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Fright Night! Ghost Hunters Flock To Gettysburg's Most Haunted House
11 hours ago
Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg, stands outside the house she died in, holding a loaf of bread.Photo byJessica James 2024
The Jennie Wade House Museum in Gettysburg PA is a must-visit destination, especially for those who want to take a scary tour for Halloween.
As a lifelong Gettysburg resident, this is one of the museums that I always recommend to visitors, because it tells the civilian side of the story of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Guided tours at the Jennie Wade House tell the tragic story of a 20-year-old girl who was killed during the Battle of Gettysburg in a house that is almost unchanged from the way it looked in 1863.
If you’re planning a visit to Gettysburg, then read on and discover everything you need to know about the Jennie Wade House Museum, including historical background, tour information, and the intriguing love story connected to Jennie Wade.
Summary: The Jennie Wade House Museum tells the story of a 20-year-old Gettysburg resident who was killed in her sister’s house during the Battle of Gettysburg. Tours of the house are available for $12 for an unguided tour and $15 for guided.
Before we dive into this post, I invite you to grab a copy of my TRAVEL PLANNER. This 16-page PDF guide helps you organize your trip, from what to pack, to preparing a budget and keeping a schedule.
The Battle Of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the best-known battles in American history, yet many don’t realize that it took place over three long days and resulted in more than 50,000 casualties.
Civilians in the small town of Gettysburg were caught in the crossfire on numerous occasions when fighting spread from the fields and farms onto the very streets.
Soldiers, therefore, weren’t the only ones to pay the price. Many of the residents lost their crops, their houses and their livelihoods.
One young lady even lost her life—shot in the back while performing the innocent task of kneading bread.
Mary Virginia “Jennie” (or Ginnie) Wade was born May 21, 1843, the second of six children to James and Mary Filby Wade. She spent her childhood attending local schools and helping with her father’s tailor shop.
When Jennie’s sister Georgia McClellan gave birth to her first child on June 26, Jennie and her mother and younger brothers walked to the brick double-house at 548 Baltimore Street to lend a hand to the new mother.
The Jennie Wade House Museum sits beside the 1863 Inn of Gettysburg.
In addition to helping Georgia, whose husband was away at war, the mother and daughter thought the brick house just outside of town might be safer.
The town at this time was full of wild rumors about military troops heading their way.
What Happened At The Jennie Wade House?
The Wade family soon discovered that no place was safe. On July 1, as fighting erupted north and west of Gettysburg, a bullet flew through the window and hit the bedpost where Georgia was lying with her infant.
Bullet holes are still visible in the mantle of that room, which can be seen when touring the Jennie Wade House Museum.
The room was used as a bedroom for Jennie’s sister since she had just given birth. If you look closely at the mantle, you can see bullet holes.
The parlor that was set up as a bedroom. You can see a bullet hole in the mantel.Photo byJessica James 2024
That same day, an artillery shell crashed through the roof, tearing a hole in the second-story brick wall.
This shell left a ragged hole between Georgia’s house and the McClains, who lived on the other side of the small duplex.
It’s unclear how much the family knew about the two armies that had arrived and were clashing north of town. By that afternoon, the Confederates occupied the town to the north and Union troops were setting up defenses to the south.
Georgia’s house sat in between.
Despite the harrowing sounds of the battle, the clatter of musketry and the booming of cannons, Jennie continued baking bread and furnishing water to the Union troops who were manning a nearby picket post.
The House Between The Lines
Keep in mind, that the Jennie Wade House Museum is not Jennie Wade’s home. It was the home of her sister, Georgia.
Jennie Wade’s birthplace home is located on Baltimore Street (246) and is marked with wayside marker. Additionally, the home where she lived during the Civil War is located on Breckenridge Street and is also marked.
Today, guided tours take you through Georgia’s house from the basement to the second floor and describe what happens on that fateful day in 1863.
Before you go inside, you will be able see some of the 150 bullet holes that can be found in the bricks and the door on the north side of the house and the original well that was dug in the 1800s.
Look closely and you can see some of the 150 bullet holes that mark the brick walls and door of the Jennie Wade House.
View of the bullet hole in the door of the Jennie Wade House.Photo byJessica James 2024
How Did Jennie Wade Die?
