Carrie Sheads

[W. Richardson]

Everyone was fighting for what he/she thought it was "right", unless someone else made him/her fight.

You are right on spot on that EE..........

Respectfully,

William

 

[bankerpapaw]

Excellent article. Thanks for the posting.

 

[Northern Light]

See always jumping to conclusions...........On the can of worms one you are wrong.

Now as to the rest of your post........I can agree with most of it. Most of what I asked, as you pointed out, can not be known.

Respectfully,

William

Then I apologize if that was not your intent.
It is always good to recognize those whose contributions to the battle as often unsung, but nonetheless as worthy of notice as all others. Thank you very much for bringing Carrie Sheads to our attention.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Missed this when it was posted, thanks very much! Super article- one more remarkable person who kept her head thereby making her corner of it a little less hideous.

Boy, she lost so much. God Bless and God Bless all of them all those years ago.

 

[JerseyBart]

I need a map like that so I won't get lost in Gettysburg, like I usually do! Thanks for posting. Is there a key for the other numbers?

I always get turned around in Gettysburg: east seems west, north seems south and vice versa.

 

[Northern Light]

I always get turned around in Gettysburg: east seems west, north seems south and vice versa.

For me, it is because we come in on the Chambersburg Rd and then head what to me seems like up Baltimore St., which is actually DOWN Baltimore. I literally have to turn the map upside down to get my bearings. This drives my sister nuts, and she has been known to actually rip the map from my hands and tell me it is upside down, she gets confused too.
This time we had a GPS, three maps, and android instructions, but I actually remembered how to get to the hotel!

 

[LoyaltyOfDogs]

For me, it is because we come in on the Chambersburg Rd and then head what to me seems like up Baltimore St., which is actually DOWN Baltimore. I literally have to turn the map upside down to get my bearings. This drives my sister nuts, and she has been known to actually rip the map from my hands and tell me it is upside down, she gets confused too.
This time we had a GPS, three maps, and android instructions, but I actually remembered how to get to the hotel!

And it never helps to have someone say to a Gettysburg visitor, "And the Northern troops advanced from the South and the Southern troops advanced from the North."

 

[JerseyBart]

For me, it is because we come in on the Chambersburg Rd and then head what to me seems like up Baltimore St., which is actually DOWN Baltimore. I literally have to turn the map upside down to get my bearings. This drives my sister nuts, and she has been known to actually rip the map from my hands and tell me it is upside down, she gets confused too.
This time we had a GPS, three maps, and android instructions, but I actually remembered how to get to the hotel!

Last year, I stood on Culp's Hill and my father in law asked about the hills behind us, "are those the round tops?" I "expertly" said no. I climbed the observation tower and boy was I wrong. They were.

 

[W. Richardson]

I always get turned around in Gettysburg: east seems west, north seems south and vice versa.

I do to JB and I have been there 4 times and each time I get all turned around. I thought maybe it was just me. lol

Respectfully,

William

 

[E_just_E]

I think that the major issue with orientation in Gettysburg is that other than in the borough (town,) there are a not many N to S or E to W streets, including the major arteries in and out of town (York Rd, Baltimore Pike, Emmittsburg Rd, Chambersburg Rd.)

First day: The battle lines were from NE to SW, and the confederates were coming from 2 directions: from the NW to SE down Chambersburg Rd and from the NE to SW through Carlisle and Harrisburg Rds. Howard's re-enforcements had a pretty much W-E Federal line just North of town just S of what is now Howard Ave. The Federal retreat and assembly of the fish hook was through the town, due S for Howard's troops and SE and then S for the rest.

Second and third day, main battlefield: Thinking of Mead's hook, might help orient, since the main body of it (cemetery hill, cemetery ridge, round top) was N to S. The Confederates were mainly West of that line in a N-S line on Confederate Rd., Sickles moved his forces on another N to S line, West of Mead's (Peach farm, Wheatfield and Devil's den.) Then all the other action was west to east and east to west.

Culp's Hill & environs: If you disregard topography, the Federal troops were on a pretty much NW to SE line. The Conferedate troops on a parallel like to the E, and the attack was pretty much due W. (exactly the opposite direction of Pickett's charge.) The Confederate retreat was due E.

And the second and third day events happened S of the town.

Generalization, but I hope it helps a bit with directions. I really recommend using a smartphone compass. Have also found an altimeter app really useful, for trying to figure out how high the different places of the battlefield were (not quite an altimeter per se, it works through the GPS and a database of altitudes per coordinates, but it works.)

