An Eyewitness Account of the Battle of Gettysburg: Daniel Skelly's Story

[00:00:02][music] >> Uh today I'm going to give a little program on uh Daniel Skelly and his account of the battle. And um you know, it's it's actually one of the more complete accounts of the battle. It tells you a lot about what's happening in the area in the town during about and it gives a good uh um aftermath account of the battle and it gives a really good account of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Um and it's it doesn't uh have a lot about the town prior to the battle as some other accounts. So, you know, um but it is one of the best civilian accounts. There are, depending on how you count, something like 300 accounts by Gettysburg civilians, interviews in newspapers, letters that they wrote, um you know, or accounts that they wrote that were printed. Now, I don't know how many booklets were printed by Gettysburg civilians, but I I'd say there's somewhere depending again how you uh count them, uh 20 of these booklets by civilians that are printed or published by them or by their children or you know, produced later for consumption.

[00:01:39]And you know, they're very interesting because they give the view of the battle from the people who lived here at the time.

[00:01:47]And I always say that uh you know, >> [clears throat] >> I worked as a licensed battlefield guide for many years at the park and uh usually the military historians or park rangers kind of poo-poo the local civilian accounts. Uh because, um you know, they don't know much about what's going on. As if civilians aren't as reliable as the soldiers that were here.

[00:02:13]And, uh sometimes I get in I sometimes I'm insulted by that.

[00:02:18]Not all the time.

[00:02:20]Uh but, uh um but, here's an interesting fact that I've learned over the years.

[00:02:26]The soldier that fought in the battle is only here in the battle for like, you know, let's say, you know, an hour in their life 30 years ago.

[00:02:37]They don't know the name they don't know who owns the property they're fighting on.

[00:02:41]They don't know the name of that hill.

[00:02:43]They don't know the who the name of that wood lot. They don't know the name of that road. They don't know the name of that stream.

[00:02:49]But, in the civilian accounts, they do know where they're standing. They do know who lives in the house. They do know the name of the hills and the streams and the roads. So, uh in some sense, there's some specific information in these accounts that you find that aren't in the accounts of the soldiers that fought here. And, I always felt that by taking the civilian accounts and mixing them with the accounts of the soldiers, you get a better broader idea of the battle.

[00:03:23]And, um Dean S. Gallay is just uh uh one of those very interesting accounts. So, his book was published in early 1932.

[00:03:38]And, I believe it came out about, um March in March of 1932.

[00:03:46]Maybe it was the uh end of February.

[00:03:49]Uh he calls it a boy's experience storing the battles of Gettysburg.

[00:03:56]And he is 18 years old at the time.

[00:03:59]So, um you know, sometimes this account is used and may people make it seem like he's 12 or 13 years old. But, he's a young man at the time of the Civil War.

[00:04:14]And we'll talk about it, but he's just entering military age. So, he's it's a teenager's perspective of the battle.

[00:04:27]There's a nice article in the Gettysburg Compiler about his book when it comes out. And here's the, you know, um uh March 1932 Gettysburg Compiler that has an article about his book.

[00:04:46]And we have in our collection several maybe four or five copies of his book.

[00:04:54]Signed by him. A few of them are signed.

[00:04:57]I think maybe all of them are signed. He might have signed all his books.

[00:05:00]And uh some are personalized to people who were in town at that time.

[00:05:06]So, March of 1932.

[00:05:11]And you might notice when you read the beginning of his book, I think it's great he has a photograph of himself um in 1932.

[00:05:21]And a photograph of himself at the time of the battle. So, you can kind of can compare um uh you know, how he appears. And in his book um he dedicates the book to the memory of his wife Lilly Hill Titus Skelley. And you can see that um although she wasn't from here, she lived here most of her life and she died here and she had died in 1931 while he was in the process of writing this book. And she was a major factor in his trying to complete this work.

[00:06:07]Here's a 1929 photograph of Daniel Skelly and his wife Lilly on their porch on Chambersburg Street.

[00:06:18]And of course he lived on um West Middle Street at the time of the battle.

[00:06:25]And um in the first block of West Middle Street not far from the Adams County Courthouse.

[00:06:31]But later in life and for most of his life he lived on the third block of Chambersburg Street near um the Meade School just before you go around the corner to the post office and Buford Avenue.

[00:06:47]And um you the house still stands.

[00:06:50]Um I think it's uh I forget the the uh address.

[00:06:57]Um it I guess it doesn't matter. But you'll you'll see it there if you look off to your right. Two things to look for is you know it has that little alcove where the porch is and it has that horrible you know green plastic turf on the porch.

[00:07:16]Anybody have that on their porch?

[00:07:19]I used to.

[00:07:21]But uh that's that's where they that's where the Skelly's uh lived for many years. And Dan Skelly spent his entire life in Gettysburg.

[00:07:30]And you know with just uh you know a few weeks here and there at different uh places uh he lived here most of his life. I think he died in Baltimore though. But with one of his grandchildren's house.

[00:07:43]Um Here's Oh, I wanted to mention >> [laughter] >> that I'd always wanted to write something about the Ann Skelly.

[00:07:54]Um I have annotated a few of these civilian accounts and we have a couple of them for sale in our bookstore. I did an annotated account of Mary Warren Fasnacht, her civilian book of the battle, which I had an original copy I'd purchased and I annotated um uh Nellie Akenballs' account of the battle and she had produced a little booklet and I added details about the things she says in it and what she's referring to and I have an annotation of Leander Warren's account of the battle, which I have a little an original version of his book.

