Sarah Broadhead

Born in 1831 in Gloucester County, New Jersey, Sarah Middleton Robbins became a teacher when she grew up. She was a member of the Religious Society of Friends. She married Joseph Broadhead, and the couple moved to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1859, where her husband worked as an express messenger for the railroad in Gettysburg. Their daughter—Mary Catherine—was born shortly after the move. 

By 1863, the Broadhead family lived along Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg. In mid-June, Sarah Broadhead started keeping a diary, penning these words on June 15: “Today we heard that the Rebels were crossing the river in heavy force, and advancing on to this State.” She continued to write during the next weeks, keeping daily notes about rumors, false alarms, military arrivals and her own thoughts as events unfolded. Sarah Broadhead’s diary offers a “real time” glimpse into the life of a civilian woman in Gettysburg during the momentous summer when war changed their community. 

On June 26, 1863, Confederates arrived in Gettysburg. Broadhead was at home alone with her daughter since her husband’s work had taken him away from town. She “passed the most uncomfortable night of my life,” fearing that her husband would be captured if he tried to return and afraid the Confederates—“a miserable looking set.” However, the Confederates left town the following day, and Joseph Broadhead returned home safely, even as new rumors came that more Confederates were advancing from the west. 

Sarah Broadhead started her weekly bread baking on July 1, and by the time, she put the bread in her oven, she heard cannons and the beginning of a battle. She wrote about the moment: “ “What to do or where to go, I did not know.” Broadhead and her family took shelter in a cellar and waited out the three-day battle while she continued to write. 

July 3 – Again the battle began with unearthly fury. Nearly all the afternoon it seemed as if the heavens and earth were crashing together. The time that we sat in the cellar seemed long, listening to the terrific sound of the strife, more terrible never greeted human ears. We knew that with every explosion, and the scream of each shell, human beings were hurried, through excruciating pain, into another world, and that many more were torn, and mangled, and lying in torment worse than death, and no one able to extend relief. The thought made me very sad, and feel that, if it was God’s will, I would rather be taken away than remain to see the misery that would follow. Some thought this awful afternoon would never come to a close. We knew that the Rebels were putting forth all their might, and it was a dreadful thought that they might succeed. Who is victorious, or with whom the advantage rests, no one here can tell…

The Battle of Gettysburg ended with a Union victory. Confederates retreated, and Union troops entered the town on July 4, 1863. Broadhead continued journaling during the aftermath of the battle. She cooked for the soldiers. She went to the Lutheran Theological Seminary, volunteering to care for the wounded there and helping to save nearly 100 wounded soldiers from drowning in the flooded basement of the Seminary. She also tried to assist and comfort a widow who came to Gettysburg looking for her fallen husband. Around mid-July, wounded and hungry soldiers departed from the Broadhead’s home, and the organization of better hospital facilities eased some of the burdens on the Gettysburg community. 

The following year—1864—Broadhead published selected portions of her diary, but she did not publish it with her name, choosing instead the pseudonym “A Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.” She donated 75 copies of the 200 printed to the United States Sanitary Commission to be used at the fundraising fair in Philadelphia in June 1864. Broadhead and her family continued to reside in Gettysburg. In 1869, her son Benjamin was born.

In 1885, Sarah Broadhead and her husband moved to Linwood, New Jersey. She continued to take an active role in the community. Her husband died in 1903, and Broadhead then lived with her daughter in Pennsylvania. Sarah Broadhead died in 1910 and is buried in New Jersey. Her journal entries from the summer of 1863 provide a valuable civilian perspective on the Battle of Gettysburg and the care of the wounded and continued to be read and studied.