- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
Charles Philip Krauth (1797-1867), an accomplished scholar and theologian of the Lutheran Church, served as the first president of Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) from 1834-1850. At the time of the battle, he was a professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary (which he had earlier helped to establish), and lived with his wife Harriet and their daughter in a two-story brick home on Seminary Ridge, just 170 yards north of the seminary. The family had no sooner finished breakfast when the battle opened on July 1, compelling them to take refuge in the cellar. Their home quickly filled up with wounded from the Union First Corps. Officers were sent upstairs, while enlisted men occupied the ground floor, under care of a surgeon named Bache - likely Thomas Huston Bache, Medical Director of the First Corps.
About 3 p.m., three guns (the fourth was previously disabled) of Capt. J. H. Cooper’s Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania took up a position just yards in front (west) of the house. A half hour later, remnants of the Federal defenders in front fell back and rallied between and around the guns, at this point mainly consisting of soldiers from the Iron Brigade. Twenty minutes or so afterwards, the three guns were blasting away at oncoming North Carolinians in the brigade of Brig. Gen. Alfred M. Scales. Only a few more minutes elapsed before the Federals were compelled to retreat through town, and the fighting gradually subsided. Moving up behind them were the battered Confederates, with the 34th North Carolina possibly positioned alongside the house. A few minutes later General Robert E. Lee rode up to the ridge nearby. As relative calm returned, Rev. Dr. Krauth emerged with his family, only to find their house packed full with Federal wounded. They had to seek temporary shelter elsewhere for the night – perhaps in the Seminary building. Early the next morning they passed through Confederate lines to Jacob Hankey’s place on the Mummasburg Road, and ate their first meal in 24 hours. Here they joined a couple of dozen other displaced local citizens. The Krauth family returned to an empty home on July 6, but they found the floors and other possessions stained with blood. Fortunately their home reportedly had not been badly ransacked, although some items were missing, including a prized four-piece silver set. However, the latter was returned later by the mayor of Waynesboro, who had obtained it from a conscientious Confederate officer. Slightly scratched during its journey, it now resides at the Adams County Historical Society.
(Scales’ men departed after dark on July 1, and the next morning, Brig. Gen. Junius Daniel’s brigade filled the gap, with the 43rd North Carolina being drawn up near the house for the rest of the day. George Doles’ Georgians would occupy the grounds on July 4.)
sources: Greg Coco, A Vast Sea of Misery
http://www.seminaryridge.org/legacy.htm
https://www.lutheranhistoricalsociety.com/charles-philip-krauth/
http://www.montgomery.pa-roots.com/Biographies/CharlesPhilipKrauth.html
About 3 p.m., three guns (the fourth was previously disabled) of Capt. J. H. Cooper’s Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania took up a position just yards in front (west) of the house. A half hour later, remnants of the Federal defenders in front fell back and rallied between and around the guns, at this point mainly consisting of soldiers from the Iron Brigade. Twenty minutes or so afterwards, the three guns were blasting away at oncoming North Carolinians in the brigade of Brig. Gen. Alfred M. Scales. Only a few more minutes elapsed before the Federals were compelled to retreat through town, and the fighting gradually subsided. Moving up behind them were the battered Confederates, with the 34th North Carolina possibly positioned alongside the house. A few minutes later General Robert E. Lee rode up to the ridge nearby. As relative calm returned, Rev. Dr. Krauth emerged with his family, only to find their house packed full with Federal wounded. They had to seek temporary shelter elsewhere for the night – perhaps in the Seminary building. Early the next morning they passed through Confederate lines to Jacob Hankey’s place on the Mummasburg Road, and ate their first meal in 24 hours. Here they joined a couple of dozen other displaced local citizens. The Krauth family returned to an empty home on July 6, but they found the floors and other possessions stained with blood. Fortunately their home reportedly had not been badly ransacked, although some items were missing, including a prized four-piece silver set. However, the latter was returned later by the mayor of Waynesboro, who had obtained it from a conscientious Confederate officer. Slightly scratched during its journey, it now resides at the Adams County Historical Society.
(Scales’ men departed after dark on July 1, and the next morning, Brig. Gen. Junius Daniel’s brigade filled the gap, with the 43rd North Carolina being drawn up near the house for the rest of the day. George Doles’ Georgians would occupy the grounds on July 4.)
sources: Greg Coco, A Vast Sea of Misery
http://www.seminaryridge.org/legacy.htm
https://www.lutheranhistoricalsociety.com/charles-philip-krauth/
http://www.montgomery.pa-roots.com/Biographies/CharlesPhilipKrauth.html