Like the farms of Abraham Trostle, George Rose, Francis Bream, George Bushman, John Edward Plank, and John Slyder, the Nicholas Codori farm was a hive of activity during the battle, a site of miserable suffering and death, and the initial resting place for dozens of soldiers. For years, the burials made it nearly impossible to farm. Today, it stands as a living monument almost in the center of the battlefield.

Early History and Ownership

The Codori Farm is located just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the east side of the Emmitsburg Road – a site that would later lie at the center of the Battle of Gettysburg. Before the Codori family owned it, the property was part of Cumberland Township and was originally developed in the early 19th century. A man named Michael Clarkson owned the land and built a log farmhouse here around the 1830s. In 1854, Nicholas Codori, a recent immigrant to Gettysburg, purchased approximately 273 acres of Clarkson’s farm for use in his thriving butchering business. Nicholas immediately set about improving the property – he replaced the old log house with a new two-story frame house (the core of the farmhouse that stands today) and expanded the farm’s infrastructure. As a butcher by trade, Nicholas did not live on the farm; instead, he resided in town at 44 York Street and rented the Emmitsburg Road farm to tenant farmers who raised cattle for his business. By the eve of the Civil War, the Codori Farm had become a sizable and well-situated property of over 273 acres, with Nicholas also acquiring an additional 66 acres across the road in 1861 to increase his holdings.

The Codori Family of Gettysburg

The Codori family story in Gettysburg begins with Nicholas Codori and his elder brother George, who emigrated from the village of Hottviller in Alsace, France, arriving in Gettysburg on June 20, 1828. Nicholas was 19 years old and George 22 at the time, and both found work as butchers, an occupation listed for them in early records. Nicholas apprenticed under a local butcher (Anthony B. Kuntz) and eventually established his own successful butchery behind his home on York Street. In 1835, he married Elizabeth Martin of Pennsylvania, and together they began a large family. (Some sources note that the couple had as many as 11 children, though many may not have survived to adulthood. Notably, they had two sons who lived to carry on the family name, George and Simon Codori.) Nicholas was highly ambitious and distrustful of banks, choosing to invest his earnings into real estate. By the mid-19th century he owned multiple town lots and farms in the area. The Codori home in town – interestingly, the former house of Gettysburg’s founder James Gettys – was purchased by Nicholas in 1843 and expanded to accommodate his growing household and businessg.

George Codori, Nicholas’s brother, also settled in Gettysburg with his wife Regina Wallenberger, raising their family on West Middle Street. During the Civil War, George’s branch of the family suffered greatly. One of George’s sons, Nicholas (Jr.) Codori, enlisted in the Union army in 1861, only to serve a 90-day term and later briefly reenlist in 1864 before deserting – an example of the personal turmoil the war brought even to eager patriots. At the time of the Gettysburg battle, George’s adult daughter Suzanne Codori and her husband took shelter in Nicholas’s basement in town for safety, while George himself fell into Confederate hands. As he returned from a business trip during the battle, George Codori was captured by Confederate cavalry – one of only eight Gettysburg civilians known to have been taken prisoner. He was sent to prisons in Richmond, VA, and Salisbury, NC, and by the time he was released in March 1865, his health was shattered. Tragically, George died of pneumonia just days after returning home, and his wife Regina passed away only a few months latercodorifamily.com. This series of events illustrates the heavy toll of the war on the Codori family.

Nicholas Codori’s immediate family managed to persevere through the war years. On July 1, 1863, as battle raged in Gettysburg’s streets, Nicholas and his family hid in the cellar of their York Street house for protection. Bullets whizzed through their home above, but the family emerged unharmed. In the battle’s aftermath, with their Catholic parish church (St. Francis Xavier) occupied as a hospital, Nicholas even offered his home as a temporary Catholic chapel for several months so that worship could continue. His prominent standing in the community – he was among the founding parishioners of St. Francis Xavier – and his material investments in land helped the family recover financially from the war’s devastation.

