A Thousand Words a Battle: Gettysburg Aftermath

Aftermath of Battle, Gettysburg
July 8, 1863

Five days after the bloody contest at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, concluded, Italian-born 49-year-old Father James Francis Burlando, C.M., in charge of the Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph’s Provincial House in Emmitsburg, wrote to one of his colleagues in Maryland describing what he had observed in the aftermath of the battle and the role the Sisters of Charity played in aiding the wounded and dying soldiers, on July 8, 1863:

Rev. and Dear Sir:—You have been informed without doubt by the papers that we have been visited by the Army of the Potomac, and that very near us has been fought a terrible battle, the most bloody since the secession. St Joseph has well taken care of his house, and St. Vincent of his daughters; we have not been troubled, or at least we have escaped with the slight loss of little forage and some wooden palings, which have served for the wants of a portion of the army.

The evening of the 27th of June the troops commenced to appear upon a small hill a little distance from St. Joseph’s. Regiment after regiment, division after division, all advanced with artillery and cavalry, and taking possession of all the heights encamped in order of battle. The 28th, 29th and 30th we were completely surrounded. General [Oliver O.] Howard and his suite took possession of our house in Emmitsburg; General [Carl C.] Schultz [Schurz] and his suite were close to St. Joseph’s, in the house which served some time since for an orphanage; the other Generals took quarters in different houses along the line of army.

For the protection of St. Joseph’s General Schultz gave orders that guards should be posted in its environs, and General Howard did the same for our little place in Emmittsburg [sic]. A great number of officers asked permission to visit the house, and all conducted themselves with courtesy, expressing gratitude for the services rendered the soldiers in military hospitals by the Sisters.

On Monday this portion of the army departed, and was replaced by another not less numerous, which ranged itself in line of battle as the first. A colonel of artillery, Mr. Latrobiere [?], with other officers quartered in the orphanage; he also visited the Institution. The Sisters distributed bread, milk and coffee.

On the 1st of July the battle commenced about seven miles from Emmittsburg [sic]. Whilst the booming of cannon announced that God was punishing the iniquities of man our Sisters were in church praying and imploring mercy for all mankind.

On Sunday, I accompanied eight Sisters bearing medicaments and provisions for the wounded. At the distance of six miles we were stopped by a barricade, and at about three hundred yards there was another to intercept all communication. At the second was stationed a company of Federal soldiers, who perceived us from afar. I descended from the carriage, and raising a white handkerchief advanced to the second barricade, and announced the purpose of our errand. Immediately several soldiers were sent to open the way, and the two vehicles continued their route without danger. At some distance we found ourselves again in the face of another barricade, which compelled us to make a long circuit. Behold us at last upon the scene of combat — what a frightful spectacle! Ruins of burned houses; the dead of both armies lying here and there; numbers of dead horses; thousands of guns, swords, vehicles, wheels, projectiles of all dimensions, coverings, hats, habiliments of all color, covered the fields and the road. We made circuits to avoid passing over dead bodies; horses, terrified, recoiled or sprang from one side to the other. The further we advanced the more abundant were the evidences present of a terrible combat, and tears could not be restrained in the presence of these objects of horror. At last we halted in the village of Gettysburg. There was found a good portion of the Federal army in possession of the field of battle. The inhabitants had but just issued from the cellars wherein they had sought safety during the engagement. Terror was still painted upon their countenances. All was in confusion, each temple, each house, the Catholic church, the Court House, the Protestant Seminary were filled with wounded, and still there were many thousands extended upon the field of battle nearly without a succor. I placed two of our Sister in each one of the three largest improvised hospitals, offered some further consolations to the wounded and then returned to St. Joseph’s.

The next day I started with more Sisters and reinforcement of provisions. Meanwhile provisions had been sent by the Government, and the poor wounded succored, and the inhabitants having recovered from their terror have given assistance to thousands of suffering and dying. Elven Sisters were now employed in this town and necessaries to-morrow if possible. Whilst I write you the sound of cannonading re-echoes from the Southwest, where another engagement takes place. My God, when will you give peace to our unhappy country?

Yours,

Burlando[1]

 —Frank Jastrzembski

Part of a series.

[1] George Barton, Angels of the Battlefield: A History of the Labors of the Catholic Sisterhoods in the Late Civil War (Philadelphia: The Catholic Art Publishing Co., 1898), 141-43.