Category: Gettysburg

Gettysburg

Matilda (Tillie) Pierce
Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Tillie Pierce

• Maggie

  Teenage Girl’s View of the Battle of Gettysburg Matilda (Tillie) Pierce was born in Gettysburg in 1848. She was 15 at the time of the battle, and had lived her entire life in Gettysburg, a village of 2400 persons. Her father made a good living as a butcher, and the family lived a comfortable life above his shop at the corner of South Baltimore and Breckinridge Streets in the heart of town. In the summer of 1863, Tillie was attending the Young Ladies Seminary, a finishing school near her home. Tillie had two brothers, James and William, and one sister, Margaret. At the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, her brother James was serving with the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves,…

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Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Jennie Wade

• Maggie

Civilian Killed at the Battle of Gettysburg Seamstress Jennie Wade (1843–July 3, 1863) was the only Gettysburg civilian killed directly during the Battle of Gettysburg. Jennie and her mother were visiting her sister, Georgia Anna Wade McClellan, at 528 Baltimore Street to assist her and her newborn child. On July 1, 1863, during the first day’s fighting, more than 150 bullets hit the McClellan house. But it was not until July 3 that tragedy struck. Mary Virginia Wade was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in May 1843. When Jennie was a child, her father worked for a man named Johnston Hastings Skelly, who had a son of the same name. He was called Jack. Jack and Jennie were always friends, but…

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