[00:08:37]Uh that one we have never we haven't published yet. And then I have um an annotated book that I haven't published yet either on Daniel Skelly's account of the battle and I'm very excited about this one because, you know, we have his book but also we have uh I know two collectors, well actually three collectors, that have stuff from Daniel Skelly that came from Daniel Skelly. And recently, within about a year ago, um the great-grandson of Daniel Skelly uh came to the historical society and gave us a whole bunch of photographs and letters and items from Daniel Skelly and from his son Daniel Skelly Jr.

[00:09:36]And that's why all of a sudden we have original items that pertain to the writing of this book.

[00:09:46]And here you see we have a Tipton photograph taken in 1932.

[00:09:51]And this is the one that he uses in the front of the book uh you know, as his subject or uh you know, for his now view.

[00:10:02]And here's his son Daniel Skelly Jr.

[00:10:06]He had become a newspaper man and moved to New Jersey.

[00:10:09]But what's really good for us, for for you know, our purposes is his father wrote to him on a regular basis while he was working in New Jersey.

[00:10:22]And he Daniel Skelly Jr. kept these letters and handed them down through the family.

[00:10:30]And in the letters, Daniel Skelly Sr. is talking about writing the book.

[00:10:37]So we have details that we would not have otherwise in these letters.

[00:10:45]And and I love the father and son banter.

[00:10:49]Um uh First uh I guess the first mention I saw was like in 1929, like 3 years before it came out where he's like, "Hey, you know, all the stuff is floating around in my head. Um I keep rehashing you know, my story of the battle and I think I should write it down and I think we should publish it in a little booklet and uh your mom says I better do it now because I'm not getting any younger and and uh um you know, how about if I write it and then I'll send it to you and you jazz it up a little bit. You do whatever you want and make it better."

[00:11:29]And then apparently he does. Now, we don't have the original manuscript and we don't have his jazzed-up version.

[00:11:37]What we have is a letters back and forth talking about it. So, after the father sends him the version and the son jazzes up a little bit, the father writes back to him saying, "No, you know what? I don't like how you did this on this page. I like my version of this better.

[00:11:53]And you know what? Over here I would prefer we did this." And And so they banter back and forth. But he also thanks a couple other people in the book um when they're working on it. And one of them is uh Herbert Graham.

[00:12:11]Uh and one of them is uh William Archibald McClean. And William Archibald McClean is the editor of the Gettysburg Compiler. And he writes a little introduction to the booklet. And Herbert, I think it's Herbert Graham. He actually wrote a booklet came out in 1927, Human Interest Stories of the Battle of Gettysburg. And I think he worked for the Gettysburg Times.

[00:12:35]So, these two men helped him in the production of the booklet when it came out.

[00:12:42]Now, of course, you know, Daniel Skelly is best known today when you hear about him because his brother is Jack Skelly.

[00:12:57]And of course, Daniel Skelly uh ended up with a lot of Skelly stuff.

[00:13:02]And he is the one who ended up with letters written by Jenny Wade to Jack Skelly.

[00:13:13]And theoretically, we're not going to talk, I know it's going to hurt me, but we're not going to talk about Jenny Wade today.

[00:13:20]Theoretically, he got these letters off of Jack Skelly's body or out of a knapsack when he went to Winchester, Virginia to get gather the body.

[00:13:33]Uh and brought it back to Gettysburg for reburial.

[00:13:37]Um it's possible the letters were given to Jack to his other brother, Charles, and that's how they got back.

[00:13:46]But somehow these letter letters written to by Jenny to Jack Skelly during the war uh ended up in the possession of Daniel Skelly. And we've known this for years because there's here's an article from 1929.

[00:14:02]And see at the very bottom Mr. Skelly has a packet of letters written by Jenny Wade to his brother while in the army.

[00:14:09]And even though we've known about these for years I guess we just thought they were lost because it wasn't until again the great-grandson of Daniel Skelly and then also his mother brought them to light uh and kind of rediscovered them in recent years.

[00:14:30]So they're uh and and I do a whole program on the letters and um what the contents of the letters are.

[00:14:36]But my favorite thing about Dan Skelly and he didn't you know when you read all this Jenny Wade stuff he doesn't really involve himself in the story that much.

[00:14:48]But there's in the packet of letters there's some letters that are partially destroyed.

[00:14:55]And uh he had this thing wrapped around the letters that were partially destroyed and you can see uh letters destroyed just boy and girl chatter of no interest to prying and critical eyes of others.

[00:15:14]And then says D A S Daniel Alexander Skelly.

[00:15:19]So um we can only presume to know what's in those letters.

[00:15:26]Those are the ones you want to read.

[00:15:28]Yeah.

[00:15:29]But um that's good stuff.

[00:15:32]Um so he you know he was conscious of the whole Jenny Wade Jack Skelly thing.

[00:15:37]And you know he doesn't really mention much about Jenny Wade or Jack Skelly in his account. And that's probably on purpose.

[00:15:46]He wants the account to be about him living in town and what the people in the town experienced. He's probably he probably knows more about Jenny and Jack than anyone.

[00:15:56]But he doesn't tell us.