One notable member of the extended family with direct ties to the farm was Catherine Codori Staub, a niece of Nicholas. Catherine was likely the daughter of another Codori relative (family records indicate she was the daughter of an Anthony Codori, an older kinsman living in Gettysburg). Catherine and her husband John Staub rented the Codori farmhouse by 1863. John Staub was away serving with the 165th Pennsylvania regiment during the Gettysburg Campaign, leaving a very pregnant Catherine at home with her young children and her parents for the battle’s duration. According to Codori family accounts, Catherine hid in the farmhouse cellar as fighting engulfed the area on July 2–3, though she may have taken shelter at her in-laws’ house. (Although no contemporary diary confirms the basement refuge story, it has become part of local lore.) Remarkably, just five days after the battle – on July 8, 1863 – Catherine gave birth to twin girls. Another anecdote from the eve of battle comes from an officer in a Vermont unit, who recalled that when Union troops passed the Codori Farm on July 1, an elderly man rushed out to plead with them not to trample his wheat field. Family historians believe this desperate man may have been Catherine’s father, Anthony Codori (b.1794), trying to save his crops even as war closed in around his family. Such human details highlight that the Codori Farm was not just a future battlefield landmark – it was home to real Gettysburg families whose lives were upended by war.

The Codori Farm in the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863)

During the Battle of Gettysburg, the Codori Farm found itself in the thick of the action. On July 2, 1863 – the battle’s second day – Union General Daniel Sickles advanced part of his Third Corps forward to a line along the Emmitsburg Road, leaving Humphreys’ division straddling the road near the Codori farm buildings. This exposed position created a dangerous gap between Humphreys’ right flank (by the Codori Farm) and the rest of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. That afternoon, Confederate forces under General Longstreet launched a massive assault. Southern brigades swept over the fields west of Emmitsburg Road, crashing into the Union line. Fierce fighting erupted on and around the Codori Farm on July 2, as Confederates overran the Union skirmish line and forced Humphreys’ men to retreat back toward Cemetery Ridge. Union counterattacks from Cemetery Ridge eventually halted the Confederate advance, but by nightfall the Codori property had been scarred by combat – fences flattened, crops trampled, and the ground littered with casualties.

It was on July 3, 1863, however, that the Codori Farm earned its famous place in history. That afternoon, roughly 12,000 Confederate soldiers launched Pickett’s Charge, the ill-fated assault against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge. The Codori Farm lay directly in the path of Pickett’s men. As seven Confederate brigades emerged from the distant woods and marched over open ground, they converged toward the Codori buildings as a landmark on their way to the Union line. General George Pickett himself used the Codori barn as a reference point and reportedly remained near the farm buildings during the attack. The open fields surrounding the farm became a killing ground. Union artillery and rifle fire tore into the advancing Confederates. A supporting Confederate brigade from Florida (Perry’s brigade) moved past the Codori buildings and was decimated not far from the farm. The attack ultimately failed, leaving the fields around the Codori Farm blanketed with dead and wounded.

In the immediate aftermath of the battle, the Codori Farm’s landscape was a scene of devastation. Estimates indicate that over 500 Confederate soldiers were buried on the Codori Farm – reportedly the most burials on any single property from the battle. Shallow graves were hastily dug across the farm’s fields to inter the dead. This grim necessity had long-term consequences for the land (as described in the next section). Unlike some farms further from the lines, the Codori house and barn do not appear to have been used as a field hospital after the battle – the property was simply too close to the front line and under Union control, so wounded were taken to larger hospitals behind Cemetery Ridge (such as the Spangler farm). Nevertheless, the Codori buildings suffered typical battle damage: after the fighting, observers noted bullet holes riddling the farmhouse walls and outbuildings, smashed windows, and destroyed fencing (common results of infantry and artillery fire). Crops of wheat and corn that had been growing on the farm were trampled into the soil. In the words of one military observer, the Codori farm and its neighbors had become “a vast cemetery and a wasteland” in the battle’s wake.

