Courage to Face a Tragedy
"Gettysburg: Stories of Monumental Courage"
A Broadcast For Students and Teachers from Gettysburg National Military Park
Broadcast date: May 21, 2002
 The Christ Lutheran Church is one of the most stately public buildings in Gettysburg. Many of the first German settlers in Adams County were members of Lutheran churches, and between 1780 and 1800, an influx of German migrants from other Pennsylvania counties filled the county with members of that faith. By the early 1800's there were ten separate Lutheran churches in and around Gettysburg.
Christ Lutheran Church was established in the 1830's for the benefit of townspeople who wished to form a congregation for sermons in English. The foundation was set in 1835 and construction completed in 1836. It was graced with a multiple step entry into a great foyer at the main entry, with a large and spacious sanctuary. The strong brick walls supported a slate roof and large bell tower in which a bell from a Spanish monastery and dated 1787, was hung. Hailed at the time for its simple grandeur, the church was a gathering house for a substantial Lutheran congregation in Gettysburg. It was also known as the "College Church" as it served the students of Pennsylvania (later Gettysburg) college and the pastor was a college faculty member. The church was one of the first buildings in Gettysburg to be used as a hospital by Union surgeons and rapidly filled with wounded men from the fighting west and north of Gettysburg on July 1. Over 100 men were crowded into the central portion of the church, stretched upon boards laid across the tops of the pews, with an additional forty or more packed into the lecture room in the basement. Chaplain Horatio Howell of the 90th Pennsylvania Infantry, was shot and killed by a Confederate soldier on the steps of the church after he refused to surrender his sword. The church was unable to recoup its losses while being used as a hospital for six weeks after the battle, but the congregation pitched in to clean up the church and make repairs costing over $2,000, a small fortune for that time. Over the years, Christ Lutheran Church has undergone numerous repairs and expansions, but is still in operation on Chambersburg Street in Gettysburg today. A monument at the base of the church steps marks the location of Chaplain Howell's death. |
 Sallie Myers Adams Co. Historical Society |
"At 10 o'clock that morning I saw the first blood. A horse was led past our house covered with blood. The sight sickened me. Then three men came up the street. The middle one could barely walk. His head had been hastily bandaged and blood was visible. I grew faint with horror. I had never been able to stand the sight of blood, but I was destined to become used to it."
Taking to the cellar of her home, she and her family listened to the sounds of battle above.
"We knelt, shivering, and prayed. The noise above our heads and from the distance, the rattle of musketry, the screeching of shells, and the unearthly cries, mingled with the sobbing of the children shook our hearts. Three soldiers crept down into the cellar... and we concealed and fed them. Before 6 o'clock the firing ceased and we came up from the cellar. They had begun bringing wounded and injured into town. The Catholic and Presbyterian churches, a few doors east of my father's home were taken possession of as hospitals. Dr. James Fulton (143rd Pennsylvania Volunteers) did splendid work getting things in shape. From that time on we had no rest for weeks. 'Girls,' Dr. Fulton said, ' you must come up to the churches and help us- the boys are suffering terribly!' I went to the Catholic church. On pews and floors men lay, the groans of the suffering and dying were heartrending. I knelt beside the first man near the door and asked what I could do. 'Nothing,' he replied, 'I am going to die.' I went outside the church and cried. I returned and spoke to the man- he was wounded in the lungs and spine, and there was not the slightest hope for him. The man was Sgt. Alexander Stewart of the 149th Pennsylvania Volunteers. I read a chapter of the Bible to him, it was the last chapter his father had read before he left home. The wounded man died on Monday, July 6."
Sallie Myers continued to care for patients at the church and those brought into her home until they could be removed to Camp Letterman, the large Union field hospital on the York Road east of Gettysburg. "These were bitter days," she recalled in 1909, "but memories of them are softened when one considers the friendships that were made."
As it turned out, all of Gettysburg's churches and many houses became hospitals when the fighting began in earnest on July 1. Christ Lutheran Church on Chambersburg Street was one of the first buildings opened for wounded and Union surgeons immediately set about by designating an operating area while assistants lay boards over the pews to accommodate the wounded. It was not long before the first wounded arrived, battered and bloody. Forty-one year old Mary McAllister, who lived with the John Scott family on Chambersburg Street and operated a small store across the street from Christ Lutheran Church, had just that morning handed out cups of water to Union soldiers as they raced down Chambersburg Street toward the battle. Now she saw many of these same men staggering back up the street toward the town. She had already assisted one wounded officer into the Scott house where she lived when a neighbor suggested they go over to the church to assist the growing number of wounded there. She was about to get the shock of her life:
"I gathered up sheets and water and Mrs. Weikert and I went to the church and we went to work. They carried the wounded in there as fast as they could. We took the cushions off the seats and some officers came in and said, 'Lay them in the aisles.' Then we did all we could for the wounded men. After a while they carried in an awfully wounded one. He was a fine officer. They did not know who he was. I never knew who he was but he died. Well, I went to doing what they told me to do, wetting cloths and putting them on the wounds and helping. Every pew was full; some sitting, some lying, some leaning on others. They cut off the legs and the arms and threw them out of the windows. Every morning the dead were laid on the platform in a sheet or blanket and carried away. There was a boy with seven of his fingers near off. He said, 'Lady, would you do something for me?' The surgeon came along and he said, 'What is the use doing anything for them?' and he just took his knife and cut off the fingers and they dropped. Well, I was so sorry.
"A man sat in a pew and he was young and white (pale from shock). He said, 'Lady, come here. Do you know if there is a Mason in town?' I said, 'Yes, there is one Harper, a printer, but he has left town and I know no other.'
"'Oh!' he said, 'If only I could get to him!' But I was too scared. The church was full and just then a shell hit the roof and they got scared, and I was scared. I wanted to go home. I looked around for Mrs. Weikert. They said, 'They are going to shell the church!' Well, they begged me not to go, but I went out and there the high church steps were full of wounded men and they begged me not to try to cross the street. Our men were retreating up the street. Many wounded ones who could walk carried the worst wounded ones on their backs. I said, 'Oh, I want to go home.' So they let me go at last. I struggled through the wounded and the dead and forgot the horror in the fright. I was as far up as Buehler's drug store before I got across the street and got home. When I came to the door it was standing open and the step was covered with blood. I could hardly get through for the dining room was full of soldiers, some lying, some standing. Some ran in to get out of the shooting. The rebels were sending grapeshot down the street and everyone who was on the street had to get into the houses or be killed and that is the way some of these Union men got into our house."
 Mary McAllister, seated at left- 1884. Adams Co. Historical Society |
By the evening of July 1, 1863, the town of Gettysburg had become one large hospital for hundreds of wounded soldiers, packed into churches, the school, and private homes. War and its grim horror had invaded the very homes of the residents of Gettysburg, as blood stained the floors and furniture and amputated limbs piled up outside of church operating rooms. It was a grim reality that would last for weeks to come and one that the citizens of the town would have to face for the rest of their lives. One can only imagine what kind of courage it took for these ordinary people to face a disaster of this magnitude.
Questions to consider!
Go on to Scene 3- Courage to Persevere Despite the Odds.
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GETTYSBURG: STORIES OF MONUMENTAL COURAGE
A Live Satellite Broadcast- May 21, 2002
National
Park Service
Gettysburg
National Military Park
97 Taneytown Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325