Ghostly Reflections
My best friend, Heather Bustard, invited me to enjoy a girls weekend at one of her most favorite places which is also the oldest standing structure within the town limits of Gettysburg, PA; we stayed two nights at the Historic 1776 Dobbin House Tavern, Gettystown Inn - Leister House in the Lee Suite.
There is nothing quite as hauntingly nostalgic as staying in a Civil War era home that is furnished with beautiful 19th century antiques; the Lee Suite accomodated us perfectly with two rooms and a private bath on the first floor.
We also had access to a huge front porch with two rocking chairs and a bench swing. When we weren’t galavanting around town, we enjoyed porch sitting, socializing with other guests of the inn, people watching, reading stories that prior guests had journaled, and enjoying a few glasses of wine!
A lovely breakfast was included in the cost of the room and it did not dissappoint. It was DELICIOUS and PLENTIFUL!
For dinner, we enjoyed a leisurely meal with five star service in the upstairs dining room. The staff all wore authentic looking costumes and the atmosphere was straight out of the 1700’s, wrapped in candle-lit ambiance. Heather had lump crabmeat topped with a rich cream sauce and baked to perfection. I had broiled filet mignon, medium, topped with a 4oz crabcake, and a side of honey glazed carrots. Both were SUPERB and we were too full to attempt eating a dessert!
If you visit Gettysburg, you musn’t leave before taking at least one historic tour! Heather and I managed to fit in a few tours during our stay; reasonably priced and worth every penny, I highly recommend each of these three locations:
Jennie Wade House
We entered the same doorway through which a bullet passed on July 3rd 1863, killing young Jennie Wade and making her the only civilian to be killed during the battle of Gettysburg.
The National Soldiers Orphanage Homestead
We journied down the original wooden stairs to the same dingy, dark dungeon of a basement, where a cruel headmistress chained children to stone walls when they misbehaved.
The Shriver House
We walked through the Shriver’s meticulously restored 1860 home and learned the civilian side of the Battle of Gettysburg, connecting to the past while listening to the story of George, Hettie, Sadie (7) and Mollie (5) unfold as we moved from room to room to appreciate what life was like before, during, and after the Civil War.
While we didn’t encounter any ghosts or supernatural phenomena during our guided tours, I believe we had a visitor in our Lee Suite late Friday night/early Saturday morning.
Have you ever seen or met a ghost when you’re fast asleep, that is, in a dream? A “visitation dream”; clear, vivid, intense, experienced as a real visit when you awaken from it, feeling changed by the experience.
I was sleeping soundly in this comfortable daybed when, from above the armoire cabinet, an old wooden staircase descended from the ceiling.
As I looked over at the stairs, a husky heavy-set woman came bounding down them, hurried and determined. She was wearing a long, plain-looking, white colonial style dress with long sleeves, and an apron.
I see her as plain as day, and can still feel her energy, every time I recall this dream.
She approached the side of my bed and leaned over me, telling me she had been waiting for me, in a rather excited, caring and jovial manner.
Next, she turned and walked quickly through the doorway to the adjoining room, hoisted herself to sit on the end of the big poster bed where Heather was sleeping, heaving a euphoric sigh of relief.
Just then, Heather startled awake, sat up in her bed, and asked what was going on. Then I woke, to a quiet and peaceful room, wondering if it what I just experienced was real or just a dream.
Oddly, in my dream, everything was in vivid color, except for the staircase and the woman which were a sepia tone.
In the morning, I shared my dream with Heather. I couldn’t get it off of my mind. Later Saturday afternoon, while we were porch-sitting during a brief rainstorm, I re-told it again to a friendly couple who were also staying at the inn, Chris and Melissa Welch. Chris smiled and said, “maybe it wasn’t a dream, maybe you had a visitor”.
Chris knew quite a bit of Gettysburg’s history, he explained how the Inn used to be owned by Lydia Leister, and part of the original farmhouse, established in 1874, had actually been moved from the farm into town in 1888; it was part of the building we were sleeping in. He tried to search for pictures of Lydia Leister online because I was curious if she might look like the woman in my dream. Unfortunately, we didn’t find a match.