Aftermath: Recovery, Rebuilding, and Reburials

In the months and years following Gettysburg, the Codori Farm faced the challenge of recovery. For Nicholas Codori, now in his mid-50s, the farm had suddenly shifted from a profitable cattle pasture to a blood-soaked burial ground. Hundreds of Confederate bodies lay in makeshift graves on the property, rendering large portions of the land effectively unfarmable. In addition, the destruction of fences, crops, and infrastructure on the farm meant a significant financial setback. Like many Gettysburg citizens, Nicholas sought compensation for his losses – records show he filed a claim for damages with the government. However, such claims were often rejected or only partially paid, and it appears Nicholas did not receive meaningful reimbursement. Ever the shrewd entrepreneur, he turned to creative solutions to recoup his losses.

By 1865, just two years after the battle, Nicholas Codori saw an opportunity on the opposite side of the Emmitsburg Road. His neighbor, William Bliss, whose farm and house west of the road had been burned and ravaged during the battle, was desperate to sell. Nicholas purchased the Bliss Farm tract (a large parcel across from the Codori Farm) for a bargain price of $1,000 in October 1865. This purchase expanded his landholdings and perhaps gave him additional leverage or resources to cope with the damaged Emmitsburg Road farm. But the more dramatic move came a few years later. In 1868, with the Codori Farm’s fields still containing the remains of many fallen Confederates, Nicholas decided to sell the Emmitsburg Road farm out of the family – at least temporarily. He sold the 273-acre farm to a local investor (historically noted as D. A. Rieley/Riley) in 1868. By one account, Nicholas recognized that the land as it was in 1868 was “useless for farming purposes because it was now a mass grave for Confederate soldiers.” The sale was likely coordinated with Southern memorial organizations that were forming to recover and re-inter the Confederate dead. Indeed, soon after the sale, efforts were made by Southern agencies to exhume remains from Gettysburg’s farms. Between 1871 and 1873, nearly all Confederate bodies were disinterred from the Codori Farm and shipped to cemeteries in the South, such as Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. Once this morbid task was complete, Nicholas saw value in the land again. In 1872, he bought back the Codori Farm from the buyer, effectively regaining his old property once the graves had been removed. In doing so, Nicholas managed to both facilitate the honorable removal of the dead and position himself to restore the farm to productivity.

After reclaiming the farm, the Codori family began rebuilding and improvements. By this time, Nicholas was entering his 60s, and it appears he remained an owner/landlord rather than a resident farmer. The farmhouse was enlarged in 1877 with a two-story brick addition added onto the rear of the frame house. (This addition is visible today, though it was not present during the battle.) The barn, which had survived the battle, was aging and perhaps still showing wartime wear; it was torn down and replaced in 1882 with a new barn on the same site. These improvements suggest that the Codori Farm was again being used as a working farm in the 1870s–1880s, either by tenants or possibly by one of Nicholas’s grown children. With the land cleansed of graves and new structures in place, the property’s value rebounded significantly.

Even as the farm returned to agricultural use, Gettysburg’s battlefield was growing in historic significance. Veteran reunion committees and the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (GBMA, a preservation society chartered in 1864) were increasingly interested in the land for memorial purposes. Nicholas Codori did not live to see the full transition of his farm from private land to historic shrine. In July 1878, at age 69, Nicholas died after a horrific farming accident. While driving a horse-drawn mowing machine on one of his fields, his horse spooked; Nicholas was thrown and his leg was caught in the mower’s blades. He suffered a partially severed leg and other injuries, and although he was reportedly conscious and even saluting acquaintances on the ride into town for treatment, he succumbed to his wounds on July 11, 1878. It was a cruel irony that the land which had secured his family’s fortune ultimately cost Nicholas his life – he died as a farmer, not from war but from the perils of farm machinery.

