History

History information is some background and history about the location. This is meant to be a basic summary. Below the history records you will find sources in which you can click on to find out more information. There may be multiple history records per location.

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The Jacob Hummelbaugh farm is south of Gettysburg, on the north side of Pleasonton Avenue at Taneytown Road. (Pleasonton Avenue tour map) Although Pleasonton Avenue did not exist in 1863 Taneytown Road was a major route into Gettysburg for the Union army. The two story log house has shiplap siding and a gable roof. It was built sometime in the 1840s.

Jacob Hummelbaugh was a widower. His son, Leander, was away with the 138th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was not at the Battle of Gettysburg. It had been assigned to the Harpers Ferry garrison. At the time of the battle the regiment was escorting military stores to Washington D.C. to prevent them from falling into the hands of Lee’s army. Leander was badly wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.

The house was just behind the lines of the Union 2nd Corps on the 2nd and 3rd day of the battle. It was somewhat sheltered by its location on the east side of Cemetery Ridge. The 2nd Corps used the farm as a field hospital, and the wounded Confederate General William Barksdale was treated here before he died on July 2nd. Union Cavalry commander General Alfred Pleasanton also had his headquarters here from July 4th through July 6th.

The monument visible in the distance above the pump on the left of the photograph is the United States Regulars monument on Hancock Avenue, showing how close the farm is to the scene of some of the battle’s heaviest fighting.

The Hummelbaugh farm at Gettysburg is owned today by the National Park Service.

Added by: sdonley on 01/04/2025 DB#:628
Source(s):
https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battlefield-...

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Nesbitt, a former National Park Ranger, lived in the Hummelbaugh House. He described the interior of it in his book, Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions and Haunted Places on the Battlefield.

He described this place as “a house in miniature, very small, with low ceilings, doorways, slanted floors, a back bedroom I never used because it felt so claustrophobic in there, and a tiny attic area I never even went into because…something just didn’t feel right up there.”

Looking at a copy of the interior layout, both floors have doors leading into the spaces provided by the lean-to addition. On the first floor there were two rooms with a wall and a door separating them. The larger room leads into the small bedroom, and bathroom for rangers to use. The smaller room leads into the winter kitchen that has the customary cupboards for dishes and utensils.

The second floor has two rooms, one much larger than the other, that again are separated by a wall and door as well. Both of these rooms lead into the attic. The smaller room looks like it had many cupboards and closets for storage.

On the property, the barn/carriage house/stables building and the smokehouse are in great shape. The original hand pump also still exists. The main yard of the farm still has a white picket fence surrounding the entire perimeter.

Added by: sdonley on 01/04/2025 DB#:629
Source(s):
https://hauntedhouses.com/pennsylvania/hummelbaugh...

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In July of 1863, the Civil War came to Gettysburg. Jacob fled mid-meal after he heard the guns beginning to fire, leaving it all behind. The Hummelbaugh House wound up being just behind the lines of the Union 2nd Corps, on the second or third day of battle. A field hospital was established on Jacob’s property by the surgeon of the 148th Pennsylvania Regiment, with the wounded laying on the outside grounds waiting to see the surgeon.

The interior of the house became the operating room where the treatment of a bullet wound was amputation because at this time, there were no medications that could stop gangrene from taking the lives of the wounded. A huge pile of amputated limbs piled up outside, as surgeons had thrown them out the window of the operating room.

Jacob had left a barrel of flour in the attic that the surgeon and his team helped themselves to it, making pancakes to keep up their energy. Confederate General William Barksdale was one of the soldiers laying on the ground outside of the farm house, waiting his turn for treatment. He had been shot up with Union mini-balls as he was leading the charge across Seminary Ridge. He was in great pain, feverish, and asked for water. A drummer boy fed him water with a teaspoon. His treatment didn’t save him as he died on July 2nd.

Besides the little drummer boy, Barksdale’s loyal dog had been by his side, never leaving. When Barksdale was buried on the property, the dog never left. When Mrs. Barksdale came to take the body back to Mississippi, the dog would not come with her, as he probably saw the spirit of his master, wouldn’t eat the food offered him, so the dog slowly starved to death next to the old grave.

On July 4th, the field hospital was moved to a bigger structure, and Union Calvary Commander General Alfred Pleasanton made the Hummelbaugh farmhouse his headquarters until July 6th. After all had left, Jacob was glad to see that his house and most of his farm was still standing, minus his windmill that was blown up with a wounded soldier hiding inside. However, I bet all his chickens and animals were taken and the government didn’t replace any of it, leaving him with no food or a means to make a living.

Leander’s wife, Sarah, wrote a letter to the state legislature, asking for relief because farmers in Pennsylvania lost their livestock and chickens to raiding Confederate soldiers. She brought out the fact that her husband Leander was badly hurt for the cause of the Union. Her pleas fell on deaf ears. The Federal Government had already decreed that anything stolen by Confederate soldiers was not reimbursable. Somehow they survived. Perhaps, her parents helped them get on their feet once again. They may have moved back to Jacob’s farm to support Jacob which would allow him to stay on his farm until 1872 when he died.

The older son John resumed his trade of being a blacksmith somewhere in Pennsylvania which means he could have supported his father as well, and had Jacob move in with him and his family.

The farm may have eventually been handed down to the next generation, or perhaps sold to another farmer, as Leander and his family stayed in the area, while John had moved to greener pastures. However, John died at age fifty, and his family may have come home to Gettysburgh and stayed on the family farm. After twenty-three years of private ownership, the property was sold to the National Park Service in 1895 when The Gettysburg National Military Park was established.

During the 1950s, the lean-to was drastically changed and renovated to add a bathroom and full kitchen, as the house was deemed suitable for one Gettysburg National Park Ranger to occupy. Park Service rangers lived there, but not alone!

Added by: sdonley on 01/04/2025 DB#:630
Source(s):
https://hauntedhouses.com/pennsylvania/hummelbaugh...

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Added by: sdonley on 01/04/2025 DB#:631
Source(s):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr5RyLzSelc

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