John Burns, a Gettysburg Patriot

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I love this story, always worth reading again....

The story of a patriot who refused to act his age.

On the morning of July 1, 1863, with the sound of the enemy's guns in his ears, John Burns of Gettysburg answered a personal call to duty. Just shy of seventy years, Burns tried to enlist twice but was rejected because of his age.

Very little is known of Burns' early life and because he became a folk hero, the stories differ. He was born in New Jersey in 1793. He likely fought in the War of 1812. By 1822 he was working as a boot and shoemaker in Gettysburg, and also served as the town constable.

When the Civil War broke out, he tried to enlist in the Second Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, but was turned away. He also tried to enter the Reserves, but "failed to pass the surgical examination on account of age..." The stubborn Burns refused to be left out of the war and as a civilian, rendered service as a teamster and policeman in an army wagon train.

On the morning of July 1, with Lee's army approaching Gettysburg and while most families hid in their cellars, Burns grabbed his old flintlock musket and a powder horn and ran to battle.

At some point Burns acquired a modern Enfield rifle-musket and ammunition from a wounded Union soldier and left behind his flintlock. When he arrived at the Union lines on McPherson's Ridge, he asked an officer in the 150th Pennsylvania if he could fight with the regiment. Major Chamberlain of the 150th described Burns as "dressed in a blue swallow-tailed coat, and high silk hat, rather worse for the wear, carrying a musket..." A Union soldier recalled that "his unique dress and temerity in venturing into so dangerous a place without occasion, seemed the act of an insane zealot, and invited the jibes of the men."

Burns was granted permission to fight in the cover of the adjacent woods where he would be less exposed to the enemy fire. He took a position behind a tree and reportedly fired 28 rounds at the attacking Rebels. He claimed that three of his shots found their mark.

In the process, Burns was wounded in his arm, thigh and leg. As the outnumbered and overwhelmed Union force retreated through Gettysburg, they left Burns lying on the ground for dead. He lay there until the next day when Confederates found him and took him home. He told them he was wounded while searching for stray cows.

After the battle ended, news of the momentous Union victory spread across the nation, as did the heroic story of the old soldier John Burns. He became the subject of wartime photographers, and publication of his picture catapulted him to fame. His bravery was celebrated in books, poetry, songs and monuments.

When Lincoln visited Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, to dedicate the new Soldiers National Cemetery, warmly greeted the local hero with the words "God bless you, old man." In 1865, he traveled to Washington and was received as a celebrity by, among others, President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Burns died in 1872 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg. His simple gravestone bears the inscription "John L. Burns, The Hero of Gettysburg, Died Feb. 4, 1872."

Information for this was contributed by John Zwierzyna
 
Wonderful, thanks!

Similar to Burns, one of my "fighting Scotch" ancestors - Samuel McNair, of Coles' Maryland Cavalry - was not at all pleased by the rebel invasion. Having been wounded fighting Mosby's partisans in the fall of 1862, he was recuperating at home when Lee's boys got his blood hot.

I quote the following from an account by Major O. Horner of Coles' Cavalry (there are a lot of typos in here):

"At the time [Samuel NcNair] received the wound he was mounted and his horse carried him from the battlefield in the direction of Point of Rocks. Exhausted from the loss of blood and the severity of his wound he fell from his horse and lay prostrate in the road. The enemy found his body there but judging him fatally wounded they passed by. After the Confederate forces fell back his brother, the late H, S. McNair, then a lieutenant, and a few other comrades found him and procured a wagon and conveyed him to Point of Rocks where he was placed or board the cars and taken to the hospital at Frederick.

His wound was considered fatal am his sufferings were intense but the same will that helped him in his last ill ness stood him in better stead at that time and by December of the same year he was able to walk. He left the barracks one day, walked up to the Dill House where he saw the stage starting for Emmitsburg. The driver at his request allowed him to take passage and he rode to Emmitsburg am was taken to his home the same night

The ride was too much for him and he took to his bed to remain there for a long time. The march of the armies Northward roused him and in June 1863, previous to the fight at Gettysburg he felt strong enough to again mount his horse. With three comrade from his old company, Gwinn, Wolf and Crooks, he started for Gettysburg on the 29th of June and was the first Union soldier to enter Gettysburg after Ewell's Division moved North toward York.

He and his companions stopped at the Eagle Hotel and shortly after they arrived citizens told them that a Confederate Cavalryman was coming up the street. Young McNair and his friend captured this fellow who afterward proved to be a carrier of dispatches from Lee to Ewell. He was lodged in the jail.