On the morning of July 3, 1863, Jennie followed her usual routine of reading her devotions aloud from the kitchen. The message that day was from Psalms 27 and Psalms 30:
“The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?”
Georgia, who was lying in the next room with her baby, became uncomfortable hearing the words and asked Jennie to stop reading.
Jennie reportedly replied, “If there is anyone in this house that is to be killed today, I hope it is me, as George has that little baby.”
Jennie then began kneading dough for the day’s supply of bread. Despite the added precaution of standing behind the open parlor door to help protect her, a stray bullet passed through both the heavy outer door as well as the inner door.
Notice the bullet hole in the door that Jennie Wade was standing behind. The original dough trough pictured behind the door is the same one that Jennie was using the day she died.
The Death Of Jennie Wade
It was 8:30 a.m. on July 3, 1863, and Jennie Wade was dead.
The bullet struck Jennie in the back, passed through her heart and became stuck in her corset.
With flour still on her hands, she fell to the floor, the white powder getting strewn across the room and mixing with the blood of her wound.
Her mother, who was facing the fireplace, turned and saw her falling. She yelled to Georgia, “Your sister is dead!”
Georgia’s screams brought Union troops running.
The view through the bullet hole in the door of the Jennie Wade House. You can see the second door that a bullet passed through, killing 20-year-old Jennie Wade. The original dough trough she was using can also be seen.
The Jennie Wade House Bullet Holes
Wanting to get the family to safety, but unable to exit the dangerous North side of the house in order to go down in the cellar, the soldiers wrapped Jennie’s body in a blanket and carried her up to the second floor.
The hole from the artillery shell that had hit the house on July 1 now helped the family. The soldiers knocked out more bricks to enlarge the hole so the family could crawl through.
This is the area where the shell went through the wall at the Jennie Wade House on July 1. Soldiers enlarged the opening so the family could crawl through to safety. This is looking back toward Georgia’s side of the house from the South side.
Now on the safer South side of the house, the Wade family made their way back down to the ground floor. They exited the house and went down to the cellar.
In the small dirt-floored cellar, the family was forced to sit and stare at the body from approximately 9 a.m. July 3 until 1 p.m. July 4.
Jennie Wade House Basement
The Jennie Wade House Museum basement is perhaps the most captivating of the rooms on the guided house tour because of its small size. (And it’s eeriness!)
The fact that the family, along with a couple of soldiers had to huddle in the room for more than a day, not knowing what was happening above, makes it all the more scary.
That feeling is brought to life by the figure that is lying under a blanket in the dim light of the cellar.
I guarantee it is not something you will soon forget.
The Aftermath Of The Battle Of Gettysburg
With the heat of July and the perils that surrounded them, the family finally buried Jennie in Georgia’s garden on July 4. Even then, the people of the town didn’t know if the battle was over or who had won.
One resident said they did not know Union forces had been victorious until July 5, though they “suspected it because of the lack of jubilation by the rebels.”
Tillie Pierce, another resident said, “We were glad that the storm had passed and that victory was perched on our banners, but oh, the horror and desolation that remained.”
According to journals written by local residents, the ground was covered with dead horses, broken wagons, pieces of shells, battered muskets and swords.
Many farmers fared worse than the townspeople because the artillery made roads over their grain fields, destroyed fences, and damaged barns.
In 1886 a local historian wrote that so completely were the farm fences destroyed that you could ride out of Gettysburg in any direction and never run into a fence.
A Place Of Great Suffering
By far the most distressing aftermath of the battle were the thousands of dead, dying and wounded men left behind by the departing armies. Of the approximately 170,000 troops at Gettysburg, one of every four was a casualty—killed, wounded, or reported missing.
A medical officer described the scene as “an occasion of the greatest amount of suffering known to the Nation since its birth.”
Gettysburg resident Fannie Buehler found the sights and sounds of the hospital established in the courthouse across the street from her home “too horrible to be described.”
In addition to caring for the wounded and burying the dead, the town had to deal with a wave of between 10 and 12,000 visitors who descended upon Gettysburg looking for loved ones—or merely wishing to see the famous battlefield where history had been made.
Burying Jennie Wade (Three Times)
When at last things began to settle down—some six months later—Jennie’s body was moved from the yard where she was buried, to the cemetery of the German Reformed Church where the family attended services.
Then, about a year later, she was reinterred once again to Evergreen Cemetery.
