.
Around 8:00 AM, Jennie decided that she must finish baking the bread which she had promised the soldiers she would make. She began to knead the flour and baking soda at a mixing tray.
At approximately 8:30 AM, Jennie asked her mother to start the fire in the stove so that she could bake the dough. A Confederate bullet penetrated the outer door on the north side of the house, passed through another door and into Jennie Wade’s back below the left shoulder blade. It pierced her heart and rested in her corset at the front of her body.
Her hands were still covered with dough, which along with the flour was strewn all over the room. The bullet entered the door on the right side, at the hole near the middle, and top of the right handrail. The hole has a dark stain near it.
Mrs. Wade watched Jennie fall and saw her lying in a puddle of blood. Almost calmly, she walked into the next room and announced to her remaining daughter: “Georgia, your sister is dead.” Georgia’s screams brought Union soldiers running to the house.
Jennie’s body was wrapped in a quilt, and the soldiers had the family go upstairs. They made the hole through which the artillery shell had come through the afternoon before larger. They then took everyone, including Jennie’s body, to the McClain side of the house, and into the McClain basement. There both families would stare at the body from approximately 8:30 AM on July 3, 1863 until 1:00 PM on July 4, 1863. This view was taken facing east at approximately 4:30 PM on Wednesday, January 21, 2009.
Then these sympathetic soldiers convinced Jennie’s mother, a reluctant Mary Wade, to go back through the house and finish baking the bread. Mary Wade baked 15 loaves of bread, keeping her head turned from the bloodstained part of the floor.
Supposedly the house is now haunted by Jennie and her father, who is mourning the loss of his daughter, as people have felt their presence there and at times the chain in the basement will be moved by an unseen hand.

Farnsworth House Inn:Built in 1810, Gettysburg's Farnsworth House Inn at 401 Baltimore Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, has been called "one of the most haunted inns in America" by the Travel Channel. According to the staff, many spirits dwell in the house. But that needn't keep the two of you from enjoying a stay at this Victorian Bed & Breakfast. Once you learn a bit of its history, you may truly appreciate this unique getaway.
Those who don't scare easily ought to visit the basement of Farnsworth House Inn, which contains a reconstructed Victorian funeral parlor with nineteenth-century mourning memorabilia. During an hourlong presentation, story tellers in period costume recount the stories of real characters who lived and died in Gettysburg — and the restless spirits they may have left behind.
During the Civil War, Farnsworth House Inn was taken over by Confederate soldiers. One shot Jennie Wade, the only civilian to die during the three-day battle of Gettysburg. The hundred-plus bullet holes on Farnsworth House Inn's south side wall attest to the fighting during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.
The inn was renamed Farnsworth House in tribute to Union Army Brigadier General Elon John Farnsworth. Over the years Farnsworth House Inn has expanded, yet many of its original walls, floors, and rafters remain intact.


Alexander Dobbin House Tavern:"Four Score and Seven Years" before President Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address (1863-87=1776), Gettysburg's oldest and most historic building, the Dobbin House, was built. Just imagine the residents of the then eighty-seven year old house who probably sat on the balcony to watch as Lincoln delivered his speech on a bluff a few hundred yards away at the National Cemetery.
Reverend Alexander Dobbin, who built the Dobbin House, was an early frontier pioneer who helped settle and civilize the area. Born in Ireland in 1742, he grew to be a man of keen foresight, a person highly respected by his peers, an educator of men of stature, a Minister and a rugged individual who played a major role in the founding of Gettysburg. After studying the classics in Ireland, Dobbin and his bride, Isabella Gamble, set sail for a new life in the New World. Shortly after his arrival in America, he became pastor of the Rock Creek Presbyterian Church, located one mile north of what is now Gettysburg.
In 1774, the Dobbin purchased 300 acres of land in and around what is now the town of Gettysburg and commenced construction of a farm and the Dobbin House, for use as their dwelling and as a Classical School, today's equivalent of a combined theological seminary and liberal arts college. Dobbin's school was the first of its kind in America west of the Susquehanna River, an academy which enjoyed an excellent reputation for educating many professional men of renown.
Rev. Dobbin needed a large house for his school and family, for his Irish wife had borne him ten children before her early death. He remarried to the widow, Mary Agnew, who already had nine children of her own!
Rev. Dobbin, a short, stout, smiling gentleman who wore a white wig, became a highly respected community leader, as well as minister and educator. He worked diligently to establish in 1800 an autonomous Adams County, which originally was a part of neighboring York County. Thereafter, he was one of two appointed commissioners to chose Gettysburg as the new county seat.
In the mid-1800's, a secret crawl space, featured in "National Geographic", served as a "station" for hiding runaway slaves on their perilous journey to freedom on the "Underground Railroad." After the battle of Gettysburg ceased, and the armies had departed, it served as a hospital for wounded soldiers of both the North and the South.
Today the historic house appears virtually the same as it did over 200 years ago. Its native stone walls, seven fireplaces, and hand carved woodwork have been painstakingly restored to their original beauty and character, with interior decor in the traditional eighteenth century manner. Many of the home's antique furnishings are identical to those listed in the inventory of Rev. Dobbin's estate. The china and flatware exactly President match fragments which were unearthed during the re-excavation of the cellar. The servant's period-clothing is completely authentic right down to the tie on pockets!


Evergreen Cemetery:Evergreen Cemetery is a privately owned community cemetery in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address from a platform constructed there. It was located immediately adjacent to the land later devoted to the Gettysburg National Cemetery.
In 1854 a group of local residents headed by attorney David McConaughy procured land on Raffensperger's Hill south of Gettysburg along the Baltimore Pike for a community cemetery. The Evergreen Cemetery Association managed the property and oversaw selection of its caretakers. A large brick gatehouse was constructed in the late 1850s, and the caretakers resided there. By the time that the Civil War came to Gettysburg in the summer of 1863, the cemetery had become well established. The height on which it was located was known as Cemetery Hill.
During the Battle of Gettysburg, the hill served as a major position of the Union Army of the Potomac, an anchor of the famed "fish hook" defensive line. The cemetery and its gatehouse suffered damage from incoming artillery shells, as well as from the thousands of men and horses who tramped through it during and after the fighting.
Following the battle, McConaughy procured adjacent land for the Federal government to establish a formal military cemetery, Gettysburg National Cemetery.