Jennie Wade Birthplace | The Origin Story of Gettysburg’s Civilian Heroine

As the bloodiest conflict of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg left fields of green painted crimson and littered with fallen soldiers. While the loss of a serviceman is tragic, war takes a darker turn when civilians are caught in the crossfire. It’s impossible to put a definitive number on the number of civilians lost during the entire war. Still, at Gettysburg, there was believed to be only one: A seamstress named Jennie Wade.

The grim ending to Jennie’s short story isn’t an unfamiliar one to those privy to tales of the Civil War, but what came before? A known Union supporter famed for her gifts of bread and water, it’s her life preceding the war that begs to be shared. Before fate put her in the path of the bullet that pierced her heart, Jennie’s life began less than half a mile north of where it ended, at 242 Baltimore Street.

For the first time ever, curious travelers will be able to step inside Jennie Wade’s birthplace and explore the very rooms that young Jennie once played in. Book your history tour or lift the veil with a ghost hunt, seeking out the specters of the Wade family at Jennie Wade’s Birthplace. This historical home is not only known for sightings of Jennie Wade herself, but also her fiancé, Jack Skelly, and her father, James Wade, Sr.

Who was Jennie Wade?

Jennie Wade was a 20-year-old seamstress from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, living with her mother and siblings when the Civil War erupted around her town. During the Battle of Gettysburg, a pivotal and brutal clash between Union and Confederate forces, Jennie moved to her sister Georgia’s home to help care for Georgia’s new baby and assist Union soldiers with food and water.

In the early morning of July 3, while kneading dough for bread to feed the troops, she was struck and killed by a stray bullet that pierced two doors before fatally striking her heart. She is remembered as the only civilian directly killed in that battle. Jennie’s death became symbolic of civilian sacrifice during wartime. Her sister’s house, later named the Jennie Wade House, is now a museum, complete with bullet-scarred walls and artifacts from that fateful day. 

The Wade Family Moves to Baltimore Street

Jennie’s story ended tragically, but it also didn’t have the best of beginnings. In April 1840, just north of Gettysburg, Mary Ann Filby and Captain James Wade, Sr. wed. By that time, though, James Wade had already had run-ins with the law. 

Just a year before his marriage to Mary, James was accused of fathering a child with an unnamed woman he assaulted. Either ignorant of or overlooking James’ misdeed, Mary cared for the child as her own, raising him as James A. Wade in a home on Baltimore Street in Gettysburg.

Their care for the younger James wouldn’t last long. On July 4, 1841, the couple welcomed their first biological child, and a pivotal piece of Jennie’s story, Georgeanna “Georgia” Wade. Within two years, Jennie, born Mary Virginia, joined the Wade family. 

After the birth of Jennie, the family was forced to live briefly in the Almshouse. Records list them as occupants until 1846, at which point the family welcomed a third child. It’s believed that around the birth of John James “Jack” Wade, Captain James’ illegitimate son was separated from the family and sent to the Adams County Almshouse to be bonded out to another family. The reasoning is unclear, though the family’s tight finances are often cited.

The Wade family continued to grow throughout the 1850s, with Samuel Swan and Harry Marion born five years apart. Sadly, a sixth child, Martha Margarette, was born just before Samuel but died in her infancy.

Trouble in the Household: Captain James Wade Sr.

Before the Wade name made its way to Gettysburg, patriarch and James’ grandfather, Colonel Chidley Wade, died at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania, leaving his family back in Virginia. His son Thomas, James’ father, served as a confidant to Marquise de Lafayette, also sustaining injuries at Brandywine. 

Military life was in James’ blood, but he desired more, bringing his tailoring talents from James City, Virginia, to Gettysburg. To his detriment, his temperament and poor decisions often got in the way of a normal and calm life. 

James Wade, Sr., had the distinction of serving as a captain of the 80th Pennsylvania Militia through the 1840s. Unfortunately, his criminal record exceeded his military honors, leaving a dubious legacy that stained the Wade name. 

On top of the assault that bred his son, Captain Wade was also charged with arson. During the 1941 incident, Wade set fire to property owned by pub owner Charles Myers. The reason behind their feud was never documented, but James was no stranger to local taverns.

In 1850, Captain James Wade was charged with larceny and sentenced to two years in Eastern Penitentiary. There’s no specific catalyst for her decision, but after James returned from the now-haunted prison, Mary sent him to the Adams County Almshouse. Unlike the illegitimate child Mary helped raise, the captain’s time in the Almshouse wasn’t temporary. Declaring him “very insane,” Mary wished to have her husband out of her and her children’s lives forever. 

It was in the Almshouse that Captain James Wade died in 1872, unaware of what had become of Jennie nearly a decade earlier.