Jennie Wade gravesite at Evergreen Cemetery.
Money for a monument was raised in 1900 and still marks the site where Jennie is buried.
Jennie Wade’s gravesite is the most visited grave in Gettysburg.
Additionally, she is one of only two women in the United States to have a perpetual flag fly over her grave 24 hours a day. The other is Betsy Ross.
Where Is Jennie Wade Buried In Evergreen Cemetery?
If you want to visit Jennie Wade’s burial site in Evergreen Cemetery, enter through the iconic gatehouse entrance along at 799 Baltimore Pike, Gettysburg.
You will turn slightly right when you see the Elizabeth Thorne statue on your left.
Jennie Wade’s burial site is a large white monument with the figure of a woman on top on your right, near the road.
It is marked with an American flag flying 24 hours a day.
The engravings on the monument read:
Whatsoever God willeth must be Though a nation mourns.
With a courage born of loyalty “She hath done what she could.”
Who Was Jack Skelly?
Jennie Wade grew up in Gettysburg and had two dear friends. One was Wesley Culp, whose uncle owned, what is now known as Culp’s Hill.
As an apprentice to a harness maker that moved to Virginia before the war, Wesley ended up living in the Old Dominion and fighting in Stonewall’s Brigade for the Confederacy during the war.
The other friend was Jack Skelly, who fought on the Union side. Some say he was engaged to Jennie at the time of her death.
When Jack Skelly was wounded in the Battle of Carter’s Woods near Winchester and captured, he had the opportunity to talk to his friend Wesley Culp whose regiment was nearby.
Skelly requested that Wesley deliver a note to Jennie Wade the next time he made it back to Gettysburg.
As fate would have it, Wesley found himself back in the town he knew so well quite soon.
Unfortunately, it was a town in which he was considered a traitor—even by his own relatives.
Several family members had threatened to shoot him on sight. He did, however, visit his sisters on the night of July 1, and told them about the letter.
Wesley then ended up fighting on the very ground where he had spent so much time exploring, hunting and hiking as a youth.
It is the same ground he died on.
The letter was never delivered, so Jennie never knew that Jack Skelly was wounded.
In fact, the letter was never found.
Wesley Culp was reportedly killed on July 3 on Culp’s Hill, but since his body was never recovered, it is unknown exactly when or where.
Jack Skelly succumbed to his injuries on July 12, nine days after his friends died, but he likewise did not know of their demise.
Because his picture was found in Jennie Wade’s pocket the day she died, it became rumored that the two were engaged.
Jack is buried near Jennie at Evergreen Cemetery.
His tombstone says: “My country needs me, mother. May I go?
Jennie Wade House Facts
548 Baltimore St., Gettysburg, Pa.
Open Sunday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tours 30 minutes
FAQ’s About The Jennie Wade House Museum
How Much Is The Jennie Wade House Tour?
The Jennie Wade House Tour is $12 for adults self-guided and $15 for a guided tour. Children 6-12 are $9 and $12 for those tours, with 5 and under free.
Where Is The Nearest Parking For The Jennie Wade House?
The Jennie Wade House Museum offers plentiful free parking including handicapped parking right outside the gift shop door.
A tour guide in period at the Jennie Wade points to a case of original artifacts. The clock on the mantel is also original and was there during the Battle of Gettysburg.
What You’ll See On The Tour
The Jennie Wade House Museum Tour features guides in period attire who are entertaining and well-versed in the history of the home.
The house is furnished from top to bottom as it would have been in 1863, with original artifacts from that fateful day on display as well.
Some of the artifacts include the artillery shell that went through the roof of the house and a floorboard with Jennie’s blood still on it.
The dough trough in the kitchen is the actual one used by Jennie when she was killed, and the clock on the mantel of the fireplace on the Mclain side of the house is also original.
For those who want to see more, there is also a 2-hour Jennie Wade Walking Tour that takes visitors along Baltimore Street and points out other notable residents during the Battle of Gettysburg.
There are a number of ghost tours that highlight the Jennie Wade House including the Spirits of Jennie Wade tour. It is just one of the many ghost tours in Gettysburg.
I visited the Jenny Wade house a couple of times and while the history was interesting and the guide was very knowledgeable (retired school teacher) it's a very small house and while the bullet hole in the kitchen door is cool, I would definitely save my $15.00, tourist trap
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