JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
One woman's house was nearly epicenter, during July's heat and carnage, the every iconic ' Gatehouse '. It was, in fact home to one Gettysburg Girl who wrote of her battle. Elizabeth Masser Thorn's stark, unembellished narrative is typical of most, females who could not imagine anything worse and did not have to.
In 1903, Sallie Myers organized a kind of glee club in commemoration of the July anniversary. Remember young girls lining Gettysburg streets as Buford's cavalry clanked, reassuringly for most, through town? She'd been one, along with as illustrious a collection of Gettysburg names as ever graced history books. My grgrgrandfather was one of Buford's troopers, destined to disappear for a month after the 6th US Cavalry's outnumbered stand at Fairfield. ( our theory is, he took a sabre wound, along with a wounded brother, home to Schuylkill County ) How much we wish he'd written of those streets, a memory vanished when he died in Erie's Soldier's Home, 1889. Sallie's girls sang the same patriotic songs from that day, a hugely unique reminder to any veteran remembering Gettysburg and its citizens.
As years passed, memories grew closer instead of fading away, like most memories do. Public interest in all-things-Gettysburg increased post battle, gathering importance as years and decades passed. Children not born in 1863 urged elderly relatives to write it all down, before it was too late, Grandmother.
We're familiar with a few civilian accounts of the battle, written by Gettysburg girls ( by which I mean women ). Tillie's, Sallie's, Carrie Shead's, the most famous. Funny, for as famous as is Elizabeth Masser Thorn, it's tough to find anyone who has read her account. Harriet Bayle, Mary and Mary Leister and Thompson, all well known.
Somewhere in this crowd of civilians watching troops march past the Rupp house, are eye witnesses who filled in the blanks between June 26th, 1863 and this November day a few months later. Don't you wish we knew who is here?
Been ' collecting ' our voices from the past for awhile and have no doubt there will be more. From the day Confederate cavalry raised dust and alarm, dashing past what are now ice cream and souvenir shops, our girls took pen in hand, recording images taken by shocked brains. From letters, journals, interviews and books, published privately and publically, their snapshots may be spliced together like one of those flickering films from cinematic inception- subtitles included. For July 1st, 2nd, 3rd- and 4th, hearing from all our girls seems mandatory. I'll source, no worries. Tillie et al had much company.
Hearing from them, in this thread.
Hope no one is weary of my favorite, Elizabeth Masser Thorn because we can begin there, on June 26. Known now for burying over 100 men while pregnant with daughter Rose, her battle was crazy. Howard's men cheered her, for bravery, did we know that?
Or that both armies occupied the Gatehouse? In june, the little family encountered Confederate men.
more-
Elizabeth volunteered to show General how to reach various ground- apparently insisted, because she knew the area and no one else did.
And the famous shell, hitting the Gatehouse? Elizabeth saw it happen.
She later writes of men burned to death, by the Gatehouse well, and how difficult it was for her to see them. Or anyone.
There's a LOT more from Elizabeth. Interviewed several times for newspapers, she finally wrote her memoirs. One, more piece in the civilian story. By the time this story quilt is pieced together, the girls' chorus will tell us an awful lot. Thank you, Gettysburg Girls.
" Contributors "
Mary Leister
Mary Thompson
Mary Elizabeth Montfort Melchior
Alice Powers
Mary Bushman Powers
Jane Powers
Sarah McKnight Maxwell
Emma Orleana Yount
Lizzie Waltz
Jane Moore Bozwell
Anna Garlach Kitzmiller
Margaret Kendlehart McCartney
Elizabeth McClean
Amelia Harman Miller
Salome Myers
Mary E. Walters
Lydia Ann Panebaker
Emma Warren
Mary Warren
Alice (Powers) Barr
Mrs. John Harris
Catherine Foster
Lizabeth Gilbert
Emma Gilbert
Amelia Miller
Emma Woodward Warren
Margaret Murray Flemming
Nellie Wright Wilson
Alice Myers
Georgeanne Woolsey
Catherine Farm Guinn
Mrs. A. M. Guinn
Mary Bushman Power Deardorff
Margaret Cronise
Susan White Holabaugh
Mary Emeline Wilson Galagher
Nellie Wilson
Margaret Catherine Rowe
Mary Wisemantle
Eleanor Jane Wolf
Josephine Rogers
Jane Moore Boswell
Eliza Farnum
Rebecca Rinehart
Mary Faschnut
Josephine Roedel Forney
Mary Caldwell Fisher
Sarah Weikert Keefauver
Mary Young
Lavinia Weirick
Amanda Reinecker Rupp
Jennie Meyers Tawney
Jane Smith
Margie Smith
Sarah J. Slentz
Jennie McCreary
Anna Mary Young
Catherine Porter
Nellie Aughinbaugh
Sarah Barrett King
Ann Powers McDowell
Sarah McKnight
Annie Skelly
Margaret McMillan
Susan Elizabeth Stoever
Louisa Herbst Meals
Rosa A. Snyder
Margaret Brinkerhoff Taughenbaugh
Sadie Bushman
Elizabeth Butler
Otillia Sherfy
Mary Alice McDowell
Sarah Clemintine Shriver
Elizabeth Beard Plank
Mrs. James P. Bingham
Carrie Sheads
Hannah Mary Sheads Armor
Mary Jane Sheads Culp
Mary Bowman
Sue King Black
Salome "Sallie" Stewart
Maggie Palm
Tillie Pierce
Samantha Brenisholtz
Alice Powers
Liberty Augusta Hollinger
Mary Fastnacht
Agnes S. Barr
Sallie M. Broadhead
Fannie T. Buehler
Lydia Catherine Ziegler ( Clare ),
Harriet Bayle
Sophia Culp Epley
Rosamond Rhone
Jennie S. Croll
Elizabeth Masser Thorn
Mary McAllister
Mary Elizabeth Montford