Tag: Gettysburg field hospitals
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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…
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Henrietta “Hettie” Weikert Saw It All
Henrietta Weikert seems to have left home as soon as she could. At age 18, she married George Washington Shriver who, like her, came from a farming family in Adams County. In the case of Hettie (as she was called), she was the sixth of thirteen children living on a farm east of Little Round…