Abraham Plank was a Pennsylvania farmer whose property lay on the southern end of Herr’s Ridge, near the Black Horse Tavern in Cumberland Township (Gettysburg area). He married Sarah Mickley (born 1802) and raised a family there. Census and genealogical records indicate their children included Josiah (b. 1827), Abraham (b.1832), John W. Plank (b.1840), and daughter Henrietta (b.1847). John Edward Plank (1835–1917) – Abraham’s nephew – inherited or managed the adjoining Plank farm (west of Emmitsburg Road) and later became prominent locally. Abraham Plank lived on his Herr’s Ridge farm for decades and died in 1878 (buried at Gettysburg).

Residence & Occupation

Abraham was a lifelong farmer in Cumberland Twp., Adams Co., PA.  Contemporary accounts explicitly refer to the “A. Plank farm” on Herr’s Ridge during the battle. He tended crops and livestock on this 100+‑acre farm. He married Sarah Mickley (b. Nov 17, 1802). She outlived him, surviving until 1892. (The Plank family was of German-American heritage.)

Civil War Activity 

There is no surviving record that Abraham Plank served in the military or formally aided in burying the dead. However, family lore recorded by Gillian Hayes notes that on July 1, 1863 a wounded Confederate soldier – later identified as Pvt. John Ripley Yarbrough – was sheltered at Plank’s farm.  According to Hayes, “the owner of the A. Plank farm on the south end of Herr’s Ridge” fed the exhausted soldier a meal. In the soldier’s haste to return to battle he left behind a carved maple walking cane, which Plank’s family kept for years.  (This cane was engraved “J.R.Y. Ala 8B, Ala.” and identified the soldier as Pvt. J.R. Yarbrough of Co. B, 8th Ala. Inf.) Plank’s grandson eventually sold the relic to a Gettysburg collector. This anecdote is the only evidence linking Abraham Plank to Gettysburg battle events; no other documents indicate he organized burials or recovery efforts after the battle.

John Ripley Yarbrough (1841–1863): Private, 8th Alabama Infantry

John Ripley (sometimes “Ripley”) Yarbrough was born 1 August 1841 in Chambers County, Alabama.  He was the son of Nimrod Billington Yarbrough (born 1803) and Sarah Porter Blackstone. The Yarbroughs were of Georgia/Alabama planter stock; John Ripley grew up in Coosa County, AL. He never married and worked as a young farmer before the war.

Yarbrough enlisted early in the war – on May 13, 1861 at Coosa County, as a private in Company B of the 8th Alabama Infantry (Wilcox’s Brigade, Longstreet’s Corps). He saw action with the 8th Alabama in the Eastern Theatre from 1861 onward (including the 1862 Virginia campaigns).  (Contemporary accounts note he “was present in every prior engagement of his company.”)  By mid-1863, the 8th Alabama, under Col. Young L. Royston, was part of Anderson’s Division in A.P. Hill’s Third Corps. On July 2, 1863 the regiment attacked near Emmitsburg Road at Gettysburg, breaking into the Union line and capturing artillery before being repulsed 

On the evening of July 1, 1863, Yarbrough (then age 21) was on duty with Wilcox’s Brigade on Herr’s Ridge. He reportedly walked to the Plank farm and received supper from Abraham Plank. Yarbrough carved his initials and unit (J.R.Y., Co. B, 8th Ala.) into his cane, which he accidentally left behind. During the brigade’s July 2 attack along Emmitsburg Road, Yarbrough was killed “near where they had begun their attack.” His body was likely buried temporarily on the Gettysburg battlefield.

As with most Confederate casualties at Gettysburg, Yarbrough’s remains were later exhumed and reinterred. Although no single source names Yarbrough’s grave, the majority of Confederate dead from the Plank and surrounding farms were moved postwar to Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, VA). It is therefore likely that Private Yarbrough was among those reburied at Hollywood.