 

[Tom Elmore]

My Thomas A. Desjardin map of Gettysburg shows the Oak Ridge Seminary (also known as the Oak Ridge Select Academy for young ladies) owned by Elias Sheads, but was there an adjacent house that is not shown? An 1858 rendition supposedly depicts the seminary and a separate house:


However, neither building in this depiction looks like the actual house, which still stands. Aside from this anomaly, a description given by Corporal Asa Sleeth Hardman, 3rd Indiana Cavalry, clearly suggests two adjacent structures, and that the house had two stories. Hardman was one of seven Union soldiers selected by an unidentified Confederate officer to remain on the premises to tend to the 72 severely wounded men who were taken into the house - the exact same number separately reported by Ms. Carrie Sheads, principal of the school. Hardman climbed to the roof of the house to watch the grand charge on July 3.

Incidentally, the Oak Ridge Seminary was reportedly erected by Hermann Haupt, the Union Army's railroad genius.

Several of the "young ladies" returned after the battle and helped look after the wounded, who after a short period were removed to the general hospitals. A 1999 article in the Orlando Sentinel mentions that Hardman married a Gettysburg girl, and I am curious to find out if it was one of the seminary students. Following his first wife's (he had three) death circa 1866, Hardman moved from Gettysburg to Indianapolis, and in 1882 came to Leesburg, Florida (where he is buried).

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5102084

 

[Tom Elmore]

A little more research established that Hardman married Louisa Maria Sheads, Carrie's sister. Also, that the Oak Ridge Seminary was in the house owned by Elias Sheads, Carrie's father. Hardman writes that Col. Wheelock initially waved a handkerchief to signal his surrender, when a Union sergeant behind a "house nearby" fired upon a Confederate in the cut. At this, the Rebels opened fire again, and Col. Wheelock went to the "nearby house" to obtain a large white cloth, which the "Rebels acknowledged and quit firing." Hardman's description (or the Sentinel article's interpretation) was a bit confusing, but it now appears he was probably referring to the same house - Sheads, also known as the Oak Ridge Seminary.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Love this, thank you! Lore becomes so ingrained no one ever goes back in Time to retrieve Louisa Sheads! And you just knew the students became participants like the entire town, nursing wounded- but I've read legend so intent on portraying poor Carrie as carrying the situation all alone she was diplomat, den mother to terrified students and nurse. Having met enough of the citizens, in print, to ascertain young teens and children did what they could, too, for wounded men in that shambles no, I did not believe it.

Never having had the slightest inclination to question historians, it is now a puzzle why the Sheads home doesn't look like the old image? Until you stated yes, the Seminary and house are the same, I think there's been a vague idea out there of some place, similar to the old image, ill-defined but surely real.

The entire Oak Ridge Seminary/Sheads story, through those awful days surely deserves to be drawn out from what must be the middle, where Carrie is eternally in a loop with that darn sword. I mean, yes, it's a great story all by itself but boy, we're missing so much just telling and re-telling that. Someone on that roof, for instance, in Gettysburg, PA, with 72 wounded men in the house below, having survived much himself already, watching Lee's Army march into death? So much more.

 

[Scott F]

My Thomas A. Desjardin map of Gettysburg shows the Oak Ridge Seminary (also known as the Oak Ridge Select Academy for young ladies) owned by Elias Sheads, but was there an adjacent house that is not shown? An 1858 rendition supposedly depicts the seminary and a separate house:


However, neither building in this depiction looks like the actual house, which still stands. Aside from this anomaly, a description given by Corporal Asa Sleeth Hardman, 3rd Indiana Cavalry, clearly suggests two adjacent structures, and that the house had two stories. Hardman was one of seven Union soldiers selected by an unidentified Confederate officer to remain on the premises to tend to the 72 severely wounded men who were taken into the house - the exact same number separately reported by Ms. Carrie Sheads, principal of the school. Hardman climbed to the roof of the house to watch the grand charge on July 3.

Incidentally, the Oak Ridge Seminary was reportedly erected by Hermann Haupt, the Union Army's railroad genius.

Several of the "young ladies" returned after the battle and helped look after the wounded, who after a short period were removed to the general hospitals. A 1999 article in the Orlando Sentinel mentions that Hardman married a Gettysburg girl, and I am curious to find out if it was one of the seminary students. Following his first wife's (he had three) death circa 1866, Hardman moved from Gettysburg to Indianapolis, and in 1882 came to Leesburg, Florida (where he is buried).