[00:15:58]>> [laughter] >> I I have questions for him, too.

[00:16:03]So again, you know, um Jack and Jenny uh he he's part of that story.

[00:16:10]And there are some things that he does tell me uh in the little tidbits here and there that I can pick up on and make inferences about.

[00:16:21]And one of the interesting things is uh he's one of the sources for his brother, Charles. So Jack Skelly is in the army and his brother Charles is also in the army. And Jack and Charles are pretty close. He's actually called Ed because it's Charles Edwin Skelly.

[00:16:41]But Ed um doesn't really talk about it after the war or say anything about what happened to his brother or give his personal account. But he's captured at Winchester, also, and stays with Jack for a time while Jack is wounded.

[00:17:00]So I would say this, any message that Jack Skelly was going to give to Wesley Culp, don't you think he probably gave that same message to his brother who was next to him the whole time?

[00:17:13]Um and then he got pulled away and then Jack died. You know, he died got second died. So, but Edwin got was taken prisoner. And then Edwin or I should say Charles Edwin, he returned to Gettysburg and was married in August of 1863, moved out west. So, but we don't have an account from him.

[00:17:33]But Dan tells us that he was with his brother for a good period of time after he was wounded.

[00:17:41]So, let's talk a little bit about their family.

[00:17:44]Um this is their father, Johnston H. Skelly Sr. Johnston Hastings Skelly is Jack and his father's name.

[00:17:56]So, um he's born in Shippensburg.

[00:18:01]He's a tailor.

[00:18:03]According to my notes, I first pick him up in Gettysburg in um 1838.

[00:18:10]He's listed in the Gettysburg newspaper.

[00:18:13]And according to a later account of um I think it at the time of his uh anniversary of his marriage, they say he came here in 1836 and was married in 1837.

[00:18:25]And he's married to a Shippensburg girl.

[00:18:29]And so, uh I think they're from the Cumberland County side of Shippensburg.

[00:18:36]And so, their family's from up there and they move to Gettysburg. And you know, it's not long after um Johnston H.

[00:18:44]Skelly moves to Gettysburg that he uh employs an apprentice tailor named James Wade.

[00:18:56]And according to Daniel Skelly, you know, his father and James Wade actually James Wade moved in with their family and lived with them for a few years while he was an apprentice.

[00:19:11]So, um then he moved out, but you know, the Skelly family would have known Jenny Wade since she was a little girl.

[00:19:19]And then here on the left, that image is from the Adams County Historical Society from our collection, and on the right, this is from a Skelly family album that we obtained from, um, uh, like I said, Dan Skelly's great-grandson.

[00:19:38]We won't mention his name because, you know, I don't know if he wants uh, you know, crazy Jenny Wade people banging on his door.

[00:19:46]>> [snorts] >> Like me.

[00:19:49]It's too late for that, though.

[00:19:51]Um, and here's some, you know, we got this family album and there's great images on them. And there is again, Johnston H. Skelly Sr.

[00:19:58]on the left, and on the right is uh, Dan and Jack's mom, um, um, Elizabeth, um, Finnfrock Skelly.

[00:20:12]And one of the great things they gave us was the family Bible.

[00:20:16]So, we got the family Bible, and here in it you can see Johnston H. Skelly and Elizabeth N. Finnfrock was married, I like that was, on the 21st day of June, 1837.

[00:20:32]So, there's the marriage from the family record.

[00:20:36]And to give you an idea of the family, and I think there's uh, um, a couple children that died young, but these are the children that uh, lived to adulthood.

[00:20:46]And so, we have, um, Johnston H. Skelly Jr. Sr., and he married Elizabeth Finnfrock, and then, um, you know, there's Elmira.

[00:20:56]She ends up marrying and moving to uh, Ohio. Uh, Charles Edwin Skelly, and Johnston H. Skelly Jack, Jack, and then, um you can see that there's another uh then Skelly has another sister, Sarah, born in 1842.

[00:21:15]And she marries and moves away.

[00:21:17]And there's Daniel Alexander Skelly. And um uh his um he's got you see he's got two younger brothers. And the two younger brothers are never discussed at all in his account of the battle. He doesn't talk much about his family at all.

[00:21:37]And of course um there's a little sister, Annie. Now Annie lived in 1943.

[00:21:43]And here at the Adams County Historical Society, Arthur Weaner, who was a historian here [snorts] prior to me, we did our paths did cross.

[00:21:54]You know, I was here in the uh first few years of my uh working here, he also worked here. So we knew each other.

[00:22:02]He knew Annie Skelly when he was young.

[00:22:09]And he actually got her to write an account of the battle. It's not very good. She doesn't even remember the correct spot she lives. She's only seven at the time of the battle.

[00:22:20]But he does she actually gives him some artifacts associated with Annie. Uh some envelopes. I think um she has a she had a Jenny Wade, you know, envelope that she had written a letter to um uh Jack. And he had she had in her possession. And some other really cool things that he got from her. So I always think that I I talked to this guy who talked to, you know, Jack Skelly's sister.

[00:22:46]Um I would ask her different kinds of questions than he asked her. But it's it's it's it's you know, it's kind of interesting. And apparently um you know, um we were in the courthouse at that time.

[00:22:58]Uh the Adams County Historical Society.

[00:23:00]So uh Dan and Jack's sister visited the Adams County Historical Society at the courthouse. That's pretty wild.

