Jennie Wade House-Gettysburg PA

For my family's last road trip, we drove out to New York City. On our way back, we made a point to drive through Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I was so excited when I found out that we were going to Gettysburg. As you know, I am highly interested in the Civil War. The hotel we stayed at was incredibly close to the battlefield and RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Jennie Wade House:

I had never heard of Jennie Wade until we took the tour of her house. We took two tours about Jennie Wade. The first one we took was during the day and a thorough tour of the house itself. The second tour we took was a 'Jennie Wade Ghost Walk'. The walk occurred at night and met at Jennie Wade's house and continued throughout the connecting side streets. Anyways, the story of Jennie Wade is incredibly tragic. The death of Jennie Wade was the only civilian casualty during the Battle of Gettysburg. As legend has it, Jennie was in the kitchen baking bread. To protect herself, she opened the kitchen door to serve as a 'blockade' from bullets. Unfortunately, one stray bullet blasted through the side door, through the kitchen door, and struck Jennie Wade as she was baking. Here is a picture of what the kitchen where she was shot looks like now:

In this picture, you can just see the bullet hole from the bullet that struck Jennie Wade. The whole house is furnished much like what it would have looked like during the battle. Jennie Wade was the fiancee of Corporal Johnston Skelly. Soon after Jennie died, Corporal Skelly was fatally wounded in a battle in Virginia, never knowing of Jennie's death. During the fighting, the house (which was owned and occupied by Jennie's sister and family) sustained many bullet holes, most if not all are still visible on the exterior of the home. The upstairs of the house was also damaged by a rogue artillery shell. Luckily, the shell did not explode, but it did a number on the walls upstairs.

After Jennie died, they carried her body to the downstairs level until they could get a chance to properly bury her. First she was buried in the yard for about six months until she was eventually  moved to a German cemetery, then finally to Evergreen Cemetery. The basement was furnished to look as though they had just moved Jennie after she was killed (I thought it a bit creepy to have a mannequin where Jennie would have been put but hey, what do I know).

Overall, the Jennie Wade story and the tour that my family took are probably the most memorable experiences I have had. I highly recommend not only this tour, but a trip to Gettysburg. This town is incredible and I am sad that I wasn't able to spend as much time there as I would have liked. I hope to go back someday and check out more as I know that there is so much that I didn't get to see.
http://www.gettysburgbattlefieldtours.com/jennie-wade-house.php

*Also, the Ghost Tour that we took was pretty fun, even if you don't believe in Ghosts. If you do, you might be familiar with the concept of 'orbs'. I snapped so many photos on this tour hoping to catch a ghost! Here are my favorite pictures that I snapped-think what you will!

ORBS! EEK!