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5102084

Hey Tom, I have been doing research on this for my book and had the same confusion as you. However I think I figured it out. The wikipedia is wrong on this. Herman Haupt built the house on the corner of Confederate Ave and Fairfield rd. It still stands today. Here is were the confusion comes in, he named it "Oakridge"and he also opened a day, and boarding school at the house. Oakridge select academy. The structure next to the house was then built to house more students that boarded there. It is the two structures you see in the drawing. When Haupt got the teaching job at the college his students were absorbed as well. It then became a female school, till I think 1861, when Carrie Sheads opened the Oakridge Seminary at her home, Elias Sheads House. Carrie bought the property herself I believe in 1859. The house was completed in March 1862, but she advertised it as opening in Sept of 1861. Where did they have school till the house was built? Don't know the answer to that one. Anyway I saw the sale of the Haupt house and adjacent building for sale in 1869, so the drawing is most defiantly from Haupt's school and not Carrie Shead's school.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Digging through era accounts, found this- anyone else hear the genesis of the Harmon farm? @Nathanb1 ? Jackson? Pretty cool stuff.

Harman Farm somehow rocketing us backwards and sideways into a whole, ' nother conversation- and bringing Thomas Jackson to Gettysburg after all? Now, newspapers/accuracy being what they are, it was 150 years ago. These factoids were frequently well known at the time then just, plain got lost- like you have to dig through so many feet of topsoil, to reach where someone walked, in say, 1800- some of this stuff is buried down there.

 

[Scott F]

Digging through era accounts, found this- anyone else hear the genesis of the Harmon farm? @Nathanb1 ? Jackson? Pretty cool stuff.

View attachment 148708
View attachment 148709

View attachment 148710


Harman Farm somehow rocketing us backwards and sideways into a whole, ' nother conversation- and bringing Thomas Jackson to Gettysburg after all? Now, newspapers/accuracy being what they are, it was 150 years ago. These factoids were frequently well known at the time then just, plain got lost- like you have to dig through so many feet of topsoil, to reach where someone walked, in say, 1800- some of this stuff is buried down there.

View attachment 148711

View attachment 148712

View attachment 148713

Yes that whole article appeared in a book in 1891. I forget the name of it off hand, but I had no idea it was from the Sentinel. I still have yet to see the whole letter. It may explain why she said she was coward before. Not that I believe that for a second. She was a very brave women.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Yes that whole article appeared in a book in 1891. I forget the name of it off hand, but I had no idea it was from the Sentinel. I still have yet to see the whole letter. It may explain why she said she was coward before. Not that I believe that for a second. She was a very brave women.

She had a terrible war, too. No one mentions her siblings and she had quite a few? Four brothers served , David, Elias, Robert and Jacob. David, discharged from the army due to TB, came home to die, Elias lost both feet at Monocacy Station, died there, Robert came home, shot in the neck and died and Jacob never enlisted- too young so he ran away to be a camp worker. Died there of mumps. Can you imagine? Had no idea- you only hear of ' Carrie Sheads '.

Also read, to make matters worse for her parents, when Carrie was given the job in DC post war, so was her sister, Liz? So there's old Elias, children gone- his wife did not live long. Liz died before the century was up, too!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Hey Tom, I have been doing research on this for my book and had the same confusion as you. However I think I figured it out. The wikipedia is wrong on this. Herman Haupt built the house on the corner of Confederate Ave and Fairfield rd. It still stands today. Here is were the confusion comes in, he named it "Oakridge"and he also opened a day, and boarding school at the house. Oakridge select academy. The structure next to the house was then built to house more students that boarded there. It is the two structures you see in the drawing. When Haupt got the teaching job at the college his students were absorbed as well. It then became a female school, till I think 1861, when Carrie Sheads opened the Oakridge Seminary at her home, Elias Sheads House. Carrie bought the property herself I believe in 1859. The house was completed in March 1862, but she advertised it as opening in Sept of 1861. Where did they have school till the house was built? Don't know the answer to that one. Anyway I saw the sale of the Haupt house and adjacent building for sale in 1869, so the drawing is most defiantly from Haupt's school and not Carrie Shead's school.

I can source this. One newspaper states Elias built a house for Carrie's school separate from the family home- in the 1920's the writer state's ' Now owned by Leonard Hennig '- and a brick home. Leonard lived there through several census, on Buford Ave but it was originally described as Chambersburg Pike.

1920's census

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Since you're writing a book- ever catch this, from 1849, same paper? May be useful.

From 1849

Earlier article, 1846

 

[Scott F]

Since you're writing a book- ever catch this, from 1849, same paper? May be useful.

View attachment 148882

From 1849

Earlier article, 1846

View attachment 148881

Thank you so much this is very helpful