Rose Farm Less than 30 Years After

Gettysburg Greg

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
Location
Decatur, Illinois
Here is an interesting shot of the Rose farm as it looked ca. 1890. I happened to have a similar modern view I took from the Wheatfield Road on the bottom below. Obviously, the biggest change is the barn has been reduced to the stone foundation. The houses seen in the background were along the Emmitsburg Road at the time. Notice the tall skinny pine tree along Roses' lane at left center in both photos. I've previously wondered aloud if that could be a witness tree. A similar shaped tree can be seen in the background of one of Garnder's iconic Rose pasture series. Laying it out on a google map, it falls in line with this same tree in Rose lane. Just some of my idle speculation.
from wf road combo.jpg
 
Wonderful photograph! Thanks for posting. I don't recall ever seeing it before, and now we know what the Rose barn looked like before it burned, plus an outbuilding between the barn and house. Could that be the Philip Snyder place in the center distance?
 
Notice the tall skinny pine tree along Roses' lane at left center in both photos. I've previously wondered aloud if that could be a witness tree. A similar shaped tree can be seen in the background of one of Garnder's iconic Rose pasture series. Laying it out on a google map, it falls in line with this same tree in Rose lane. Just some of my idle speculation.
View attachment 148756

I would guess that they are not the same. I don't think that a pine tree could look essentially unchanged after 135 years.
 
I would guess that they are not the same. I don't think that a pine tree could look essentially unchanged after 135 years.
Thanks for comment, @infomanpa . I have to disagree with you on this point. Notice how much taller the tree is now when compared to height of Rose house roof. If you stand next to it now, you would be surprised at how large it is. Also, the top notch is rather unique and seems to match up. The tree I mentioned seen in Gardner's Rose pasture photograph has this same characteristic. May not have changed your opinion, but that's how I see it. :D
 
The Rose barn, as would be expected, sheltered wounded men of both armies on July 2. Here are two sources:

Surgeon James Beverly Clifton of the 53rd Georgia in Semmes’ brigade reached the Rose barn at midnight on July 2/3 and found wounded men there, whom he sent to field hospitals further to the rear. [Presumably ambulances were brought up for this purpose.] (Confederate Military History, Extended Addition, vol. 5 (NC), pp. 435-436).

Two wounded and captured Federal officers from the 86th New York, including Lt. Col. Higgins, were sent to a “stone barn” by Capt. William Simmons of the 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters of Woffords' brigade. [This was likely the Rose barn given its close proximity to Wofford's Brigade on the evening of July 2.]
RoseBarn.JPG
 
Thanks for comment, @infomanpa . I have to disagree with you on this point. Notice how much taller the tree is now when compared to height of Rose house roof. If you stand next to it now, you would be surprised at how large it is. Also, the top notch is rather unique and seems to match up. The tree I mentioned seen in Gardner's Rose pasture photograph has this same characteristic. May not have changed your opinion, but that's how I see it. :D

I have to admit that I don't know much about the growth changes of pine trees as they age. And you seem to have more first hand knowledge about this particular tree. I hope that you are right. Hopefully, I would think that a tree expert would be able to determine the approximate age of that tree and confirm this for us.
 
I have to admit that I don't know much about the growth changes of pine trees as they age. And you seem to have more first hand knowledge about this particular tree. I hope that you are right. Hopefully, I would think that a tree expert would be able to determine the approximate age of that tree and confirm this for us.
Just my opinion based on the pics, fun to speculate. Thanks for your input.
 
Here is an interesting shot of the Rose farm as it looked ca. 1890. I happened to have a similar modern view I took from the Wheatfield Road on the bottom below. Obviously, the biggest change is the barn has been reduced to the stone foundation. The houses seen in the background were along the Emmitsburg Road at the time. Notice the tall skinny pine tree along Roses' lane at left center in both photos. I've previously wondered aloud if that could be a witness tree. A similar shaped tree can be seen in the background of one of Garnder's iconic Rose pasture series. Laying it out on a google map, it falls in line with this same tree in Rose lane. Just some of my idle speculation.
View attachment 148756
The similarity of the tree shape in two images so many years apart is really quite remarkable.
 
"Directly to our front, about three or four hundred yards, was Rose's house, which we could plainly see, as the smoke occasionally lifted, and whose bell, in the old-fashioned cupola, we heard ringing whenever a bullet happened to strike it."

(History of the Twenty-Second Massachusetts Infantry, by John L. Parker, Robert G. Carter, and the Historical Committee; Boston: Published by the Regimental Association, Press of Rand Avery Company, 1887, p. 334)
 
Good stuff! Here is a link to LOC photos of the Rose Barn. The barns roof was destroyed by weather unfortunately it was never rebuilt and thus today it lies in ruins.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/pa1692/

In Tom's last post, a Rose Farm Cupola is noted. I don't recall seeing a cupola before on any Rose Farm building. Does anyone know what building with cupola is being described in that 22nd Mass reference?
 
Another Rose barn story:

Regarding Captain [Sergeant at Gettysburg?] James Milton Pipes, 140th Pennsylvania - "His pension application papers and the papers from his brother's application state that James and several others were captured that day [July 2] by the Confederates and held at the Rose farm until the following day when they were rescued as the Union forces overwhelmed their captors and they were released." Pipes was a Medal of Honor recipient. http://www.pipesfamily.com

Comment: Confederate ambulances would typically have carried off only their own wounded, which occurred before daylight on July 3, according to Surgeon Clifton (see #10 above). Contrary to this account, I don't think Union forces reached the Rose barn until the morning of July 4, when they conducted a reconnaissance to that point.
 
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