McNair and his party returned to the hotel. A little while after a stranger in citizens dress passed by. The soldiers remarked a peculiar military bearing about the stranger that indicated he was a soldier. Although the other members of the party opposed, Mr. McNair started in pursuit and being better mounted gained on the man who was making every effort to get away. Shots were exchanged between the two, the stranger shooting rapidly, McNair just frequently enough to draw the other's fire. When the young Union soldier judged that the other had spent his ammunition he spurred his horse and captured him. The man proved to be a "Johnnie" but when he surrendered said he was a chaplain. McNair replied "Yes! a fighting chaplain, evidently from the way in which you are armed and your manner of using your gun." This prisoner was brought back to Gettysburg and also jailed.

Hearing that Lee's army was camping West of Gettysburg, towards Cashtown and Bendersville, McNair and his three friends concluded they would make a reconnaissance of the enemy's position. So off they started and when they reached Bream's Tavern they came upon a Rebel artilleryman, who they captured, he having strolled outside the lines to replenish his canteens with whiskey, two freshly filled ones being found upon his person. Finding the rebels were encamped only a short distance beyond this, they returned to the town with their prisoners. When they reached the top of Seminary Ridge they found a regiment of cavalry in their front, who had come in on the Bedersville Road during their absence.

The "Johnnies" immediately made a dash for our boys, who with their prisoner, beat a hasty retreat across by McMullins to the Emmitsburg Road, which they reached in Safety, the Rebel cavalrymen in hot pursuit, chasing them at a rapid rate towards Emmitsburg. Fortunately for the three intrepid soldiers at about the Peach Orchard, they met the advance of Buford’s Cavalry, the sight which caused a sudden halt and "Right about wheel" of their pursuers. The prisoner was safely turned over to General Buford, to whom McNair and his comrades tendered their services as scouts and were retained by the General during the entire battle of Gettysburg.

It was this little band of Company C, Coles Cavalry, that captured the first Rebels on the famous battlefield of Gettysburg.



Some things may change, but there are still a lot of old farmers and mechanics here in Adams County who would not take kindly to some invasion of our home. Although nowadays we mostly complain about people from Maryland. Just kidding. Mostly. :unsure:
 
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General Doubleday wrote " My thanks are specially due to a citizen of Gettysburg named John Burns, who, although over seventy years of age, shouldered his musket, and offered his services to Colonel Wistar, One hundred and fiftieth Pennsylania Volunteers, Colonel Wistar advised him to fight in the woods, as there was more shelter there, but he preferred to join our line of skirmishers in the open fields. When the troops retired, he fought with the Iron Brigade. He was wounded in three places."
 
It look like this thing right here.

 
One of my favorite childhood books was MacKinlay Kantor's "Gettysburg," part of the Landmark Series published by Random House. Kantor tells that when part of Early's Corps descended on Gettysburg on June 26th, town constable John Burns alerted the people by ringing the fire gong. Burns was supposedly a War of 1812 veteran. He had been rebuffed when he tried to enlist in the Union Army then served as a teamster until sent home because of his age. Burns accosted the Confederate leaders on the Diamond and announced that he intended to arrest them for trespassing on United States property! Amused, they locked him in his own jail. Locals released him after the Rebels departed, but Burns set out with a lantern and a horse-pistol and arrested and jailed several stragglers he found around town.

This is a wonderful additional part to the John Burns story, but the book was written for young readers and has no footnotes or bibliography (It's still a wonderfully written book that I enjoy re-reading). Does anyone know where this story came from; did it really happen, or is it just part of the legend of John Burns?
 
One of my favorite childhood books was MacKinlay Kantor's "Gettysburg," part of the Landmark Series published by Random House. Kantor tells that when part of Early's Corps descended on Gettysburg on June 26th, town constable John Burns alerted the people by ringing the fire gong. Burns was supposedly a War of 1812 veteran. He had been rebuffed when he tried to enlist in the Union Army then served as a teamster until sent home because of his age. Burns accosted the Confederate leaders on the Diamond and announced that he intended to arrest them for trespassing on United States property! Amused, they locked him in his own jail. Locals released him after the Rebels departed, but Burns set out with a lantern and a horse-pistol and arrested and jailed several stragglers he found around town.

This is a wonderful additional part to the John Burns story, but the book was written for young readers and has no footnotes or bibliography (It's still a wonderfully written book that I enjoy re-reading). Does anyone know where this story came from; did it really happen, or is it just part of the legend of John Burns?
I don't know if it's accurate, what you stated above sounds probable given Burn's personality lol.
 
