Jennie Wade House

Gettysburg, PA

Mary Virginia “Jennie” Wade lived on Breckenridge Street in Gettysburg, where she and her mother worked as seamstresses. They fled their home in anticipation of the coming battle, choosing to stay with Jennie’s sister Georgia McClellan. This was not only for their own safety, but because Georgia was very pregnant, giving birth just an hour before the Confederate Army arrived in Gettysburg.

The Wades and McClellans did their patriotic duty by serving bread and water to the nearby Union forces. In the early morning of July 3rd, Jennie began to knead a fresh batch of dough so they could continue to provide for the soldiers.  That same morning, Confederate soldiers began firing on the North side of the house, which was hit by over 150 bullets. One such bullet, a Minié ball, passed through two doors and struck Jennie in the shoulder, penetrating her heart and finally coming to rest in her corset, ending her life on July 3rd,1863.  Federal soldiers carried Jennie’s body to the cellar where she remained until he fighting ceased.  

Today Jennie is bored in Evergreen Cemetery.  With minor changes and repairs, the Jennie Wade House remains much as Jennie would have known it over 150 years ago. The walls of the old house tell the story of the home and those who took shelter from the Battle there.

September 1, 2013
Investigators: Beth Rosen, Matt Rosen & travis Spitzer with guests Will Ishee & Tammy Spitzer.

Location Photos: Click to enlarge

  • Mary Virginia Wade (a.k.a. Jennie Wade) was struck down while baking bread for Union soldiers during the Civil War’s bloody Battle of Gettysburg. With over 50,000 deaths in all, amazingly, she was the only civilian killed during the conflict. This was the very home where she died, and was actually the residence of Jennie’s sister, Georgia McClellan.
  • Plaque at the base of her statue explaining the details regarding her final demise.
  • A hole left by the Minié ball that took Jennie’s life – faithfully preserved for history’s sake.
  • First floor bedroom with a photo of Jennie on the far wall.
  • Second floor bedroom not far from where our investigators heard those eery footsteps charging up the stairs. (See the audio section for details.)
  • View of the basement, where Jennie’s body remained while the war raged on.
  • An artist’s rendering of how the dreadful basement scene might have appeared back in the day.
  • Jennie was engaged to a Union soldier, Jack Skelly (pictured left), who was mortally wounded two weeks earlier in the Battle of Winchester. Wesley Culp, fighting for the Confederacy (right), came across his old friend, Skelly, at a field hospital and was given a note to pass along to his fiancée. Sadly, the note never made it. Culp died the same day Jennie did, with Skelly passing on 12 days later.
  • Jennie Wade’s grave in the Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg – with her fiancé, Jack Skelly, laid to rest nearby.

Findings:

2nd Floor: With an entire floor separating the investigating groups – Travis and Tammy hear unmistakable footsteps charge up a nearby stairway and enter the room. Inexplicably, the only access to that side of the house was a single door below, and it was locked

August 31, 2014
Investigators: Beth Rosen, Matt Rosen & Travis Spitzer with guests Tammy Spitzer, Nick Wendling & Karen Memmolo.

Location Photos: (click to enlarge)

  • Front view of the house where Jennie was killed.
  • Old photo of the home showing the extensive damage it sustained during the pivotal battle.
  • Jennie’s sister, Georgia, to the left – her mother at center – and Jennie to the right.
  • This is the kitchen where Jennie was baking bread when the fatal bullet entered.
  • Another shot of the first floor.
  • Doors leading to the basement/cellar area where Jennie’s body was kept until the battle passed and her final arrangements could be made. Close
  • Interior photo of the basement.
  • At the time, the property actually housed two families, the McClellans (Jennie’s family) and the McClains. On the far end of this photo is the McClellan’s side of the house and where we heard those footsteps charging up the stairs.
  • Jack Skelly’s grave site – Jennie Wade’s fiancé. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Winchester and died just 12 days after Jennie’s passing. Appropriately, they’re buried near each other in Gettysburg’s Evergreen Cemetary.

Findings: nothing to report.

Grave Concerns Paranormal does not view findings presented on this page as evidence of ghosts or the paranormal. These are merely experiences that we can not explain at this time.