[00:23:11]And we do have from the family Bible the dates of birth of the various children uh in the Skelly family. And there's also some grandchildren's dates of birth listed on there. So, we have a good um grasp on the family.

[00:23:27]And um you never hear much about them.

[00:23:29]So, I just thought I did throw their photograph in there. This is from the family album. And of course, this is uh you know, a little later. Uh I think it's an 1890s photograph. But Annie Skelly, who never married, was a school teacher. You know, school teachers aren't they don't marry.

[00:23:50]I don't not exactly sure the rationale for that, but it seems that a lot of the school teachers don't marry.

[00:23:56]Um she was uh worked at the Pitzer school for a while out by the Eisenhower farm. And there's a really in one of her uh school books that we got along with it, there's a drawing that a student made of the Pitzer schoolhouse, which was Longstreet's headquarters during the battle.

[00:24:12]You know, I think that's really wild.

[00:24:14]Although the the original had burned down and this is a recreation, so it's not the same as Longstreet's headquarters.

[00:24:21]But this is the three sisters um uh of Dan and Jack.

[00:24:27]And you know, in the album, there's really weird there's uh weird stuff there.

[00:24:32]Uh Johnson H. Skelly Jr.'s parents have a little um silhouette like in in images that are in the uh family photograph album.

[00:24:45]So, but today we're talking about Dan Skelly um and what he wrote in 1932.

[00:24:55]So, here's an image of him uh that is said to be from 1863 and this is this version of it is from William Frassanito's book Gettysburg a photographic legacy I'm getting these books mixed up aren't I?

[00:25:15]It's >> [laughter] >> I was going to say Gettysburg a journey in time that's his first book but this is from early photography at Gettysburg his second book on well on Gettysburg his updated book and he got this from the great not the great the granddaughter Daniel Skelly this image and it's a very good one I don't have a really nice version of this you know I guess the family did keep some of the stuff from that they had and another collector I know with an album has a version of that but this is him in 1863 and in 1858 as a young man so again he's 18 in 1863 so 5 years earlier he started to work at the Fahnestock Brothers store on the corner of Baltimore and Middle Street he worked there for 47 years eventually he became the owner of the store at that location and of course early on I think starting in the 1830s the store is run by Samuel Fahnestock and his wife and I got these photographs from um a grandson of Gates Fahnestock who would be the great great grandson of Samuel Fahnestock.

[00:27:00]I do see on the internet that um someone in the family um claims that these are someone's a different couple in the Fahnestock family. But, you know, when he brought them to me, uh you know, he told me they were Sam and his wife.

[00:27:18]Uh Samuel Fahnestock died, I believe, in 1861.

[00:27:22]And his um uh wife did live there at the Fahnestock building at the time of the battle.

[00:27:30]And uh she's a Balker.

[00:27:33]And I guess the Fahnestocks and the Balkers are both from the Abbottstown area. And if you go to the Abbottstown, you know, near the center of the town, there's a couple cemeteries, you can see Balkers and Fahnestocks buried there.

[00:27:46]We also have an article um from 1911 that talks about how Daniel Skelly in 1886 he and Ferdinand Warner went into part partners or, you know, actually um started a partnership. And they mentioned that they had their store in the McPherson building, which is the Fahnestock building.

[00:28:08]And they ran uh dry goods and a hardware store there for 24 years. And in the 1910, they moved somewhere else.

[00:28:16]And we have um a photograph. And I'll bring this up again a little later. But we have a photograph of the store. And you can kind of see their their their sign over here. And they have their name Skelly and Warner there on the store.

[00:28:31]And in this photograph, I think um Dan Skelly's right there, if I remember correctly. You know, I think he's this one.

[00:28:38]I remember it says in one of the accounts which one's uh one of the letters which one he is.

[00:28:45]Now, Dan obviously Daniel Skelly has two brothers. They're older.

[00:28:52]Jack and Charles.

[00:28:55]Charles Edwin who's again I'm just mentioning it cuz it's confusing if you happen to read the letters. They call him Ed.

[00:29:03]And Jack and Ed are in Company F, 87th Pennsylvania Volunteers.

[00:29:12]And um They they go into the army. Now, at the beginning of the war Dan is a little bit young to join the army.

[00:29:25]So, but there is a newspaper article in September of 1861.

[00:29:30]And this would be Jack Skelly's actually in the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry Company E, a 90-day unit at the beginning of the war.

[00:29:41]And with him in that company is one of the the Fahnestock's from the Fahnestock brother store. The dad that I should have mentioned Samuel Fahnestock died and three of his sons took over the business and that's why it's called Fahnestock brothers.

[00:30:01]And here in 1861 you can see the young men of the town between 15 and 18 form a military company to prepare to join the army. And the captain is Daniel A. Skelly.

[00:30:19]And I think it's interesting that the 2nd Lieutenant is Augustus Bentley. His name will come up again.

[00:30:29]And you can see there's one of the Rupps. So, there's a lot of people you know, that we know from other places. John Bushman.

[00:30:37]Mike would like that. He's in the research room though.

[00:30:42]So, um I guess that Daniel Skelly is preparing himself for a military career.

[00:30:50]And I got went I had just a lot out of order, I see.

[00:30:54]Um in the great grandson's collection that he gave to us last year, there were couple really fascinating things in it.

