Category: Gettysburg

Farm on the Gettysburg Battlefield Joseph Sherfy purchased a fifty-acre farm along the Emmitsburg Road about a mile south of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1842. At the time of the battle, the farm included the famous Peach Orchard to the south of Wheatfield Road as well as both Big and Little Round Tops and the Devil’s Den. Image: Photograph taken from the air above Cemetery Ridge, year unknown Sherfy Farm buildings (upper left) and the Peach Orchard (lower right) There were surely many peach orchards in America on July 2, 1863, but General Daniel Sickles’ troops defended these fields so valiantly that it will be forever known as The Peach Orchard. Sherfy Family Joseph and Mary Sherfy were…

Hotly Contested Area on the Gettysburg Battlefield Image: Bliss Farm Markers in the distance honor the men who fought here and deliniate the site of the William Bliss Farm that once existed here. Mid-left, in front of the trees, honors the 14th Connecticut Infantry. The clump of earth behind it is the remains of the earthen ramp that once led into the Bliss Barn. To the right is the 12th New Jersey Infantry marker. On the far right, out of frame, a smaller marker stands where the Bliss farmhouse once was. These markers are the only physical testaments to the struggle that took place over this key location. Credit: Battle of Gettysburg Buff Bliss Farm After losing three of their…

General Robert E. Lee’s Headquarters at Gettysburg Image: Thompson House before the Battle of Gettysburg This one and a half story stone house sits on Seminary Ridge, west of the town of Gettysburg, on the north side of the Chambersburg Pike. On July 1, 1863 General Robert E. Lee established his headquarters here. It was an ideal location, at the center and rear of the Confederate battle lines. Anna Mary Long was born on November 12, 1793 near Littlestown, Pennsylvania. Her first husband was named Daniel Sell, with whom she had three daughters. Sell died at the age of 30 in 1822. Four years later she married Joshua Thompson, with whom she would have two sons and three daughters. Joshua…

Farm on the Gettysburg Battlefield Gettysburg farmer James Leister died in 1859, leaving his wife Lydia Leister and five children, ranging in age from 21 to 3. In March 1861, the widow Leister purchased a nine acre farm on Taneytown Road from Henry Bishop, Sr. for the sum of $900. The property included a modest, wood frame house with a single fireplace, two rooms and a stairway that lead to a small loft. Image: Restored Lydia Leister Farm today Looking north along Taneytown Road After the strong Confederate win at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 CSA General Robert E. Lee effectively argued that the best use of limited Confederate resources was to invade Pennsylvania. In early June he…

The Battle for the Wheatfield at the Rose Farm The Pride of Erin by Dale Gallon At less than fifty yards, the men of Colonel Pat Kelly’s famed Irish Brigade prepare to fire their first volley into General Joseph Kershaw’s South Carolinians in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg. The farm of George and Dorothy Rose is south of Gettysburg on the eastern side of Emmitsburg Road. The farmhouse dates back to 1811 and was completed in its present form in 1824. The barn was built in 1812. George Rose was a butcher from Germantown, Pennsylvania, who had recently purchased the farm from Jacob Benner for over $8,000. The Farm was at the center of some of the fiercest fighting on the…

Site on the Gettysburg Battlefield Image: Nicholas Codori Farm Emmitsburg Road Gettysburg, Pennsylvania The heaviest fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg took place around the buildings and in the fields and orchards of the area’s farms owned by people whose lives were forever changed in July 1863. The Nicholas Codori Farm is on the east side of Emmitsburg Road just south of Gettysburg. The farmhouse is the same, except for the two story brick addition added in 1877. The current barn is a replacement for the original which was torn down in 1882. Before the Battle Nicholas Codori came to Gettysburg from Alsace, France, in 1828 at the age of 19, and apprenticed himself to Anthony B. Kuntz to learn…