Today, most people know the name Ed McPherson from McPherson Ridge, the site of heavy fighting on Day 1 of the Battle of Gettysburg. But Edward McPherson was far more than the name of a farm one of Gettysburg’s most prominent 19th-century figures—a lawyer, journalist, politician, and government reformer whose life intersected with some of the most consequential events of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Born in Gettysburg on July 31, 1830, McPherson’s name today is perhaps most closely associated with the farm on the western outskirts of town that bore witness to the opening clash of the Battle of Gettysburg. But McPherson’s life was shaped as much by his intellect and political service as by the war that tore through his hometown.

McPherson hailed from a respectable and educated family. His father, John B. McPherson, was a physician, and his mother, Catherine “Kitty” Wolf McPherson, came from a well-established Pennsylvania family. Edward, the eldest of several children, received a first-rate education for the time. He attended Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College), graduating at age 18 in 1848. His early aptitude for writing and public affairs led him naturally into journalism and then into politics.

In 1851, after briefly practicing law in Pittsburgh, McPherson returned to Gettysburg and bought the Adams Sentinel, a local Whig newspaper. He used its editorial pages to push for reform, modernization, and—eventually—the antislavery cause. Like many Northern Whigs disenchanted by the party’s dissolution in the early 1850s, McPherson joined the new Republican Party, attracted by its firm opposition to the expansion of slavery.

McPherson’s political rise came swiftly. In 1858, at just 28 years old, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 16th District.

Naturally, he inspired fawning press during his run from the paper he owned.

Gentleman! Orator! Scholar!

Serving two terms (1859–1863), he was a solid Republican vote in the critical years before and during the outbreak of the Civil War. He supported the Union war effort and backed the legal measures needed to suppress the Confederacy. He also helped promote the Homestead Act and supported measures for infrastructure development in the West.

Though McPherson lost his seat in the 1862 election—a casualty of wartime political dissatisfaction—he remained a trusted Republican insider. In 1863, the very fields of his family’s farm became the setting of the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, when Confederate forces clashed with Union cavalry and the I Corps along McPherson’s Ridge. The family farmhouse stood between the lines of battle. The barn was used as a field hospital. Though McPherson was in Washington during the battle (he was the clerk of the House of Representatives), the war had quite literally arrived on his doorstep.

As for the farm itself, the McPherson family owned the property but did not reside there. Many have assumed it was being operated by a tenant farmer, John Herbst, at the time of the battle. But the Herbsts owned their own acreage next to the McPhersons and one set of woods is now known as Herbst’s Woods.

On July 1, 1863, the opening day of the battle, Herbst’s woods and the ridgeline nearby became the scene of intense fighting between Confederate troops under General Heth and Union cavalry under General Buford, followed soon after by the Union I Corps. The McPherson barn was quickly converted into a field hospital for wounded soldiers from both sides. The house—though not heavily damaged—was also caught between the lines.

After the battle, the land and structures were left scarred by combat, and like many Gettysburg property owners, Edward McPherson submitted a claim for damages (though compensation was rarely swift or sufficient).

In 1863, McPherson was appointed Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, a powerful administrative role he held for most of the next 20 years (with interruptions during Democratic control). As Clerk, he oversaw the records of the House and became a central figure in ensuring the legislative process ran smoothly. He also used his position to advocate for civil service reform and the integrity of the public record. His time as clerk was not without controversy, as rival newspaper The Gettysburg Compiler in 1877 accused him of trying to rig which party would have what seats in the House.

McPherson edited the Political History of the United States of America During the Great Rebellion, a frequently cited reference work on Civil War-era legislation. He was also a member of the 1866 National Union Convention, which unsuccessfully tried to reconcile President Andrew Johnson’s lenient Reconstruction policy with the Radical Republicans’ harsher approach.

Further, McPherson was deeply tied to memorializing the Gettysburg battlefield. He played a significant role in the preservation of the Gettysburg battlefield as a director of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (GBMA). Following the Civil War, the GBMA was established to commemorate and protect the battlefield, and McPherson’s involvement was instrumental in these efforts. Furthermore, McPherson’s involvement extended to legal matters concerning the battlefield’s preservation. He served as the attorney in the 1893 case against the Gettysburg Electric Railway, which culminated in the Supreme Court case United States v. Gettysburg Electric Railway Co. This case was pivotal in establishing the federal government’s authority to preserve historic sites through eminent domain, setting a precedent for future preservation efforts.

Though not a flashy politician, McPherson was widely respected for his meticulous mind, conservative temperament, and belief in good governance. He married Annie D. Crawford in 1860, and the couple had several children. While McPherson spent much of his adult life in Washington, he maintained deep ties to Gettysburg, where he retained property and family connections. He returned often and eventually became president of the board of trustees at Pennsylvania College. (He also sold to Elias Sheads the land that Sheads would turn into a schoolhouse run by his daughter Carrie. That house would be the famous site of Carrie standing between the drawn guns of a Confederate and a defenseless Union officer who refused to surrender his sword.)

McPherson died in 1895 and was buried in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetery, just a few hundred yards from where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address. Today, the name “McPherson” endures not only in historical scholarship but also in the landscape of Gettysburg itself—etched into the ridge and farm that witnessed the beginning of one of the most important battles in American history.

More than just a footnote to the battlefield, Edward McPherson was a man of principle and service, a reflection of Gettysburg’s transformation from a quiet Pennsylvania town to a national symbol of unity and sacrifice.