{"id":216,"date":"2016-05-18T11:59:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/?p=216"},"modified":"2016-07-06T12:30:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T16:30:04","slug":"their-contributions-though-rarely-noted-or-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/their-contributions-though-rarely-noted-or-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"Gettysburg National Military Park sidebar: \u2018Their contributions, though rarely noted or honored\u2026\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

D<\/span>uring the three-day battle of Gettysburg, about 165,000 soldiers clashed in and around the small town, which then had a population of about 2,400.<\/p>\n

When the battle was over on July 3, 1863, 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded, captured or missing, according to the Gettysburg Foundation.<\/p>\n

And it took considerable time and effort to handle the aftermath of the battle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first buildings that filled with wounded were the schools and churches, and it took some time to get them moved out,\u201d said John Heiser, historian for the National Park Service. \u201cMany people who lived in town and on the outskirts lost everything. They filed claims to the government for things including bedding, clothing, livestock, farm equipment. But few recovered money from the government \u2014 they had to prove their losses were due to a Union order.\u201d<\/p>\n

The George Rose Farm on the battlefield was occupied by Confederates, he noted. Bodies were still on the farm until July 7, four days after the Confederates retreated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs late as July 13, a visitor taking notes said he encountered George Rose complaining about unburied bodies in the grove,\u201d Mr. Heiser said. \u201cHorses were killed and carcasses were left where they fell. Many times they were just burned. That smell mingling with the dead and flies in the heat, the conditions were ripe for disease \u2014 and it\u2019s surprising that disease wasn\u2019t more common during that summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tending to the wounded and cleaning the carnage was a terrible task.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the average civilian in town \u2014 most were women \u2014 it was a horrible thing. You\u2019re dealing with wounded men in your kitchen, your hallway, and there\u2019s no one to care for them except you,\u201d Mr. Heiser said.<\/p>\n

At the entrance of Evergreen Cemetery on Baltimore Street is a statue commemorating the work of one such woman, Elizabeth Maser Thorn. She and her husband Peter were German immigrants and the first family to live in the cemetery\u2019s gatehouse. When Peter Thorn joined the Union Army, Elizabeth assumed his duties as caretaker from 1862-1865.<\/p>\n

She was six months pregnant when the battle landed on her doorstep. She was also caring for her three small children and her elderly parents. Union troops ate bread as fast as she could bake it. Her family made sure cups were ready at the water pump outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe overheard an officer telling another that they were [mistakenly] killing their own troops because they didn\u2019t know the country, and badly needed a guide,\u201d according to the 2004 book \u201cFirestorm at Gettysburg: Civilian Voices.\u201d \u201c…the persuasive Mrs. Thorn convinced the officer she could go with him and show him the main roads. Walking on the \u2018safe side of the horse\u2019 for protection, she gave the officer a quick tour \u2014 braving the whizzing bullets and exploding shells.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, the family was forced to leave their house entirely. When the fighting ended, they returned home and saw they had lost everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in the house was gone except three feather beds and a couple of pillows. The beds\u2026 were not fit to use again. The legs of six soldiers had been amputated on the beds in our house and they were ruined with blood\u2026,\u201d Thorn said in her own account, republished in \u201cFirestorm at Gettysburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorn was not only responsible for pulling her home back together, but also Evergreen Cemetery. She and her father dug graves, burying 91 soldiers in the following weeks during those hot summer days.<\/p>\n

A plaque near the gatehouse is dedicated to \u201call the women who served in various capacities before, during and following the Battle of Gettysburg. Their contributions, though rarely noted or honored, were immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephanie Ritenbaugh: sritenbaugh@post-gazette.com or 412-263-4910.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taking care of the dead, wounded and grisly aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg mostly fell to civilians who lived through the carnage.\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[15],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2016\/05\/20160509-Gettysburg01.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"Taking care of the dead, wounded and grisly aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg mostly fell to civilians who lived through the carnage.","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7sNEa-3u","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}