Jennie Wade

Born:  May 21, 1843, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Died:  July 3, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Resting Place:  Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Brief History:  Mary Virginia Wade (May 21, 1843 – July 3, 1863), also known as Jennie Wade or Ginnie Wade, was a resident of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during the Battle of Gettysburg. At the age of 20, she was the only direct civilian casualty of the battle, and killed by a stray bullet on July 3, 1863. The house where she was killed is now a tourist attraction and museum called the "Jennie Wade House". She may have been engaged to Johnston Hastings "Jack" Skelly, a corporal in the 87th Pennsylvania, who had been wounded two weeks earlier in the Battle of Winchester. He died from his injuries on July 12, 1863, unaware that Wade had died days earlier. The Wade family lived on Breckenridge Street, Gettysburg. Jennie’s father, James Wade, owned a tailor shop in town but had a sordid past and several run-ins with the law. In November 1850, he was sentenced to prison for theft.

One bullet flew through the window of the house and hit a bedpost of the bed Georgia was lying in with her day’s old son. An artillery shell also crashed through the roof and remained in the house for fifteen years, fortunately never detonating. It is not known who fired upon the house, or if the house was even a target. From somewhere north of the McClellan house on Baltimore Street, a soldier fired his musket and the bullet penetrated the outer door, then pierced the inner door leading to the kitchen and slammed into Jennie Wade. The bullet found its mark in her heart, and she fell dead without a sound. More than 150 bullets hit the McClellan house during the fighting. About 8:00 a.m. on July 3, Wade was kneading dough for bread when a Minié ball traveled through the kitchen door and the parlor door of her sister's house and hit her. It pierced her left shoulder blade, went through her heart, and ended up in her corset. She was killed instantly.