In and around Gettysburg, John Edward Plank was in the news nearly his entire life, and his farm became a critical junction before, during, and after the battle. Because of that, John and his farm remain in the news today.

Descended from German immigrants, John Plank married Sarah Ann Rhinehart in Gettysburg’s Saint James Lutheran Church in 1859. John and Sarah would eventually have twelve children, three of which (Mary Ann, John, and Harry) had been born by the time of the battle. At the time of the battle and for years after, the Planks owned and lived on a farm of a couple hundred acres in Cumberland township west of the Emmitsburg Road and south of Fairfield Road.

The battle marked the beginning of a series of challenges and tragedies for the Plank family. On the first day of the battle, Union troops under John Reynolds double-quicked through the farm on their way to the Lutheran Seminary and the McMillan Woods. On the second day, Lafayette McLaws’s men passed over the land while trying to feel the end of the Union left. The fighting on days one and two generated a huge number of casualties, and the Plank farm became a prominent Confederate field hospital where more than 1,500 men would be treated, including General John Bell Hood. On the third day of the battle, General George Pickett’s men passed over the farm on their way to take position for their famous charge.

John Edward Plank was active in the treatment of Confederate wounded throughout the battle and afterward. Further, at least sixty confirmed burials occurred on his farm, though nearly all of those were later moved to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Before and after the battle, John was active in local politics, and his obituary noted that he was an ardent Democrat. At the time of the war, Democrats were frequently opposed to the war and tended to harbor southern sympathies, though no evidence suggests that John was a southern sympathizer. He would later go on to serve in numerous positions within the Democratic party, and he served for a number of years on the board of the local school district.

In November after the battle, baby Harry, just seven months old, passed away. Infant mortality was high in the 1860s, so it may well have been from diseases typical of the times, though local Gettysburg residents frequently attributed deaths after the battle to illnesses brought on by the fouled wells, decaying bodies, and volume of embalming chemicals used in the days following the battle.

The Plank family would eventually be deeply intertwined with the George Bushman family. The George Bushman farm lay south of the battlefield and close to the round tops. Like the Plank farm, it served as a prominent field hospital and burial ground—for Union troops in their case. George and John certainly knew each other from proximity, common farming interests, and their prominence in the Democratic party (George ran for sheriff several times and served as a party officer).

John Plank’s oldest daughter married George’s grandson and namesake, George Bushman, who would later work as a cab driver and be murdered by two local riders who robbed and shot him. One of their other daughters married Strong Vincent Bushman who was named for Colonel Strong Vincent, the Union officer who helped defend Little Round Top, was mortally wounded, and then died on the farm of George Bushman’s son, Lewis.

In recent years, John Plank returned to the news when the American Battlefield Trust bought and saved from development 143 acres of the historic farm.