Gettysburg Tales - Post 1
Major Henry Kyd Douglas recalled " While we were near Chambersburg, a little incident occurred which indicated what a tender memory and stern sense of duty General Jackson had left behind him. Captain Sandy Garber, Assistant Quartermaster of the Second Corps, had been spending the evening in Chambersburg and was returning late at night to his camp. He was halted at the outposts. Having neither pass nor countersign, in his dilemna, he produced an old pass signed ny General Jackson from his pocketbook and handed it with great confidence to the sentinel on post. The trusty fellow managed to read it by the light of a match and lingered over the signature. Then, as the light went out, he handed it back and looking toward the stars beyond, he said, sadly and firmly, "Captain, you can go to Heaven on that paper, but you can't pass this post."
(From "On The Bloodstained Field" - Gregory A. Coco)
Gettysburg Tales - Post 2
A Confederate soldier reported the next story from his experiences in the Gettysburg Campaign.
"It was just before the Battle of Gettysburg and our regiment was camped on the suburbs of a pretty Pennsylvania town. A stream was near the camp, and one afternoon I suggested to some of the boys in my company that we take a bath and a swim. They took to the idea, and likewise to the water, in quick time. There were no in the houses in the immediate vicinity, except for one on a hillside about half a mile away belonging to an old spinster lady.
"We had been swimming for a while when a boy trudged into camp in search of the captain. He had a note from the old maid, which read:
"Dear sir : I wish you would order your men out of the stream. I can see them plainly through my brother's field glasses! "
(From "On The Bloodstained Field" - Gregory A. Coco)
Gettysburg Tales - Post 3
A highly controversial story to come out of the Battle of Gettysburg, may or may not have occured on July 1, but was reported by Lt. A.B. Smith of the 76th New York Infantry. He states that many loyal citizens handed out water and food to the passing Union troops.
One, a "nameless heroine", who with a cup in each hand, and tears of sympathy streaming down her cheeks, was pierced by a Rebel ball and fell down beside her water pail. He goes on to say that her name, regretfully, cannot be handed down to posterity.
However, a pension was awarded in 1899 to Lizzie Waltz, a woman who claimed and evidently proved that she was wounded during the Gettysburg Campaign. Lizzie Sweitzer Waltz was a domestic, employed and living in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
From "On The Bloodstained Field" by Gergory A. Coco