Fast forward to late Sunday afternoon.
I arrived home and settled in. David and I were sipping a cocktail and catching up; I was sitting on the kitchen counter, re-telling my visitation dream to him while he cooked dinner. He scoffed at me and my ghostly ideas, as he often does, but what happened next left him a little dumb-founded.
I started re-searching the Leister house and the Leister family online, browsing through random old images that came up. Suddenly, there she was, the spitting image of the woman in my dream! Excitedly, I showed David (still laughing at me by this point), and I also sent her picture to Heather via text message saying: “That’s her!!! I swear that’s her!”
Josephine (Miller) Slyder - Original Cat Lady of Gettysburg
Yes, there is a connection to cats and the Gettysburg battlefield that ties into the Civil War Tails take on Gettysburg history. Josphine Miller (Rogers) Slyder is pictured above years after the battle with her feline. And who is Josephine Miller? Well, outside of Jenny Wade; she's probably the most famous female (not feline) citizen of Gettysburg, even though her story has not been told, hardly at all really, for decades.
I clicked on her picture which took me to an article about a heroine of the Gettysburg battle of the Civil War, Josephine Miller Slyder. I’d never heard of her before, so I searched her name, found some more pictures, a few articles (one is enclosed below), and even a poem written about her (also enclosed below).
And finally, the confirming kicker which made me gasp for air, made the hair on my arms stand at attention, goosebumps and all, was when I noticed her birthdate, October 9th, the same as mine! David, no longer laughing, said “now that IS wierd”.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence!
At any rate, I’m glad she chose to visit me in my dream. What an amazing, fearlessly strong and kind-hearted woman! Free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. Staying amidst the bloody battle to serve, rescue, feed, and care for both the blue and gray soldiers.
May we all strive to be a little more like her, and may her memory live on forever.
Josephine Miller Slyder
October 9, 1836 - January 9, 1911
“The war cloud is gath’ring o’er Gettysburg vale,
Portending hoarse thundering and death-dealing hail;
The solid earth trembles, and the rent is the air,
With the rushing of squadrons, the loud trumpets blare.
The clanking of arms, and the shouting of men,
And the neighing of steeds from each echoing glen;
But unheeding the din and unhindered by dread
Josephine Miller is baking her bread.
Now the battle is on, and they warn her away;
For her cottage it stands in the sweep of the fray,
They say ‘twill be shattered by shot and by shell.
But she answers by quenching their thirst from the wen,
And baking her bread for the blue-coated men,
And heating her oven and baking again.
Alone in the house whence the owner had fled,
Josephine Miller is baking her bread.
She hears on the roof bullets patter like rain,
Bombs burst in the road and the door yard. The slain,
By scores and by hundreds on every hand lie.
The wounded crawl into the cellar to die.
With her cup of relief she is here, she is there;
No cry is unheard, but with tenderness rare.
Alone, all alone with the dying and dead,
Josephine watches while baking her bread.
All through the long night and the long weary day
She nurses the wounded, the blue and the gray;
And their tears silent fall, for sweet visions of home
And of faces belov’d to each soldier will come
When the maiden draws nigh and the dying rejoice
In the touch of her and and the sound of her voice,
And pray for a blessing to rest on the head
Of Josephine Miller while baking her bread.”
Above the Call of Duty: Josephine (Miller) Slyder
War on the Doorstep: Civilians of Gettysburg
By: Lauren Letizia
By late June of 1863, alarms warning of approaching Confederate forces were nothing new for the 2,400 residents of Gettysburg. Living just ten miles from the Mason-Dixon line, small-scale raids, kidnappings of freed-people, and rumors of an imminent clash between the two great armies had long plagued the borough and its surrounding community. Nevertheless, none of these events could prepare Gettysburgians for the ferocious 3-day fight between 165,000 soldiers in early July of that year that would transform the lives and lands of Gettysburg’s civilians forever. However, these civilians’ experiences were not monolithic; while some were defined by tragedy and blight, others included remarkable episodes of perseverance, successful pragmatism, and creative profiteering. This new blog series profiles the lives of diverse Gettysburgians who were forced to confront the war at their very doorsteps, each on their own terms, whose stories speak to the kaleidoscope of experiences of civilians struggling to survive, and thrive, along the Pennsylvania-Maryland border during the Civil War.
