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Lt. Col. William McLeod and the 7-Year Wake
If you squint hard enough at the story of William McLeod and his brother-in-law John Prescott, you can almost see the Tarleton twins from Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. Proud Georgia boys cut down in the prime of life in defense of their homeland. Or something like that. At least, that’s how the tales…
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Dr. Charles P. Krauth: Lutheran Theologian and College President
When Charles P. Krauth yielded the presidency of Pennsylvania College to Reverend Henry Louis Baugher in 1850, he had been at the helm for sixteen years. He was 53 years old, and after a lifetime of ecclesiastical service, you might assume that he was ready to retire. But Dr. Krauth did not retire—he stayed on…
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Guilford Ricks: The Widower who Left His Children Orphaned
Private Guilford Ricks was not your average enlisted Confederate. Contrary to media depictions, the Civil War was mostly a young man’s war—the average age of Confederates killed at Gettysburg was about 23. The average casualty was of modest means, owned no slaves, was unmarried, and had no kids. He was generally about 5’6″ to 5’8″,…
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Reverend Henry Louis Baugher: The Force Behind Christ’s Church (Lutheran)
That teacher that won’t cancel classes during a blizzard or a major national event, that ensures you always get the homework assignment . . . that was Henry Louis Baugher. If Christ’s Church (Lutheran) was the physical object that brought Gettysburg College, the Lutheran Theological Seminary, and religious worship together, the force behind them was…
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The Role of Christ’s Church Before, During, and After the Battle of Gettysburg
When considering its history with the Battle of Gettysburg, Christ’s Church (now known as Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church) is best remembered for the killing of clergyman Horatio Stockton Howell (more on that below) and the sheltering of Ole Liz Butler, a black washerwoman who escaped Confederate cavalry and hid until the battle concluded. The Church…
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Life and Death on the Farm of John and Elizabeth Wible
The lives of Reverend John Wible and his wife, Elizabeth Wible (Stallsmith), appear to have passed without generating a lot of notice. The reverend worked at the Christ’s Lutheran Church (which played a prominent role in the battle). Elizabeth was from a long-running family in the area. They had no children. They turn up in…
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The Interactive Gettysburg Map
This interactive Gettysburg map marks the beginning of a larger project to chart the civilian landscape of Gettysburg in new ways. What you see here is Layer One, focused on Confederate burials drawn from Greg Coco’s Gettysburg’s Confederate Burials and similar sources like Find-a-Grave. Each marker represents a farm or landmark where burials were recorded…
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Confederate Burials on the John Crawford Farm
The John Crawford farm, tenanted in part by Basil Biggs, ended up with a large number of Confederate burials because of its location directly behind the southern battle lines on July 2–3, 1863. When Longstreet’s assault surged through the Peach Orchard, Wheatfield, and toward Cemetery Ridge, thousands of Confederate casualties fell in that sector.
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Madness in Gettysburg: Ephraim Albert Shot His Wife, Not a Dog
The name Ephraim comes from the Bible and means “fruitful” or “doubly fruitful.” By all appearances, Ephraim Albert appeared to fit the definition. He was a farmer who was the son of a farmer—the youngest of at least three, possibly more, kids in fact. And Ephraim was similarly fruitful. In the 1870 Census, he’s shown…
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John Crawford: Lawyer and Gentleman Farmer
As with much of the Underground Railroad, very little can tell us whether John Crawford knew what Basil Biggs was up to when he lived on as a tenant farmer on Crawford’s land. Biggs and family moved to the area from Maryland in 1858, seeking to be in a non-slave-holding state and looking for educational…