Later Ownership, Memorialization, and Preservation

After Nicholas Codori’s death, the ownership of the farm passed to his heirs – principally his son Simon Codori, who had followed his father into the family business. The Codori family still owned the farm in the early 1880s, but their relationship to the land was evolving from purely agricultural to historic. By 1880, Civil War veterans’ organizations (such as the Grand Army of the Republic) had become influential in Gettysburg’s preservation efforts. Sensing both the historic importance of their land and a financial opportunity, Simon Codori began to sell portions of the farm for monument placement and memorial uses. Veterans’ regimental associations and states wanted to erect monuments on the sites where their men had fought and fallen. Many key locations happened to lie on Codori property – for example, the fields where Col. George H. Ward of the 15th Massachusetts and Col. Eliakim Sherrill (acting commander of Willard’s brigade) were mortally wounded, or the spot near the barn where General Winfield Scott Hancock was struck by a bullet. In the early 1880s, monuments to Union regiments like the 1st Massachusetts, 26th Pennsylvania, 106th Pennsylvania, and others began appearing on the Codori Farm, each on a small parcel sold or donated by the Codoris. These included markers for Colonel Ward and Colonel Willard’s death sites, and later a marker for Hancock’s wounding. By carving off small lots for memorials, the Codori family ensured that their land would forever be part of the Gettysburg story – and they received compensation that helped sustain the family.

Finally, in 1888, the Codori family relinquished full ownership of the farm. That year, the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association purchased the Codori Farm outright (by this time Simon J. Codori was the family representative in the transaction). The sale came roughly 24 years after the battle and ended the Codori family’s direct ownership of the historic land. From that point forward, the property was in the hands of preservationists. A few years later, in 1895, the U.S. War Department took over the care of Gettysburg National Military Park, absorbing the lands acquired by the GBMA. War Department maps and records from the 1890s note “176 acres of the Codori farm” as part of the battlefield park’s holdings (the remaining acreage likely accounted for the portions already sold for monuments or perhaps the tract across the road). Under the War Department, avenues and markers were installed – for instance, a portion of Hancock Avenue was built running just east of the Codori house, linking the area to the rest of Cemetery Ridge’s tour road. In 1913, during the 50th anniversary Blue-Gray Reunion, veterans gathered on fields that once were Codori pasture, now hallowed ground.

Since 1933, the National Park Service (NPS) has administered Gettysburg, including the Codori Farm. The farm’s buildings have been preserved as important historical structures. The house that Nicholas Codori built – originally a frame house of the 1850s with its 1877 brick addition – still stands along the Emmitsburg Road. The barn currently on the site is the 1882 replacement barn, distinguishable by its bright red wooden exterior with white trim and multiple ventilator cupolas – a picturesque landmark for modern visitors, though not the same barn that stood during the battle. Over the years, the NPS has maintained the farm buildings; for a time the Codori farmhouse has even been used as a residence for park staff (a way to keep the building occupied and cared for). The landscape around the farm has been carefully rehabilitated to reflect its 1863 appearance as much as possible – open fields with period-style fencing recreate the scene of Pickett’s Charge. The Codori Farm is now an integral part of the Gettysburg National Military Park, and interpretive signage nearby helps explain the farm’s role in the battle. The site is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District. In recent years, preservation efforts have extended to features like the Codori farm lane, which was the farm’s original access lane. Archaeological and landscape studies have been undertaken to restore or mark the old lane, ensuring that even subtle elements of the farm’s historic footprint are not lost.

Today, Codori Farm stands as a vivid reminder of Gettysburg’s civilian and military past. From its humble origin under Michael Clarkson, to Nicholas Codori’s stewardship and the family’s experiences in the battle, to its transformation into a national shrine, the farm embodies the full arc of Gettysburg’s history. Its fields, once torn by war, are now peaceful meadows visited by countless travelers each year. The story of the Codori Farm is not only about the battle that raged around it, but also about a family’s resilience, ingenuity, and ultimately their dedication to preserving the memory of what happened on their land.

