Gettysburg Civilians: An Overview

On July 1-3, 1863, one of the largest battles fought on American soil in United States history exploded in and near the town of the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle changed the town and community forever. The town citizens and community’s farmers had not anticipated a battle, though they were well-aware of the Civil War and previous raiding threats. Many supported the Union war effort, and some of the men had already enlisted to fight in Pennsylvania regiments. The history of this small Pennsylvania community changed because of what happened militarily during the Battle of Gettysburg. Farms became battlefields, homes became hospitals and civilians grappled with the horrific aftermath of war as the armies moved on.

Founded in 1786 and incorporated in 1806, Gettysburg was named after an early settler and tavern owner in the area, Samuel Gettys. The town became the seat of Adams County with a large courthouse, first in the town’s diamond and later located along Baltimore Street. Reverend Samuel Schmucker founded Lutheran Theological Seminary in 1826, establishing the oldest Lutheran Seminary in the United States. A few years later, in 1832, Pennsylvania College (later renamed Gettysburg College) was also founded, bringing more students and scholars to the community. The Gettysburg Railroad completed tracklaying by December 1858, linking the town into the faster transportation network crossing the state. About 2,400 people lived in Gettysburg in the early 1860s.

Located just a few miles north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state lines (also the Mason-Dixon line), Gettysburg had safe houses along the Underground Railroad, helping freedom seekers escape slavery. A small community of free African Americans grew in Gettysburg, and occasionally white citizens fought back against slave traders who tried to enforce the Fugitive Slave Law. 

When the Civil War began in 1861, some Gettysburg men enlisted in Union regiments and others joined local emergency militia units. A couple of young men slipped south and enlisted in a Confederate regiment, not knowing they would return to fight in their own home community in 1863. Located close to the state line, Gettysburg had experienced several scares that Confederate cavalry raiders were coming. In October 1862, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his raiding cavalry did approach within seven miles of Gettysburg before turning south toward Maryland and the Potomac River. 

By mid-June 1863, Gettysburg civilians knew that the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had arrived in southern Pennsylvania, and Pennsylvania’s governor had called for local troops to assemble for defense. Many of the African American residents in and near Gettysburg fled, fearing they would be captured and force into slavery. On June 26, 1863, Confederates commanded by General Jubal Early rode into town and demanded a large quantity of provisions to prevent burning the town. The civic leaders explained they did not have that quantity of supplies but offered the Confederate officers free supplies from the town’s stores instead. Civilians and Confederate soldiers interacted that afternoon, and many of Gettysburg’s white residents were surprised to find their enemy visitors had manners and were not bent on destruction at every moment. The following morning Early’s Confederates left town, burning the railroad bridge over Rock Creek but otherwise not leaving major destruction. 

Tension hung over the community in the next days. Two regiments of Union cavalry passed through. Confederate infantry campfires could be seen to the west, near the Cashtown mountains. On June 30, 1863, Union General John Buford and a division of cavalry arrived in town. Buford questioned locals and made his own observations before setting up a temporary camp for the night on the grounds of the Lutheran Theological Seminary and sending pickets out to the ridges of high ground to the west of town. 

On July 1, 1863, Union cavalry clashed with Confederate infantry along the Chambersburg Pike and across Willoughby Run. Skirmishing and battle evolved across the farms and woodlots, and both sides brought more troops into the fight. Military surgeons established field hospitals in some of the churches in town. The sounds of battle increased, and many civilians took shelter in cellars. In the late afternoon, Union troops positioned to the west and north of town retreated, falling back through the streets of Gettysburg. Some Union soldiers hid or tried to find medical care in town. As the Confederate arrived and took temporary possession of the town, they entered homes looking for Union soldiers or searched for food or places to use for sharpshooting. 

July 2-3, 1863, found the town of Gettysburg still in Confederate hands and more battle lines forming across the farms to the south and east of town. During the next days of battle, the south and eastern portions of town became the setting of a skirmishing and sharpshooting warfare that put civilians in the crossfire. Rose’s Wheat Field, the Sherfy’s Peach Orchard, Spangler’s Spring and dozens of other farm sites became battlefield. Most of the structures in the farmland became field hospital sites and the families watched or returned to find their homes blood-soaked and nearly destroyed. 

By July 4, 1863, the Confederate army began to retreat, leaving the town of Gettysburg. The Union Army of the Potomac had won a battlefield victory, but more than 50,000 dead, wounded and missing soldiers lay on Gettysburg’s landscape. In the next days, soldiers buried the dead in shallow graves and medical doctors spent nonstop hours operating, trying to save the lives of wounded men. By choice or by necessity, Gettysburg civilians participated in the care of the wounded. Food supplies ran low with thousands of troops still in the area, and many water sources were contaminated. A couple days after the battle, supply wagons of the United States Sanitary Commission and the United States Christian Commission brought much needed food and medical supplies. The reconstruction of the railroad also rushed provisions to Gettysburg and became crucial for moving wounded soldiers to more permanent medical facilities throughout the north.  

Toward the end of July, most of the wounded soldiers remaining near Gettysburg had been moved from homes, churches and farms to the military hospital known as Camp Letterman. The Gettysburg town leaders next grappled with the thousands of soldiers buried in shallow graves. Heavy rains opened the graves, and the hasty burials were often in farm fields which would hinder future agricultural efforts. Land adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery was purchased to create a military cemetery and by late autumn 1863, the disinterment and reburial of the Union dead had begun. Basil Biggs and other free African American laborers worked with Samuel Weaver to removed and rebury the fallen soldiers. On November 19, 1863, thousands gathered for the dedication of the Soldiers’ Cemetery—including orator Edward Everett and President Abraham Lincoln. 

From the days immediately following the end of the Battle of Gettysburg and up through the modern era, people have visited Gettysburg, seeking to understand what happened there, find closure and study the outcomes of the historic battle. Tourism and memorializing has become part of the Gettysburg community.

In 1863 the Gettysburg community endured three invasions: military, medical and memorial. June 26 marked the town’s direct contact with an enemy military force, and military arrivals and then battle continued through July 3. As the armies retreated, thousands of wounded soldiers remained behind and needed care—creating a medical crisis for the community. Finally, as people gathered to remember the fallen Union soldiers and dedicate the cemetery, the phase of memorializing at Gettysburg began and continues, bringing historic and heritage tourism to the community that continues to flourish within and around the historic battlefield itself. 

Further Reading:

• Firestorm at Gettysburg: Civilian Voices by Jim Slade and John Alexander (Schiffer Military, 1998).
• Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle by Margaret S. Creighton (2006).
• Debris of Battle by Gerard A. Patterson (Stackpole Books, 1997).