Prior to the battle of Gettysburg, there were about 2400 civilians around town. Some of the citizens were blacks who made it north by the Underground Railroad searching for freedom and a new life. Others were immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Poland, and England arriving by boat into New York City and traveling by wagon to freedom and building a farm for their family. As the war began in 1861, some of the citizens, the young men coming to age between 16 and 18 years old, enlisted for the Federal Union Army. They left with their friends, brothers, and sometimes father off to war. The women would have to take care of the children and the households when they were gone. Families suffered if there was a death or deaths of the enlisted men. They would never see each other again.
Stories like this occurred everywhere in the North and the South during the Civil War. Families kept records and tales of the stories and hardships they endured during this period of the past. Telegrams, letters, notes on paper, writings in family bibles pass down their experiences and history. Let’s explore the families and civilians that kept history alive for us to know and continue to pass on to the next generation of historians.