Timeline of Ownership and Key Events

• c.1830s: Michael Clarkson owns the farm and builds a log farmhouse (pre-Codori era of the property).
• June 1828: Nicholas and George Codori arrive in Gettysburg from Alsace, France.
• 1854: Nicholas Codori purchases the 273-acre farm from Michael Clarkson, expanding his land investments. He replaces the old log house with a two-story frame farmhouse.
• 1861: Nicholas acquires an additional 66 acres across Emmitsburg Road (the Bliss farm would be added in 1865).
• July 1–3, 1863 (Battle of Gettysburg): The Codori Farm is the scene of intense fighting. On July 2, Union and Confederate forces clash around the farm; on July 3, Pickett’s Charge crosses the farm, which ends up at the center of the Confederate assault. After the battle, an estimated 500+ Confederate dead are buried on the property.
• 1865: Nicholas Codori purchases the war-damaged William Bliss farm (66 acres) across the road, taking advantage of a low price after Bliss’s $3,000 damage claim was denied.
• 1868: With Confederate graves rendering the land unfarmable, Nicholas sells the Codori Farm (273 acres) to a local buyer (D. A. Rieley/Riley). This sale allows Southern organizations to exhume and repatriate Confederate remains.
• 1871–1873: Nearly all Confederate remains are removed from the farm’s shallow graves and reburied in Southern cemeteries.
• 1872: Nicholas buys back the Codori Farm once the graves are cleared, returning the property to Codori ownership.
• 1877: A brick addition is built onto the Codori farmhouse, enlarging it (this addition still exists).
• July 11, 1878: Nicholas Codori dies at age 69 from injuries sustained in a farm mowing machine accident. His son Simon Codori and family continue to hold the farm.
• 1882: The original barn (which survived the battle) is torn down and a new barn constructed on the Codori Farm.
• 1880s: Simon Codori sells small parcels of the farm to veterans’ groups for monuments (e.g., 1st Mass., 26th and 106th PA monuments). Codori land becomes home to several regimental memorials, integrating it into the commemorative landscape.
• 1888: The Codori family sells the remaining farm (approx. 176 acres) to the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association, ending 34 years of Codori ownership (with a brief interruption).
• 1895: The U.S. War Department assumes control of Gettysburg National Military Park and takes over the Codori Farm property from the GBMA. The farm is preserved within the battlefield park; avenues and markers are added nearby in the following years.
• 1913: 50th anniversary of the battle – the Codori Farm, now open ground with monuments, witnesses veteran reunions on its fields.
• 1933: The National Park Service inherits administration of the Gettysburg park. The Codori Farm remains part of the protected battlefield. The farmhouse is later used as a park ranger residence, helping preserve its condition.
• 20th–21st centuries: Ongoing preservation and interpretation. The farm’s landscape is maintained to reflect its 1863 appearance; modern initiatives document features like the old farm lane. The Codori Farm stands as a historic site visited by the public, with wayside exhibits telling the civilian and military story of the farm.
• Present Day: The Codori Farm is owned by the National Park Service, its historic house and red barn still standing along the Emmitsburg Road. It endures as a tangible link to the Battle of Gettysburg and the civilian experience of the war, symbolizing how one family’s land became forever entwined with American history.

The legacy of the Codori Farm is profound – it highlights the intersection of civilian life and war. Through tragedy and resilience, the Codori family’s property went from a prosperous farm to a battlefield, then to a national memorial. Today, thanks to preservation efforts and the foresight of people like Nicholas and Simon Codori, visitors can walk the grounds and reflect on the events of 1863. The farm that once sustained a family now sustains the memory of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrating both the sacrifices of war and the endurance of those who rebuilt in its aftermath.