The Calm and the Strife
Page 34
Ginnie’s death had been an accident, but some great common need had transformed it into a symbol. At first, Georgia had resented the poems and the songs, the effort to make her sister into a heroine, into something that she was not and had no desire to be. If Ginnie had stayed in her own house, the soldiers she helped would have worn gray uniforms. It was pure chance that little Kenny had been born just then, placing Ginnie among federal troops when the bullet found her.
It was strange, she thought, how chance makes heroes – and sometimes villains – out of the most unlikely people. In the developing myth, even her name had been changed, to “Jennie.” The name was just as wrong as the romantic legend they were creating around her. Yet, when Georgia tried to picture herself in Ginnie’s situation, she wondered if she could have shown a similar kind of courage. God had chosen Ginnie for some reason, and Ginnie had lived up to the challenge. People knew that, and that was what they were remembering. It was Ginnie’s role to die. Georgia’s role was to go on living.
She hardly noticed the final dirge by the choir and the flowery benediction by yet another clergyman. As the crowd began to disperse, she bid her escort goodbye, then walked down the steps of the speakers’ platform and away from the long concentric rows of fresh graves. This place had become a national memorial to the sacrifice of thousands of ordinary people who had given their lives that others might live.
Georgia stepped out onto the Emmitsburg Road just as the cemetery workers behind her lowered another crumbling body into a fresh grave. But she did not notice. Her eyes were set on the little house at the end of the street. She strode quickly, with a new sense of urgency, toward home, toward her husband and her new baby.
The End
Authors’ Afterword
The story you have just read is based on actual historical records. We have, to the best of our ability, culled all the relevant facts from the most reliable sources and used them in our narrative. But, as in all historical fiction, imagination has been used to link those facts together to create a story which is both entertaining and informative. We hope you feel that history and invention have blended seamlessly in our novel.
Wesley Culp left his home in Gettysburg to work for Mr. Hoffman in Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1856. A member of the Hamtramck Guards, he joined the Confederate forces when war broke out and fought in the battle of Manassas with the Stonewall Brigade. He was later captured by Union forces and subsequently exchanged. Eventually, he was killed in Gettysburg on his family’s property, an irony which in pure fiction might seem a bit far-fetched. Wes and Ginnie were probably killed about the same time, 8:30 a.m. on Friday, July 3, 1863. The official record states that Culp’s body was never found. The conclusion reached in this book is one of several alternate stories which still circulate to this day.
Virginia (Ginnie) Wade was the only civilian to be killed during the Battle of Gettysburg. She died under the circumstances described in the book. Neither the gunman’s identity nor his position when he fired the shot have ever been definitely established. Although she has been known to history as “Jennie” Wade, her name was Mary Virginia. It appears that her family and friends called her “Gin” or “Ginnie.” The misnomer “Jennie” seems to have been a newspaper error in one of the earliest published accounts. There is no documentation which would indicate that Ginnie was pregnant. However, some who have researched the story and are familiar with its details feel that there is a possibility that she was. For the purposes of our narrative, this possibility serves the plot well. We have tried to treat this part of the story sympathetically, so that it would elevate and not demean her reputation.
Johnston H. (Jack) Skelly was probably engaged to Ginnie. He was wounded in the Union ranks in Winchester, Virginia on June 15, 1863, and died on July 12, 1863. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg not far from Ginnie’s monument. Before Skelly died, Culp, who had known him when they were boys in Gettysburg, happened upon him in Winchester and, at his request, promised to carry a message to Ginnie. He failed in his attempt to reach her the night before they both were killed, although he did get to see his two sisters. There is no record of what the message to Ginnie contained.
Julia Culp was the younger sister of Wesley, and had a close bond to him even after he became a Confederate soldier. Julia and Ginnie were the same age and were undoubtedly acquaintances in their youth. Julia visited Wes in Virginia before the war, and worked in the courthouse-turned-hospital on July 1. She was later married to John C. Welliver, but died only five years after the Gettysburg battle, in August 1868.
Mary Ann Filby Wade, Ginnie’s mother, later received a financial grant from the government as recompense for the financial hardship caused by the death of Ginnie. Born in 1820, she continued to live in her Breckenridge street home until her death in 1892. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, as was her husband, James, who died in 1872. He spent his last years in the Adams County Alms House.
Georgia Wade McClellan, Ginnie’s older sister, began serving as a nurse to wounded soldiers in the Adams County Courthouse and elsewhere by the end of July 1863. She was invited by President Lincoln to sit on the platform when he delivered his Gettysburg Address in November 1863. Georgia and Louis had five children, the second of whom was named Virginia Wade McClellan. They lived for many years in Iowa, and Georgia could often be found in Gettysburg when significant anniversary events of the battle were celebrated. She lived until 1927.
Louis Kenneth McClellan was born to Georgia, Ginnie’s sister, on June 26, 1863. The birth took place in the McClellan residence an hour before the Confederates entered the town. Ginnie was helping out in her sister’s home on July 3 when she was killed. Louis, “the youngest veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg,” died on Lincoln’s birthday in 1941.
The house in Gettysburg in which Ginnie was killed has been converted into a museum called the Jennie Wade House.
David J. Sloat – sloat111@gmail.com
John W. Sloat – sloat437@gmail.com
The Cast of Characters in
THE CALM AND THE STRIFE
The Wade Family
James Wade, a tailor: 1814 to 1872
Mary Ann Filby Wade: 1820 to 1892
Georgiana "Georgia" Wade McClellan: 7-4-1841 to 9-5-1927
Married on 4-25-1862 to:
John Louis McClellan, carpenter: 4-7-1837 to 3-4-1913
Co. E, 165th Pennsylvania Infantry
Their son: Louis Kenneth McClellan: 6-26-1863 to 1941
Mary Virginia “Ginnie” Wade: 5-21-1843 to 7-3-1863
John "Jack" James Wade: b. 3-13-1846
Company B, 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry
Samuel Swan Wade: b. 8-6-1851
Henry “Harry” Marion Wade: b. 2-4-1855.
Isaac Brinkerhoff, boarder, six years old
Son of Wilhelm and Gretchen Brinkerhoff.
The Culp Family
Esaias Jesse Culp, tailor: 6-12-1808 to 6-7-1861
Margaret Ann Sutherland Culp: 10-5-1807 to 11-7-1856
William Edward Culp: 8-8-1831 to 10-12-1882
Co. F, 87th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
Married to Salome Sheads: 7-30-1825 to 2-15-1912
Their son: Wilbertus “Bertie”: born 1853
Barbara Anne “Annie” Elizabeth Culp Myers: 1834 to 1890
Married to Jefferson Myers: 1839 to 1883
John Wesley Culp: 1839 to 7-3-1863
Co. B, 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment,
part of the "Stonewall Brigade"
Julia M. Culp: 1-5-1843 to 8-5-1868
Married to John C. Welliver on 3-5-1868
Henry Culp, a cousin: b. 1809
The Skelly Family
Johnston “Jack” Hastings Skelly, Jr.: 8-4-1841 to 7-12-1863
Co. F, 87th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry
Other Books by John W. Sloat
Lord, Make Us One, 1986
The Other Half, 2001
Memories of My Misadventures, 2008
A
Handbook For Heretics, second edition, 2009
Moving Beyond the Christian Myth, 2011
Life Surprises, 2012