HOME OF BASIL BIGGS & FAMILY Then & Now

Quick Facts

Location:

This photo was taken near Taneytown Road.

Basil Biggs was a free African-American who made Gettysburg his home in 1858. With the approach of Confederate troops before the battle, Biggs, his wife Mary and their seven children, fled town. Biggs and his family returned soon after the battle ended and worked to repair damage to his property and that of John Fisher, whose farm on the Taneytwon Road would become Biggs’ home that fall. Biggs was hired to work in the exhumation of Union dead from battlefield graves for burial in the National Cemetery. He was paid $1.25 per body.

This photograph is part of a series of Then & Now photos of Buildings & Farms.