After the battle of Gettysburg ended, Union soldiers were rejoicing that they finally beat the Confederates, especially on northern soil. Soldiers were then to look after their own, whether to find them and take care of the injured or to bury their fellow comrades around town at local farms. However, civilians came home to their farms and homes to find the devastation left behind. One family, though, had to bury their daughter, sister, and their friend. Why you ask? Jennie Wade passed away yesterday at 8:30 a.m. on July 3rd.
On July 4th, citizens would normally celebrate Independence Day. However, on July 4th, 1863, citizens of Gettysburg would celebrate that the battle is over and they can go back to their homes to find what is left. Georgeanna Wade McClellan would normally celebrate a birthday with friends. This year though, she was a mother of a newborn baby boy that is now ten days old. But that’s would make any mother happy, but with Georgeanna, she is torn with her emotions. She is happy that the battle is over and her baby boy is alive, but her sister, Jennie, is dead. Union soldiers were able to find a coffin and they placed Jennie Wade into it. In the picture above, the garden would be on the left side of the picture. They dug a grave and shoveled the dirt unto her grave. Sadly though, this is not her final resting place. The garden would have plenty of flowers on it during the remainder of the summer.
Sometime in January 1864, her coffin is dug up and carried to the German Reformed Church on High and Stratton Street in town. It’s possible that it was dug in the family plot for her earlier sister that was buried here. They had another ceremony for her second burial.
Her final resting place is within the Evergreen Cemetery in November 1865. She was buried between her parents and her uncle. Mary Virginia “Jennie” Wade was then buried here. Sometime in 1901, the Woman’s Relief Group of Iowa, which one of its members was Georgeanna Wade McClellan, the current monument is placed at her gravesite. About a decade later, the flag-post and the American flag was installed. Her flag is one of two in the United States that is flown 24 hours every day for every day of the year. The other flag is at Betsy Ross’s gravesite.
Her monument at the duplex with the Jennie Wade House that was placed with her holding the loaf of bread was installed in 1984. A few of her relatives may have come out for that placement of the statue along with a ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery for the 150th anniversary of her death.