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If you are referring to the photo where Burns is sitting in the chair, I was wondering the same thing, what type of flintlock is that?
It look like this thing right here.

It's nothing but a surplus M.1816/22 U. S. smoothbore musket that today's collectors refer to as "sporterized" because they were cut down to lighten them for use as shotguns or fowling pieces; Burns's is still a flintlock, but most of them were converted to percussion before the war. Here's one like it I purchased a couple of years ago at my favorite local flea market:

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View attachment 337797


It's nothing but a surplus M.1816/22 U. S. smoothbore musket that today's collectors refer to as "sporterized" because they were cut down to lighten them for use as shotguns or fowling pieces; Burn's is still a flintlock, but most of them were converted to percussion before the war. Here's one like it I purchased a couple of years ago at my favorite local flea market:

View attachment 337798
Sweet! Thank you.
 
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I love this story, always worth reading again....

The story of a patriot who refused to act his age.

On the morning of July 1, 1863, with the sound of the enemy's guns in his ears, John Burns of Gettysburg answered a personal call to duty. Just shy of seventy years, Burns tried to enlist twice but was rejected because of his age.

Very little is known of Burns' early life and because he became a folk hero, the stories differ. He was born in New Jersey in 1793. He likely fought in the War of 1812. By 1822 he was working as a boot and shoemaker in Gettysburg, and also served as the town constable.

When the Civil War broke out, he tried to enlist in the Second Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, but was turned away. He also tried to enter the Reserves, but "failed to pass the surgical examination on account of age..." The stubborn Burns refused to be left out of the war and as a civilian, rendered service as a teamster and policeman in an army wagon train.

On the morning of July 1, with Lee's army approaching Gettysburg and while most families hid in their cellars, Burns grabbed his old flintlock musket and a powder horn and ran to battle.

At some point Burns acquired a modern Enfield rifle-musket and ammunition from a wounded Union soldier and left behind his flintlock. When he arrived at the Union lines on McPherson's Ridge, he asked an officer in the 150th Pennsylvania if he could fight with the regiment. Major Chamberlain of the 150th described Burns as "dressed in a blue swallow-tailed coat, and high silk hat, rather worse for the wear, carrying a musket..." A Union soldier recalled that "his unique dress and temerity in venturing into so dangerous a place without occasion, seemed the act of an insane zealot, and invited the jibes of the men."

Burns was granted permission to fight in the cover of the adjacent woods where he would be less exposed to the enemy fire. He took a position behind a tree and reportedly fired 28 rounds at the attacking Rebels. He claimed that three of his shots found their mark.

In the process, Burns was wounded in his arm, thigh and leg. As the outnumbered and overwhelmed Union force retreated through Gettysburg, they left Burns lying on the ground for dead. He lay there until the next day when Confederates found him and took him home. He told them he was wounded while searching for stray cows.

After the battle ended, news of the momentous Union victory spread across the nation, as did the heroic story of the old soldier John Burns. He became the subject of wartime photographers, and publication of his picture catapulted him to fame. His bravery was celebrated in books, poetry, songs and monuments.

When Lincoln visited Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, to dedicate the new Soldiers National Cemetery, warmly greeted the local hero with the words "God bless you, old man." In 1865, he traveled to Washington and was received as a celebrity by, among others, President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Burns died in 1872 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg. His simple gravestone bears the inscription "John L. Burns, The Hero of Gettysburg, Died Feb. 4, 1872."

Information for this was contributed by John Zwierzyna
Is there any reliable information on his previous military service in the War of 1812 or Mexican - American War.
View attachment 337797


It's nothing but a surplus M.1816/22 U. S. smoothbore musket that today's collectors refer to as "sporterized" because they were cut down to lighten them for use as shotguns or fowling pieces; Burn's is still a flintlock, but most of them were converted to percussion before the war. Here's one like it I purchased a couple of years ago at my favorite local flea market:

View attachment 337798
Thank you, I had a idea it was a “sporterized” but had no idea what the model of the flintlock was. Appreciate it.
 
… Thank you, I had a idea it was a “sporterized” but had no idea what the model of the flintlock was. Appreciate it.
Although there could logically be several models possible, the tell-tale is its particular wedge-shaped buttstock; previous and later models were shaped obviously differently. There's almost no perceptible difference between the 1816 and 1822 variations and they tend to be considered by most collectors as the same model, hence the designation M.1816/22.
 
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