The Story of Jennie Wade

One of the places we visited while at Gettysburg was the Jennie Wade House. Grace had learned about the story from a ghost show on TV and was interested in learning more about her. She was the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, shot by an accidental bullet that penetrated two doors before lodging in her back while she bent over a table kneading dough for bread.
Virginia didn't live in the house where she was killed. She had come to her sister's house with her two younger brothers at her mother's request, believing they would be safer there than at home. Her sister, Georgia, had recently delivered a baby and Jennie's assistance was also appreciated. However, a skirmish developed near the house and they were caught in the crossfire. The boys hid beneath the bed in the living room, which had been placed there for Georgia's sake before the birth of her child.
Bullet holes can be seen not only in the front door, and the second door which Virginia positioned herself behind as a shield, but also in the bedframe and mantle. It must have been a terrifying time for the family.

A shell also struck the house, blasting a hole through the wall which was later opened into a doorway for tourists to pass through from the apartment on the Wade's side to the apartment on the other side. This hole proved to be of use to the Wade family when Jennie was killed. The Union soldiers outside had developed a rapport with Jennie in the days leading up to this battle as she was kind enough to share her resources with them. Hearing the screaming from within the house, they rushed inside to investigate. When they found Jennie lying lifelessly upon the floor, her mother weeping over her, they insisted that the remainder of the family retreat to the cellar. As the only access to the cellar was either by exposing themselves to more gunfire outside or crawling through the opening made by the shell, they were able to avoid more injury by passing through the damaged wall.
Jennie's mother refused to leave her body, and the soldiers were compelled to wrap her bleeding form in quilts from the bed and carry her to the cellar. There is currently a mannequin shrouded in quilts in the cellar to represent Jennie's body, along with a painting depicting that tragic scene.

Jennie's body was hastily buried in her sister's flower garden as the fighting continued. To further illustrate the atrocity of war, her fiancé, Jack Skelly, was also killed nearby, along with a close friend to both of them, Wesley Culp, who had been entrusted with a final message from Jack to be delivered to Jennie. She never received this letter.
Additionally, Wesley Culp was the cousin of one of the farmer's whose land saw some of the fiercest fighting, and he was killed on the very hill where he once roamed as a child. He was buried in a shallow, unmarked grave, like so many others.

After Jennie Wade's death, she was buried in her sister's yard for about 6 months, then transferred to a cemetery adjoined to the German Reformed Church, until her third and final resting place in November 1865, in the Evergreen Cemetery.