Jennie Wade – The Young Baker from Gettysburg

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863. July 3 was a Friday. Around 8:30 a.m., Miss Mary Virginia (Jennie) Wade, 20, was home and was busy baking bread for hungry Union soldiers. At the Farnsworth house, almost two blocks from Jennie’s house, a rogue sniper was in hiding. Thinking that the Wade house was a Union headquarters and hoping to eliminate a Yankee officer or soldier, the Confederate sniper fired a single bullet towards the Wade house.

The sniper’s bullet passed through two doors into the Wade house before hitting Jennie in the small of her back, just below her left shoulder blade. Jennie died instantly when the bullet pierced her heart.

Jennie Wade started reading the Bible every day. The passage he happened to read on July 3 was; “Wait on the Lord; be of good cheer, and he will strengthen your heart.” Death was abundant in Gettysburg in early July 1863. The Union suffered approximately 3,155 deaths and the Confederacy approximately 3,903 deaths. Miss Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.

You can visit the Jennie Wade House in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When you visit Jennie’s house, you can see where the north side of the house is speckled with over 150 bullet holes and shells from the Battle of Gettysburg. On display at the Wade house is the bullet that killed Jennie Wade, the young baker.

Congress later declared that the United States flag would fly over Wade’s grave. The flag of the United States still flies there now in honor and memory of Jennie Wade and all the innocent civilians killed in the Civil War.