I enjoyed reading your intro above and about how much you love Gettysburg itself. I do hope you will realize your dream and be able to call that special place your home one day. From your mouth to God's ears....hopefully!
Please, feel free to call upon me if I may be of assistance in your time here.
Your Most Obediant Servant,
Unionblue
Thank you very much, Unionblue! I look forward to spending time with you folks!
G.G.
__________________ "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays....
Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Speaking at the Dedication of the Monument to the 20th Maine October 3, 1889, Gettysburg, PA
Glad to have another enthusiast here aboard at this wonderful website. Here's my gift to you. A real rant. It's about Jennie Wade and her biscuits. Remember, this is just a joke and while one historian-ranger at Gettysburg thought it was quite good, Andy Turner, publisher of Gettysburg Magazine didn't see it fit for publication.
Quote:
First, it is safe to assume that which ever side held the area around her
house got to eat the biscuits. However, Gettysburg was in Union hands until
they were driven out of the town and onto Cemetery and Culp's Hill.
Therefore, we have to determine the time Wade was shot. If early in the
battle, it is likely that the boys in blue ate the biscuits. If later in
the day, then the Corn-feds were biscuit fed which makes them
Not-so-Corn-fed or Not-as-much-Corn-fed.
Second, if the biscuits were eaten, how do we know Wade was baking biscuits
when she was killed? Was she even finished making the batter or was she in
the process of making the batter? If she was in the process, how does one
distinguish between biscuit dough and doughnut dough? Bisquick wasn't
marketed yet (and Wade was no f-rby to have snuck an empty box into her
house). I don't think we can. We can certainly tell it isn't pie dough as
pie dough has altogether a different texture. It wasn't cake dough either
as cake dough tends to be very wet and runny. Having baked pies and cakes,
I base my assertion on first hand knowledge. So, as to Wade's intent, did
she leave behind a dairy, journal or letter that said, "I'm making biscuits
today?" Did she make a statement to another who recorded it? Or was she by
habit making biscuits daily? We don't know. Perhaps Wade in the practice of
making biscuits whenever there's a battle in town. Most likely not as
Gettysburg didn't have any battles before that day (unlike Yorktown or Bull
Run). Assuming Wade did make biscuits, if they were eaten by either side,
what evidence do we have that she did make biscuits? I can't find any
reference in the Official Records and I challenge any scholar to find it
(with respects to Wade's biscuits). I can't expect any soldier's journal
entry or letter to read, "I ate poor Jennie Wade's biscuits today."
However, if a soldier, any soldier on either side, ate biscuits that day
and his unit was in Gettysburg, that might be recorded in the diary. Some
soldiers did record mundane things like the distance they marched, the
weather and what they dined on. So, someone please show me the letter. I
haven't read it myself, haven't seen it in any published diary or journal
or memoir or letter. I haven't read it in any regimental or unit history
and Andy Turner's Gettysburg magazine doesn't have an article on it either.
It also raises an issue of culiniary practice. Are Pennsylvanians in the
habit of serving gravy with their biscuits and if so, was there evidence of
gravy or the ingredients for gravy in her kitchen? Gravy would indicate
that she was preparing or did prepare biscuits. Generally gravy is made
while the biscuits are baking. At least that's how I'd do it.
If the biscuits were made and consumed, there'd be no evidence that Wade
even made biscuits at all that day. Could the biscuit story be fabricated
by some Gettysburg resident in anticipating of giving Wade an air of
nobility?
Never mind slavery and the cause of the war! Never mind whether slaves
fought for the Confederacy! We've got a real issue at hand that demands
hard answers. Why have historians overlooked something like this for years?
Who started the conspiracy to canonize Wade? Did they want to draw tourists
there to worship at her house like the spring at Lourdes? Didn't they think
the battle would draw enough people there anyway?
We demand the truth. End the Conspiracy of silence!
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