Tag: Gettysburg farms
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The Life of Abraham Brian: A Forgotten Legacy
Today, the name Abraham Brian will be memorialized for as long as the United States exists. Brian’s former house sits near the apex of the Union line that bore the brunt of Pickett’s Charge—explanatory signs from the National Park Service tell you that Brian was a free black man living with his family in this…
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The Life and Death of Sergeant Major David Huff
Sergeant Major David Huff of the 17th Georgia Infantry was a member of field and staff—people who worked with the commanding officers to convey messages, organize supplies, monitor positions, disburse pay, and tend to other duties necessary to move troops. It was not a safe position but not the most dangerous either. On July 2…
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Captain Mark Kerns and Benjamin Franklin Carter at Second Manassas
You may now be familiar with Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin Carter and his former body servant Henry Johnson. Of course, Captain Mark Kerns of the US First Artillery figures prominently in the story without having been given the same historical attention. So who was this man that Lt. Col. Carter respected so much as to…
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Remembering Sarah Plank: A Civil War Nurse
When Sarah Plank finally passed away in 1926, she was eighty-five and had outlived her husband, John Edward Plank, and three of her twelve children. With that in mind, take some time to consider her obituary. Consider what takes up the most real estate on the page and what is absent. At the time of…
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The Tragic Fate of John J. Walthall in the Civil War
Where men, guns, horses, and gunpowder are we are bound to see instances of tragic luck. John J. Walthall appears to be just such an instance. How rare was his end? In 1837 a little-read article by S.D. Poisson articulated a distribution pattern for highly unlikely but still occasional events. This application was later used…
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Jesse Ricks Pittman: A Victim of the Odds Buried on the John Edward Plank Farm
Another of the men buried on the John Edward Plank farm, Jesse Ricks Pittman’s story is particularly tragic. As men began to enlist in 1861 and as photography improved, photographers reminded the public to have their men sit for photos “before it’s too late,” as one heavy ad intoned. The photo here is a pre-war…
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Jacob Whitler Herndon: Disappeared on the John Edward Plank Farm
Jacob W. Herndon has a small historical distinction—in every source you read about him, he was a courier for General John Bell Hood. General Hood, of course, is famous for his exploits as the leader of the famed Texas Brigade. After his wounding, he was brought back to the John Edward Plank farm where he…
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James Samuel Noble: 15-year-old Sergeant Buried on the John Edward Plank Farm
When the war broke out, James Samuel Noble somehow convinced his family he was old enough—at age 13, he joined his older brother, Dallas, in enlisting in May 1861. Of course, no one could see that he would end up on the John Edward Plank farm just two years later. The Nobles were farmers who…
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James Godman, Black Teamster, Alleged Confederate Casualty
One of the curiosities of the records of Confederate dead is the case of James Godman, also listed at various times as Chadman or Codman. He turns up in the Camp Letterman surgical history, one of the best and primary sources on Confederate deaths and burials at Gettysburg. In that record, he is J.H. Chadman,…
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“Blind Davey” and the Mad Dog—The Story of David Weikert
The youngest child of James and Sarah Weikert, David was fourteen years old at the time of the battle. Like other residents, he watched as the battlefield became a mix of memorial, playground, and marketplace. Within days of the battle, residents and citizens from nearby communities poured into the community, collecting souvenirs, finding wounded and…