A Mother’s Resilience

With James Wade, Sr. locked away, Mary Ann stepped in where the family needed her most. To supplement the loss of James as a provider, Mary Ann and Jennie took up work as seamstresses. By 1854, the family purchased a small home on Breckenridge Street, which ran perpendicular to Baltimore Street. 

Georgia also joined her mother and sister at the family tailor, though by 1862, she wed John Louis McClellan and moved onto Baltimore Street. This quaint home, located by East Cemetery Hill, would later become known as the Jennie Wade House.

Despite everything she had been through with her husband, Mary Ann remained a strong figure in her children’s lives. It’s a trait that she passed down to Jennie, who channeled her mother’s perseverance when the war came to Gettysburg. Even before the conflict, though, Jennie was by her mother’s side, assisting with the chaos that comes with a larger family and a family business.

Jennie Wade’s Life Before the War

While Jennie helped manage the household and business alongside her mother, she grew closer to her childhood friend, John Hastings “Jack” Skelly, Jr. As children, their fathers worked together, with James serving as an apprentice to Johnston Skelly. 

Over the years of being raised together, a romance formed between Jennie and Skelly. Both were responsible in their youth, working to support their families while putting their personal lives aside. At the outbreak of war, Jack answered the call of war and, with his mother’s permission, joined the Union and left Gettysburg.

There’s an air of mystery to Jennie and Jack’s relationship, as their later years have become a source of speculation. Some believe they were engaged to be married, a rumor that started when Jack charged an old friend and Confederate soldier, Wesley Cup, with delivering a letter to Jennie. The contents of that letter never became public, though many believe it was reaffirming his intent to marry Jennie.

Though her love had been sent elsewhere, her future with Jack Skelly wholly uncertain, Jennie remained devoted to her family even if it meant going toe-to-toe with the Confederacy.

The Civil War Changes Everything

Two years after the start of the Civil War, the fight came to Gettysburg. Upon their arrival, Confederate soldiers targeted service-ready horses, stealing them from locals and businesses.

Samuel Wade was working with the local butcher, James Pierce, and was tasked with hiding the family horse outside of town. Somewhere along Baltimore Street, Confederate soldiers stopped and arrested Samuel. Without their father, and with Georgia (then a McClellan) having just given birth and Mary Ann in attendance of the newborn, Jennie advocated for her brother. 

Confronting the Confederates who held her brother showed a strength that continued to burn within Jennie as the conflict grew more heated. Jennie moved her family into Georgia’s house when the fight encroached too closely on the Breckenridge property. There, she worked tirelessly to provide rations for Union soldiers, offering bread and water to all that she could. Though inherently not dangerous, her generosity led to her downfall.

On July 3, 1863, the very same day the South suffered its defeat at Gettysburg, Jennie was in the kitchen of Georgia’s Baltimore Street home kneading dough. Gunfire from the Confederates whizzed past the McClellan home, with one bullet entering the house and hitting a bedpost where Georgia and her baby lay. Shortly after, at about 8:30 a.m., a second bullet penetrated the outer door, entered the kitchen, and struck Jennie in the left shoulder blade.

Jennie fell to the ground without a sound, her heart pierced by the projectile. A month before her death, Jack Skelly had been wounded during the Second Battle of Winchester and was recovering in a Confederate hospital when he died days after Jennie. Neither ever learned of the other’s fate, and Jennie never did receive that letter from Wesley Cup.

Legacy and Remembrance

Jennie’s death highlighted the civilian sacrifice of the Civil War. She wasn’t the first to die in the crossfire, nor would she be the last. Yet, she remains a symbol of the innocent lives lost during the conflict. Her memory could have easily faded, but Georgia dedicated much of her life to keeping it alive as a vital lesson from the Battle of Gettysburg. 

In 2000, Jeffrey M. Watts produced a one-act play, “A Rose in Its Time: The Jennie Wade Story,” based on Georgia’s efforts to preserve Jennie’s legacy. Despite detractors like John Lawrence Burns and Union Colonel David Hunter Strother denying Jennie’s loyalties and kind-heartedness, Jennie’s memory remains intact. 

After her death, Jennie’s body was interred in Georgia’s garden, then moved to a grave by the German Reform Church in 1864. Within a year, her remains were moved to the Evergreen Cemetery. It’s here that her memorial was erected and dedicated in 1901, with many in attendance, the large statue engraved with a simple epitaph: “Killed July 3, 1863, while making bread for the Union soldiers.”

In 1917, businessman John White Johnston published “The True Story of ‘Jennie’ Wade.” Enamored by her story, White purchased both the Breckenridge Street property that the Wades lived in and Jennie’s birth home, 242 Baltimore Street. In 1922, a plaque was placed on the Baltimore Street property in honor of Jennie. 