[00:31:06]And one of them was this book. And it's signed Daniel Skelly, June 20th, 1862.

[00:31:14]And you can see it's a book published in 1862, and it's Cadet Life at West Point.

[00:31:22]And you can see signed over the page.

[00:31:24]So, Dan Skelly is interested in what cadets at West Point might be interested in.

[00:31:33]And then here we have this.

[00:31:36]From the Gettysburg Compiler of March 2nd, 1863.

[00:31:41]Daniel Skelly of this place has, [snorts] through Honorable Edward McPherson, been appointed a cadet at West Point.

[00:31:53]You know, what's really interesting about this when I look at it, and I'm sure I'm sure that a lot of people pick up on this.

[00:32:00]Edward McPherson was a congressman from Gettysburg. He served two terms, but he was defeated in the 1862 election.

[00:32:11]Uh really because of the backlash against the Lincoln administration in our area and the course of the war not going favorably.

[00:32:21]So, a lot of the Republican congressmen were swept out of office in the midterm elections.

[00:32:28]And so, um his last day in office as a congressman of our district is March 3rd, 1863.

[00:32:38]>> [laughter] >> So, as a lame duck congressman, he appoints Edward um he appoints Dan Skelly to West Point.

[00:32:53]Isn't that cool?

[00:32:55]And I do not know how the Skelly family knows um uh you know, Edward McPherson.

[00:33:05]Um it could do it could have more to do with the Findley stocks. Maybe one of the Findley stocks uh Henry Findley stock or um Edward Findley stock, the two brother one of the brothers has influence with Edward McPherson. But, he's appointed to West Point.

[00:33:21]And sure enough, the great grandson had he gave it to us, it's in our archives, the appointment.

[00:33:32]And you can read that he's appointed on February 26th, 1863.

[00:33:40]Daniel A. Skelly. Oh, and I should have mentioned in the um uh family Bible, it says his name is actually Daniel Alexander Finnfrock Skelly.

[00:33:53]Finnfrock being his mother's maiden name.

[00:33:56]And Alexander being his grandfather's first name.

[00:34:03]So, interesting. And then you see over here uh did I put that page in? Yes, it's signed by Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War.

[00:34:13]I I I just never I I've never seen an appointment to West Point.

[00:34:18]>> [laughter] >> So, he goes to West Point and he enters West Point on June 3rd.

[00:34:29]Now, we don't know that Daniel Skelly had any sort of advanced education.

[00:34:39]It's not like that we know that he went to college or anything like that. He works for the Fahnestock brothers and they really like him and they think he's really good with numbers and accounting.

[00:34:54]But it's not easy to pass the entrance exams to West Point.

[00:35:03]And uh the family really never knew what happened.

[00:35:07]But William Frassanito, when he wrote his book, um Early Photography at Gettysburg, in his research, he wrote a letter to the historian at West Point and sure enough, they have it listed in their records that he uh did not pass his exams to enter West Point when he got there.

[00:35:31]So, he's there for a few weeks and um he uh he failed. So, he came home.

[00:35:40]And that's why he's not here at the beginning of the Gettysburg campaign.

[00:35:44]And so, that's where his book starts and I um I highlighted a few notes in the book as I go through here so I know what I'm going to what I want to mention.

[00:35:56]So, his book starts where he's in New York.

[00:36:00]He doesn't tell you why he's in New York in his book.

[00:36:04]And um he talks about trying to get back to Gettysburg.

[00:36:10]And just like I said again, it's a just a fascinating fascinating account.

[00:36:17]Um he talks about working for the Fahnestock brothers. I was absent from Gettysburg in New York from the beginning of June until the later part of the month. Leaving New York City for home on the morning of June 26, 1863, I reached Hanover, Pennsylvania on that afternoon. Expecting to get a train for home from the same um the same evening. But about 5:00, the last train out of Gettysburg until after the battle reached Hanover filled with people who were trying to get away from the Confederates.

[00:36:52]And so he ends up um appropriating the next day a um he and some of his friends uh and he gives us the names of his friends on the 27th, Thaddeus Slentz and Edward Cra- uh Craver. Edward Craver, I think, is his sister's husband.

[00:37:15]Or no. No, he's the brother of his sister's husband.

[00:37:20]Um and Thaddeus Slentz, what what was I going to say? That's Thaddeus Thaddeus Stevens Slentz is with him.

[00:37:28]Um I forgot He was uh he was also in Company F, 87th Pennsylvania for a while.

[00:37:36]We secured a hand car and started for Gettysburg on the Gettysburg and Hanover Railroad. But when we reached New Oxford uh we found the bridge over Conewago Creek had been burned by the Confederates. So, we were obliged to abandon the car and walk the 10 miles to Gettysburg, reaching home about 5:00 p.m. on the 27th. And again, on the 20- morning of the 27th uh the Confederate Army actually passed through New Oxford on their way to Abbottstown and towards York County, and they burned the bridge uh north of New Oxford to destroy the railroad transportation system there.

[00:38:19]But finally, he gets home. So, he gets home on the evening of the 27th.

[00:38:25]Now, um on June 30th, uh General John Buford arrives.

[00:38:33]And he talks about seeing John Buford.

[00:38:37]I was stood at Cobbean's corner on Chambersburg Street, now occupied by Epley's garage. I love in his account how throughout his account he compares the places he is at the time of the battle with who owns the spot today in 1932.

