Tag: Gettysburg field hospitals
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Joseph Sherfy: Creator and Guardian of Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard
Today, the peach orchard of Joseph Sherfy has become The Peach Orchard even to the casual student of the town and battle. Books and books have been written on its importance, the violence that took place within it, and its overall strategic impact on the three-day battle. Most don’t know, though, that the peach orchard…
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Discover the Trostle Farm: A Civil War Survivor’s Story
Near the farms of the Roses, Michael Bushman, George Bushman, and the Slyders sits the Trostle farm. The Trostle farm is a favorite among tour guides—tourists can pause in the street running past the barn and be directed to find the famous hole in the barn made by a shell on July 2, 1863. The…
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Discovering the History of Benner’s Hill in Gettysburg
Today, Benner’s Hill does not have the same public resonance as Big Round Top and Little Round Top. Nor does it mix commerce and memory as Cemetery Hill does. And it does not feature in the auto tour like those three and the famous Culp’s Hill. Yet, Benner’s hill played an important role in the…
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Confederate Burials on the George Rose Farm
John and George Rose estimated that between five hundred and one thousand men were buried on their property. The number may well have been higher—the property saw twenty thousand men engage and create six thousand casualties.
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The Struggles of John Slyder in Civil War Gettysburg
For John Slyder and his family, the years 1862 and 1863 opened with tragedy and ended in disaster. In 1862 alone, John and Catherine Slyder saw two young grandchildren, ages 2 and 4, die. Further, their daughter-in-law (wife of William), Rebecca Shriver, died two weeks after the birth of her last child. This, of course,…
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The Story of the George Rose Farm and Its Legacy
Scores of accounts about the Rose farm lead off with something like “at the farm of George Rose . . .” What most don’t realize is that George Rose was not only not living at the farm, he wouldn’t do so until at least 1868. So who was actually there, and how were they affected?…
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Francis Bream’s Legacy and the Black Horse Tavern
Francis Bream (1805–1882) was a prominent Adams County, Pennsylvania landowner, tavern-keeper, and public official, best known as the proprietor of the historic Black Horse Tavern (also known as Bream’s Tavern, and later occasionally called the “Dark Horse Tavern”). This tavern, a large stone inn west of Gettysburg, played a notable role during the Civil War’s…
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The Life and Legacy of Dr. John Edward Herbst
John Edward Herbst was born on February 24, 1828, into one of the long-established Pennsylvania German families of Gettysburg. He was the son of Rev. John Herbst Sr., a German Reformed minister and farmer, and Juliana Kurtz Herbst. Raised in a household that valued faith, education, and public service, John Edward was destined for a…
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Lewis Bushman: From Farming to War Impact
Lewis Bushman was definitely his father’s son. Born in 1833 as the first child to George Andrew Bushman and Mary “Polly” Kepner, Lewis followed in his father’s footsteps in just about every way he could, and like his father, he would own a farm that the battle would make famous. Lewis was just six years…
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Exploring the Lives of Mary Kepner and Anna Wolf: George Bushman’s Wives
If it’s hard getting to know George Andrew Bushman through normal searching, it’s nearly impossible to learn about his wives, Mary Kepner and Anna Wolf, even through deeper research. Both of these women were married for significant times to a prominent and powerful man—a man who was active in local politics, served as a sheriff…