It was the last opportunity Georgia had to celebrate her sister’s memory with the people of Gettysburg. Five years later, she passed away at 86 years old.

The House Through Time

Built in 1820, Jennie Wade’s birthplace is one of the oldest buildings in Gettysburg. It’s predated by buildings like the Dobbin House Tavern, which was built in 1776.

Despite being the start of the heroine of Gettysburg’s story, it doesn’t tend to get the same attention as the place where her life was tragically taken. Maybe it’s the wandering specter of Jennie Wade herself that draws eyes to Georgia’s old home, the ethereal figure trapped where her blood has stained the floor. 

A story is incomplete without a beginning, and it’s at her place of birth where visitors can envision the small but growing family. At the helm was a man who fostered a path that Jennie knew she couldn’t follow.

Even after her passing, Jennie’s birthplace fell out of the public eye until John Johnston purchased it and helped Georgia turn it into a memorial. 

Hauntings of the Old Wade Residence

The memories of the Wade family linger heavily within the Jennie Wade House. Just down the street, her birthplace waits to share its stories, like the troubles of James Wade Sr. and the perseverance of Mary Ann. Within the old home, shadows dip across the light, and unexplainable sounds echo from seemingly nowhere.

One of the home’s most tragic spirits is that of Jennie’s father. Tucked away in the almshouse until his passing, James never saw Jennie’s bravery or the lengths Georgia went to preserve her sister’s memory. Understandably, his lost soul would find its way home in search of those he left behind. 

Scratches have appeared on a second-story wall. Even when painted over, they would bleed through. Though they’ve since stopped, the unsettling presence, cold spots, and strong energy are attributed to the Wade patriarch. 

Other members of the Wade family are said to have returned to the old home, too. The apparition of a Civil War soldier has been spotted pacing on the first floor. This is believed to be Jack Wade, Jennie’s brother, who died during the Second Battle of Winchester.  

When night falls on Gettysburg, the silence within the home is broken by the laughter and cries of an infant. Jennie’s younger sister, Martha Margaret, died at 4 months old. With no record of another baby having passed while living at the property, the unexplained noises are likely a residual of the young girl.

The Reunion of Jennie and Jack Skelly

Separated by the horrors of war, Jennie and her fiancé Jack Skelly never learned of the other’s fate. While Jennie was lying in a pool of blood in Georgia’s kitchen, Skelly was slowly dying in a Confederate hospital. The two did find one another in the afterlife, both reuniting at Jennie’s birthplace.

Jack’s specter is said to stand outside of Jennie’s bedroom as if protecting it. Male visitors have complained of being pinched or getting nauseous, as if attacked for getting too close. Some witnesses have even claimed to hear the pair whispering when there are no men in the home. 

Beneath an oak tree near the home, a residual memory of Jennie and Jack replays. It’s a sweet scene, recapturing the love that was lost when the Civil War separated them forever.

The Ghost Named Randy

Virtually all of the spirits in Jennie Wade’s Birthplace can be easily explained by their close bond to the home. Then we get to “Randy,” the unknown haunt that was tapped during an investigation of the property. While blindfolded and deaf to the world around her, a woman was able to answer a question about someone named “Randy.” 

All parties involved confirmed that she would not have been able to make out the question to answer it properly. Unfortunately, there was no answer as to who Randy was, though it could have been a specter reaching out to the building’s owner of 40 years, Randy Inskip. 

Visit Jennie Wade’s Birthplace

Though the home where Jennie Wade died has been converted into a museum dedicated to her life, her birthplace down the road is often overlooked as it has remained closed to the public. For the first time, visitors will be able to step inside the old Wade family household and see Jennie Wade’s first home. 

Though steeped with history, there’s something else lurking within the shadows of this antique building. Does the home ring with the phantom footsteps of Captain James Wade, Sr.? Will you hear the echo of child laughter? The best way to find out is by booking your tour of the Jennie Wade Birthplace today. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real hauntings across America.

Sources:

• https://gettysburgciviliannetwork.com/the-citizens-of-gettysburg/family-and-friend-networks-in-gettysburg/jennie-wade-and-her-network/the-life-and-crimes-of-captain-james-wade/
• https://ia800206.us.archive.org/30/items/truestoryofjenni00john/truestoryofjenni00john_bw.pdf
• https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=8169https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2013/spring/brother-vs-brother?_ga=2.112526852.10003288.1750532284-2033797677.1750532284
• https://ia800206.us.archive.org/30/items/truestoryofjenni00john/truestoryofjenni00john_bw.pdf
• https://histage.com/download/freeview/rose-in-its-timehttps://www.pennlive.com/gettysburg-150/2013/07/who_was_mary_virginia_wade_sca.html
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• https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-cities/gettysburgs-most-haunted/the-jennie-wade-house/
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