It is often said that in hard times we discover the true characters of our neighbors. While some become distant and aloof during times of terrible hardship or fear, others demonstrate courage, kindness, and selflessness. The latter phenomenon is exemplified in the story of Gettysburg civilian, Josephine Rogers, also known as Josephine Miller. A young woman at the time of the great battle, she risked her own life to help young soldiers in need of sustenance and shelter. Interestingly, as she did so, she simultaneously defied traditional gender norms and fulfilled them in ways that proved not only celebratory, but were also memorialized by those who witnessed her selfless actions.
Josephine Rogers’s small farmhouse was located on the edge of the Emmitsburg Road, south of Gettysburg. It was owned by her relatives, Peter and Susan Rogers. There is some dispute as to Josephine’s familial relationship with Peter and Susan. Some accounts list her as a niece, while others state she was a granddaughter or adopted daughter. Josephine would eventually marry her neighbor, William J. Slyder on October 25, 1863, with whom she soon moved to Ohio. But on the second day of fighting, the entire Rogers family was still occupying their small farmhouse. As the violence began to intensify in the vicinity of the Rogers home, Union General J.B. Carr, commanding a brigade of New Yorkers stationed closest to the home, requested that Josephine and the Rogers leave immediately. However, 18-year-old Josephine refused to flee, telling the general she had a batch of bread baking in the oven. She reassured him she would leave after the bread was finished.
Around 1:00 pm on July 2, General Daniel Sickles ordered the 3rd Army Corps to leave its position on Cemetery Ridge and move into the valley along the Emmitsburg Road, seeking to thwart a supposed Confederate march to Washington D.C. and move his troops to what Sickles considered to be a less vulnerable position along the high ground immediately above the Emmitsburg Road. The men of the 1st Massachusetts began to move into the Rogers’s fields and towards the farmhouse. At approximately 2:00, the men started to smell the scent of fresh bread, and as they arrived in position, they saw Josephine removing the loaves from the oven. Noting the soldiers’ desperate hunger, Josephine quickly sliced the loaves and distributed them to the Union soldiers. Three hours later, the Confederates open fired on the newly stationed 3rd Corps, bombarding the 1st Massachusetts, and Josephine Rogers, with shells. Despite the increasingly perilous situation, Rogers kneaded, baked, and sliced more loaves of bread for the troops. The officers offered her compensation, but she vehemently refused. To show their thanks, as Josephine’s flour supply dwindled, some soldiers volunteered to steal more from General Sickles’s commissary stores. They also returned with a supply of raisins, currants, and a sheep. Josephine Rogers stayed in her home for two days, not only feeding the soldiers, but also caring for the dying and wounded.
On July 3, the infamous artillery duel between the two armies shook the foundations of Josephine’s farmhouse. The Confederate infantry began to advance against the Union line, with some southerners marching directly through the Rogers’s fields. Just as General Carr had found Josephine hard at work by her stove, the Confederates incredulously noted Josephine Rogers once again baking bread amidst the hailstorm of lead flying about her.
Over the course of the now iconic Pickett-Pettigrew charge, many Confederate soldiers died near Josephine’s home. When the smoke had cleared, the home still stood but was marked with bullets and scarred by artillery shells. Seventeen bodies were removed from the farmhouse and the cellar. Additionally, many wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate, had crawled into Josephine’s home to seek a haven from the bloody storm. Josephine cared for and comforted them as best she could, no matter what color uniform they wore.