[00:38:55]Makes it a lot easier to keep up with his account. And, you know, we do have his account that you can read in our research room, or perhaps someone has put it online somewhere. I'm sure you could Google it and find it. It's probably also on the Internet Archives an original booklet of it. So, you could find and read it if you like.

[00:39:18]Or you can just wait for, you know, a year or so, you know, whenever we get around to printing up uh my annotated version.

[00:39:26]Um but he says, "It was the only time I ever saw General Buford and his calm demeanor and soldierly appearance, as well as the fact that his uniform was different from any generals I had ever seen, struck me forcibly. He wore a sort of hunting coat of blouse effect.

[00:39:50]Now, my good friend um um of course I say that good friend and I can't even remember who wrote the book.

[00:40:00]Mike Phipps. Mike Phipps, he's since passed away. He wrote a biography of Buford. And I said, "Hey, I have some accounts of what Buford looked like on July 1st." And I gave him this account and another one, and he used it in his book. And then Sam Elliott, when he played Buford, had read that book, and so Sam Elliott in the movie Gettysburg is not wearing the regular uh uniform. He's wearing the blue hunting blouse, you know, as best he can figure out described by Daniel Skelly.

[00:40:30]So, I feel responsible for that when I watch that scene in the movie Gettysburg.

[00:40:36]But, isn't it great how, you know, these people see the you know, people and mention and write about it?

[00:40:42]Okay.

[00:40:44]Now, one of the most interesting things about uh Skelly's account is his morning of July 1st.

[00:40:54]He talks about Gamble and Buf- um Devin's brigades and where they're camped. He goes out to see Apparently, he's standing at the tent near Devin's headquarters, and he hears like an order being read to Devin in his book somewhere on the Pennsylvania College campus. Um and then he learns that the Southerners are approaching out the Chambersburg Pike.

[00:41:18]So, he and a friend of his, and he does give the name of the friend here.

[00:41:26]Let's see. Who does he say he's with?

[00:41:30]Oh, he says he's with Samuel Anderson, a resident of Kentucky, but formerly of our town. Samuel Anderson, I think he's from uh York Springs, and he had married a local girl, Martha Bentley.

[00:41:46]Uh they moved to Ohio, and then Kentucky, and um they had a child. They had an 8-month-old child at the time.

[00:41:58]Uh Martha Bentley's dad lives on West Middle Street, Eli Bentley.

[00:42:04]He had served in the army, but had been discharged, and he's very sick, and he dies in early 1864.

[00:42:12]So, he's back in town with his wife and child staying with um the Bentleys and he's good he's childhood friends with Daniel Skelly.

[00:42:25]So, they go out onto Seminary Ridge and here's a Tyson Brothers photograph from 1863.

[00:42:34]And he says um uh let's see.

[00:42:40]Okay. Anderson went towards the Theological Seminary building expecting to get on the cupola of that building.

[00:42:47]I remained on Seminary Ridge just where the old tapeworm railroad cuts through it.

[00:42:54]The ridge was full of men and boys from the town all eager to witness a brush with the Confederates and not dreaming of the terrible conflict that was to occur on that day and not having the slightest conception of the proximity of the two armies.

[00:43:11]And then he talks about how they were looking ahead and they could see um uh see the cavalry out in front of them.

[00:43:21]I climbed up a good-sized oak tree as to have a good view of the ridge west and northwest of us where the two brigades of cavalry were then being placed.

[00:43:34]So, um you know, I've always maintained that you know, he's near the railroad woods which is that wood lot there. There's the old tapeworm railroad. So, he's in a tree on top of that ridge back here. Not this tree.

[00:43:53]Let me blow it up a little bit.

[00:43:55]Yeah, not this tree but one of those trees or a tree over here.

[00:44:01]So, he climbs up in the tree to get a good look. That seems like a good idea, doesn't it?

[00:44:08]Nearer and nearer came the skirmish line as they fell back before the advancing Confederates, until at last the line on the ridge beyond became advancing can uh before us the advancing Confederates.

[00:44:21]Um soon the artillery opened fire and shot and shell began to fly over our heads. One of them passing dangerously near the top of the tree I was on.

[00:44:32]There was then a general stampede towards the town uh and I quickly slipped down from my perch and joined the retreat to the rear of our gallant men and boys.

[00:44:43]And I think this is you know, you can picture this as they're running back through the town. So, that photograph was from the edge of the town looking at Seminary Ridge. This photograph is from Lee's headquarters.

[00:44:57]And that's the railroad over to our left and we're looking back through the edge of the town and that house there, this is the Seminary Ridge view by Matthew Brady's crew. That's the Carrie Sheads house, which according to one of the letters written to his son, he knows her pretty well.

[00:45:16]Um and he says, "I started for the town on the old tapeworm railroad, but crossed from it over a field to the Chambersburg Pike on the east side of Miss Carrie Sheads school.

[00:45:34]And when about the middle of the field, a cannonball struck the earth about 15 or 20 ft from me, scattering the ground somewhat about me and quickening my pace considerably."

[00:45:47]I think other people have read this over the years, love his humor that he's injecting into this situation.

[00:45:56]And people asked about this all the time. We get this question now at Gettysburg because of First Bull Run.

[00:46:03]Didn't all the citizens go out and watch the start of the battle?

