Just some of the Civilians of Gettysburg

I'm fascinated by the civilians who lived in and around Gettysburg in 1863. Some became quite famous in the years since the battle, some not so famous, and some are names that are lost to history.

Tillie Pierce is quite possibly one of the most famous names you will come across. She was a 15 year old girl who witnessed the battle and the casualties first hand. About 25 years after the battle she wrote a book about what happened here. It's quite possibly the best first hand account of the battle written by a civilian. She didn't worry about grossing people out and didn't make things rosy....she told it the way it was and it wasn't pretty. Tillie and her family lived on Baltimore Street at the time of the battle.

Jacob Weikert lived on Taneytown Road, a few miles south of town...right at the base of Little Round Top. Although it seemed that the Weikert farm would be spared from the effects of the battle, it didn't. The farm was too close to the fighting at Little Round Top, Devil's Den, and the Wheatfield. The farm was used as a hospital for weeks after the battle.

Now what do these two, seemingly different people, have to do with one another? During the battle Tillie left her home with her next door neighbor, Henrietta Schriver, to head for Hettie's parents home....which were the Weikert's. Henrietta had a sister, Beckie, who was about the same age as Tillie. They left Baltimore Street thinking that the battle would stay in town....but it didn't and the battle followed Tillie and Henrietta and her children to the Weikert home.

Today, would we know anywhere near as much about the Weikert farm and the effects of the battle on the farm if it weren't for Tillie and her book? I often think about how some of these folks who were common, everyday people, struggling to live a normal life in a difficult time, and how they have become the "heroes" of the people who study them.

One day I was walking in the Evergreen Cemetery here in Gettysburg. The cemetery is the town cemetery and you can walk amongst the headstones and see name after name after name of people who were living in Gettysburg at the time of the battle. One day I stumbled across Albertus McCreary's headstone. This excited me because I had just read his account of the battle. Albertus was a young boy at the time of the battle and although his account wasn't published (it was published in the Gettysburg Magazine), he has made quite a name for himself. When I stopped and looked at Albertus' grave, I thought about this young man. If it hadn't been for the battle, this would be just another headstone, in another cemetery, in another small town. We wouldn't know WHO he was, WHAT he did, or anything about him. But because he took the time to write down what happened during those three days of the battle and the events afterwards, he isn't just "another unknown name".

I find it amazing how many accounts have been brought to light in recent years. Some accounts were turned into books, some were just diaries, some were newspaper articles, some were letters, but ALL were important. Without these accounts, would we really know what happened to the civilians without these accounts? Would we know exactly where the fighting occurred? Would we have any concept of what a horrible effect the battle had on the land? I, for one, can only thank the civilians for their accounts. I often feel that some of these people were not only the civilians who lived here, but they have also become my friends.