Mary Virginia Wade (May 21, 1843 – July 3, 1863), also known as Jennie Wade or Ginnie Wade, was a resident of

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Gettysburg (; non-locally ) is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg (1863) and President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address are named for this town. Gettysburg is home to th ...

during the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In the battle, Union Major General George Meade's Army of th ...

. At the age of 20, she was the only direct civilian casualty of the battle, when she was killed by a stray bullet on July 3, 1863. The house where she was killed is now a popular tourist attraction and museum called the "Jennie Wade House."

Early life

Wade was born in Gettysburg, and worked as a seamstress with her mother in their house on Breckenridge Street while her father was in a mental asylum. She may have been engaged to Johnston Hastings "Jack" Skelly, a corporal in the 87th Pennsylvania, who had been wounded two weeks earlier in the Battle of Winchester. He died from his injuries on July 12, 1863, unaware that Wade had died days earlier.

Casualty of war

Wade, her mother, and two younger brothers left their home in central Gettysburg and traveled to the house of her sister, Georgia Anna Wade McClellan at 548 Baltimore Street to assist her and her newborn child. It was July 1, 1863, during the first day's fighting of the Battle of Gettysburg. More than 150 bullets hit the McClellan house during the fighting. About 8:00 a.m. on July 3, Wade was kneading dough for bread when a

Minié ball The Minié ball or Minie ball, is a type of hollow-based bullet designed by Claude-Étienne Minié, inventor of the French Minié rifle, for muzzle-loading rifled muskets. It was invented in 1847 and came to prominence in the Crimean War an ...

traveled through the kitchen door and the parlor door of her sister's house and hit her. It pierced her left shoulder blade, went through her heart, and ended up in her corset. She was killed instantly. While it is uncertain which side fired the fatal shot, some authors have attributed it to an unknown Confederate sharpshooter. Wade's mother heard her fall to the floor and went to tell her sister Georgia in the other room that her sister had been shot dead; two Union soldiers came from upstairs when they heard the screams of the women. They temporarily buried Wade's body in the back yard of the McClellan house, in a coffin originally intended for the Confederate General

William Barksdale William Barksdale (August 21, 1821 – July 3, 1863) was a lawyer, newspaper editor, US Representative, and Confederate general in the American Civil War. A staunch secessionist, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of Gettysburg while he ...

. In January 1864, her body was relocated to the cemetery of the German Reformed Church on Stratton Street. Her final resting place is located in the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg.Petruzzi, p. 221. On July 4, her mother baked 15 loaves of bread with the dough Wade had kneaded. In 1882, the United States Senate voted to grant Wade's mother a pension, citing that her daughter had been killed serving the Union cause – baking bread for the soldiers.

Monument

In November 1865, Wade's remains were reburied in the Evergreen Cemetery near Jack Skelly. A monument to her, designed by Gettysburg resident Anna M. Miller, was erected in 1900 that includes an

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...

that flies around the clock. (The Betsy Ross House in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

is the only other site devoted to a woman to share this distinction of the perpetual flag. The Evergreen Cemetery grave of John L. Burns also flies the perpetual flag.)

Notes

References

* Frassanito, William A. ''Early Photography at Gettysburg''. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1995. . * Halbur, Patsy. "Jennie Wade and Gettysburg: It Was Not Supposed to Happen." ''Gettysburg Magazine'' 25 (July 2001): 105-15. * Petruzzi, J. David, and Steven Stanley. ''The Complete Gettysburg Guide''. New York: Savas Beatie, 2009. . * Tanaka, Shelley. ''Gettysburg: A Day that Changed America''. New York: Hyperion Books for Children, 2003. . * Trudeau, Noah Andre. ''Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage''. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. . *

Wert, Jeffry D. Jeffry D. Wert (born May 8, 1946) is an American historian and author specializing in the American Civil War. He has written several books on the subject, which have been published in multiple languages and countries. Early life Jeffry Wert's i ...

''Gettysburg: Day Three''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. .

External links

Jennie Wade House Official Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Jennie 1843 births 1863 deaths Women in the American Civil War People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War People from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Civilians killed in the American Civil War Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Adams County, Pennsylvania)