Josephine Rogers’s actions at Gettysburg symbolize both the breaking and fulfilling of traditional 19th-century gender roles. By obstinately refusing the orders and protective offers of powerful men and remaining in her home in the midst of battle, she directly contradicted the image of the meek and passive housewife who depended on masculine aid in the face of danger, and did not hesitate to attend to the mangled bodies of strange men. However, in other critical ways, she also fulfilled the roles expected of a 19th-century woman: She remained in her home to carry out her domestic responsibilities of baking, nursing the men under her roof, and (in true “Republican motherhood” style) literally propping up men to perform their “proper” civic and martial duties. Though she did all of this in spite of the horror and bullets swirling around her, Josephine represented the pinnacle of 19th-century feminine duty to home and to country. For both her defiance of and dedication to such gender norms, she earned a permanent place in the hearts of the men she interacted with on those two famous July days.
As the Civil War drew to a gruesome finale in 1865 and the nation struggled to heal, many people never knew about the heroic and altruistic actions of Josephine Rogers. However, the surviving troops of the 1st Massachusetts could not forget her. After the war, she was named an honorary member of the 3rd Corps, the only woman to receive such an honor. On July 2, 1886, when General Carr’s brigade reunited in Gettysburg, they invited Josephine Rogers to attend. They sought out her current whereabouts and mailed an invitation to her new home in Dayton, Ohio. Josephine agreed to travel back to her old home to once more to see the men she had aided. During the reunion, the Massachusetts men dedicated a monument to their unit’s actions at Gettysburg across the road from the Rogers’s house. Josephine was granted a privileged seat on the official ceremonial stand at the dedication. During the ceremony, some of the veterans moved the legendary black stove that Josephine had so famously used to bake bread for the soldiers under fire from the farmhouse and set it in front of the new monument. Josephine posed for a photo next to the stove with a loaf of bread in her hand. Josephine’s beloved stove has been lost to history, and the Rogers house no longer stands, having been torn down in the 1880s. Now, only a small plaque bearing the family name and a square-shaped picket fence remain to mark the homestead. Few people know the name or story of Josephine Rogers, but her heroic deeds speak to us over the generations from the memoirs and histories of the soldiers whose lives she touched, whose bodies she healed, and whose hunger she unflinchingly risked her life to quell; the import of her actions to those soldiers is forever enshrined in the rolls and records of the 1st Massachusetts, in the dedication speeches for the monument that still stands across the road from her homestead, and in the photos of her proudly posing by her stove with the veteran Bay Staters who made sure she would not be forgotten by history. Blending traditional 19th-century gender roles with the pragmatism necessitated by war, Josephine’s unlikely actions speak to her patriotism, but also her humanity, which she refused to sacrifice to the horrors and affronts of war.
The Rogers House
The one story log farmhouse was torn down in the 1880’s. It was replaced by a two story frame building, which has since been removed. The site is marked by two large trees, a white picket fence and an iron War Department marker.
Peter Rogers, born in 1802, is said to have stayed in his house during the battle. His wife, Susan, born in 1797, took refuge east of the Round Tops. Susan’s 23 year old granddaughter, Josephine Miller, stayed behind with Peter. She baked bread for the men and cared for the many wounded in the cellar. Like other farms on Emmitsburg Road, the house was struck by several shells, and dead soldiers covered the ground.
Location of the Rogers House on the Gettysburg battlefield
The site of the Rogers house is south of Gettysburg on the west side of Emmitsburg Road at its intersection with Sickles Avenue. (39.808294° N, 77.244063°)
In October of 1863 Josephine married William Slyder and moved to Miami County, Ohio. The 1st Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment dedicated its monument on the Rogers farm in July of 1886. They paid for a round trip train ticket for Josephine to return to Gettysburg as a guest of honor. She was presented with a gold badge as a “tribute of their gratitude for her kindly services,” and was given three cheers. The cast iron stove that Josephine used to bake the bread was still in the house, and the Massachusetts veterans brought it out beside their monument for photographs with Josephine.