[00:46:08]And sure enough, you know, he says they did here as well, but only for a few minutes.

[00:46:15]They got out of there really quick.

[00:46:18]And we have accounts of, you know, people talking about him um the running towards the town.

[00:46:25]Okay.

[00:46:26]There's a one other thing about this account here that's interesting.

[00:46:31]Um Let's see.

[00:46:38]When I reached the pike, there galloped past me a general and his staff, who upon reaching the top of the ridge behind him, turned into the lane towards the seminary building.

[00:46:50]This, I have always believed, was General Reynolds coming up onto the field and going to the seminary. We had an interview with General Buford then on the cupola of the seminary.

[00:47:02]Hey, I mean, the time is exactly right, and it makes a lot of sense that he saw General Reynolds pass him.

[00:47:12]He ends up going back into town.

[00:47:15]And he decides that um he wants to keep track of the battle, so he goes to the Fahnestock building where he works.

[00:47:27]And um according to uh his account, let's see if I have it from this account.

[00:47:36]Being anxious to see more of the battle, I concluded to go up to the roof, where an observatory platform afforded afforded a fine view of the surrounding countryside.

[00:47:50]This observatory, which appears in period photographs of the Fahnestock building, was on the back of the building fronting on West Middle Street.

[00:48:02]There were steps from the third story floor up through the roof of the building, the exit being through a large trapdoor.

[00:48:11]The observatory had a railing and benches around it and was about 8 ft or more square.

[00:48:20]And sure enough, if you look in the back of that 1863 photograph, you can kind of see that fenced in observatory on the top back of the building.

[00:48:33]And um he proceeds to watch the battle from that in company with Miss Mrs. E. G. Fahnestock, wife of Colonel Fahnestock.

[00:48:47]She he's talking about um Edward G. Fahnestock.

[00:48:53]And he is at the time of the battle, I think I should have looked. I think he's in the 165th Pennsylvania drafted militia. Uh I think he's like the major of the unit. And he eventually will become like a paymaster um in Grant's army.

[00:49:14]And uh his wife is uh a Louisa Tate.

[00:49:20]And they had married just around the time of the war.

[00:49:24]And um I'll show a picture of her in a minute. He says uh she is living in that house apparently while her husband's in the army with uh Susan uh Barker Fahnestock, the Fahnestock's mother.

[00:49:39]And Isaac Johns is with them.

[00:49:42]I think Isaac Johns works for the Fahnestock brothers also, so a co-worker of Daniel Skelly. And his good friend Augustus Bentley.

[00:49:54]So, Augustus Bentley or Gus, as he calls him in his account, Gus Bentley is the younger brother of Martha who was married to Samuel Anderson that he already talked about. So, all these people are related and you can find stuff in the newspaper by these other people. So, what's interesting about this now, we're going to talk about Dan Skelly's account of what happens while he's in this observatory.

[00:50:21]And it's probably for battle sake and for understanding the battle sake, um it's probably the best part of his account because we also have an account of this event from General Oliver Otis Howard.

[00:50:38]And in National Tribune, I found an account of this event from Gus Bentley.

[00:50:44]And then we have this account by um Daniel Skelly.

[00:50:48]The Fahnestock store, we're very fortunate.

[00:50:52]Well, there's a we probably would have it this information anyway, but Alexander Gardner, who recorded views with his assistants Timothy O'Sullivan and James Gibson, recorded a number of views of dead around the battlefield of Devil's Den and the Rose Farm and dead horses at the Trostle Farm and Meade's headquarters and Evergreen Cemetery Gatehouse. And the farthest north that Alexander Gardner and his crew took an image on the battlefield of Gettysburg for some reason was the Fahnestock house or the Fahnestock building. So, we have that version I just showed you and here's a variant of it taken from Middle Street. I'd say we're like in this view we're like near the side of the candy store shop door on Middle Street And we're looking west across Baltimore Street, which you can see the the you know, the stones and how they're on the turnpike and how they're kind of beat down by the wagon wheels. And we're looking down West Middle Street. And I didn't mention it earlier, but Dan Skelly and his family rent a house on Middle Street. I believe it's that one right there next to Harvey Waddles' house. That's where they end up hiding Skelly that actually that big house with the um uh big roof on it over there is Harvey Waddles. So, he lives in one of the Bow- Bowman rental properties, I believe.

[00:52:27]Bowen, I think.

[00:52:29]But um uh here again, in this one you can't see it really well, but the uh here's a view looking down that street. And there is a really really clear version of this view from the New York Public Library.

[00:52:45]Um and um uh but, you know, it doesn't blow up that well.

[00:52:50]Here's a really nice um glass plate negative from uh the Library of Congress of the Fahnestock building. And I think on this one you have a little bit uh better view of the observatory we're talking about.

[00:53:06]And then here is this um uh you know, 1920s or so view.

[00:53:14]I guess Well, we don't know. It had to be before 1910. So, before 1910 view of uh the Skelly-Warner store. And you can see they still have the uh observatory on the back. Now, um eventually there's additions placed onto the building.

[00:53:34]And um off the top of my head I don't remember which year, but so when General Howard, that's right. It would have to be before 1902. So, when General Howard returns to visit the site, the observatory is not there anymore. So, that photograph has to be before that, too.

