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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, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Union Army, Union and Confederate States Army, Confederate forces during the American Civil War. In t ...
. 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 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. 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 ca ...
that flies around the clock. (The
Betsy Ross House The Betsy Ross House is a landmark in Philadelphia purported to be the site where the seamstress and flag-maker Betsy Ross (1752-1836) lived when she is said to have sewed the first American Flag. The origins of the Betsy Ross myth trace back to ...
in Philadelphia 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. ''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)