[00:53:51]So, basically, the story is General Oliver Otis Howard, the commander of the 11th Army Corps, had came up from Emmitsburg, and he came up ahead of his troops. Uh he was going to place his troops back at the Peach Orchard by order of General Reynolds.

[00:54:09]And he was riding into town to survey the situation and learn what, you know, the situation is and if orders had changed by General Reynolds. And uh for some reason, he wanted to get a view of the events that were occurring out west of the town. So, he rode to the cupola of the Adams County Courthouse. And he stopped with his staff in front of the courthouse, and he tried to get into the courthouse, and uh he couldn't get in the door, or, you know, no one knew where a key was to get up to the cupola.

[00:54:44]And Daniel Skelly, on the back of the Fahnestock building, looked down and saw, you know, a group of officers trying to get into the courthouse. So, he ran downstairs, and he said, "Hey, if you guys want to see what's going on, we have an excellent view from the top of the Fahnestock building here in the back." And so, he led the general upstairs and onto the observatory, and he watched the battle for a time. Now, I've been on the I've been on the roof, you know, I'm going to show you in a minute. I've been up there.

[00:55:20]You can't see anything.

[00:55:22]I I don't I don't know what he's looking at, but you can't see anything.

[00:55:26]The Seminary Ridge blocks whatever you can see.

[00:55:30]And maybe if there's not trees, you can kind of see some smoke in the you know, you could probably look out and see which direction the battle's occurring because of rising smoke, but you can't see any details of the battle.

[00:55:43]But while Howard and his staff are on top of the building, a courier comes riding down Middle Street and stops.

[00:55:51]Probably he's got a staff officer down below and um the staff officer yells up that General Reynolds has been wounded in the fighting.

[00:56:02]And then Howard's like, "Oh, I I I hope he's all right." You know, and um and then a few minutes later, another courier comes riding down the street and yells up, "General Reynolds is killed. You're in now in command."

[00:56:18]And so Howard takes command >> [clears throat] >> of the Union Army while he's on top of the observatory.

[00:56:25]And of course you might know, Howard had lost his uh left arm at the Battle of Fair Oaks, so he's got, you know, one arm.

[00:56:33]And again, there with him on the observatory is Daniel Skelly, um Isaac Johns, Gus Bentley, and Gus Bentley has a whole account about this also uh along with Skelly. And then there's um um uh Mrs. Fahnestock, and I just put the photograph in there. We have I have a photograph from my collection. These are actually all from my collection. Louisa Tate Fahnestock and her two kids.

[00:57:02]And um just uh fascinating. And when Howard uh after Howard, you know, gives some orders, then he goes to down and he's going to ride back to Cemetery Hill and eventually out to the first day's battlefield. He actually stops on his way down because Mrs. Balker, um I should say Mrs. Susan Balker Fahnestock, Mrs. Fahnestock, is flipping out. And so he stops, and Dan Skelly thinks it's nice that he has time to talk to the widow and assure her that everything's going to be all right and calm her down a little bit. Cuz again, she's in the house with her uh uh daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

[00:57:45]And she's very concerned.

[00:57:47]Um oddly enough uh Susan's brother lives in Frederick County, Maryland and one of his sons is a staff officer with Jubal Early.

[00:58:01]And during the battle, her nephew visits her in her house.

[00:58:07]In the Confederate Army, of course, when the town's occupied.

[00:58:12]So, this whole story about you know, um Daniel Skelly assisting General Howard to get a better idea of the situation and being there present when Howard takes command of the army and this is a big deal that Dan Skelly remembers and talks about for the rest of his life. In 1902, General Howard um he had he'd made he'd been in Gettysburg a bunch of times after the war. But, he came back in 1902 for the dedication of Henry Warner Slocum's equestrian statue on Steven's Knoll. And while he was here he took his son and another friend with Dan Skelly to the Fahnestock store and they climbed up to the site of the observatory.

[00:59:03]But, by this time another half story had been put on the building and the observatory wasn't there.

[00:59:11]So and I figured out I have never seen this original photograph. I I kept asking the you know, the guy who gave us all the Dan Kelly Skelly stuff, "Can't you look around? You sure you don't have the copy of the photograph?" Cuz in 1932, uh Dinsmore Skelly added this to his book, this 1902 photograph. And the date you can't read the date. It took me a long time to figure out when that photograph was taken.

[00:59:39]But I figured it out uh after a while uh from the context of I think it says September something there uh and from um when he came back that it was 1902.

[00:59:52]And sure enough, uh I've been up on that building a bunch of times.

[00:59:57]And um and there is no good view out to the west. You really can't see anything. Well, I have several videos on YouTube where I'm in on the building and I tell stories about General Howard.

[01:00:11]And there's Gary. Gary always has to, you know, follow me around.

[01:00:19]And here's a view from the top of the Fondasol building looking down Baltimore Street across through past the courthouse. So, you can see why he's trying to get into cupola of the courthouse.

[01:00:29]Where he busted the wooden vent, you know, the wooden blinds out so he could see.

[01:00:33]>> [laughter] >> Yeah.

[01:00:36]Um but there's a uh there's a view of it.

[01:00:40]And um here's a um another early view uh I don't think we know exactly what date this is, but this is probably before uh this is probably still when it was Skelly and Warner store, but I I this is probably before that other view. But in this one, the Mumpers have a photographic studio. You see the uh the glass uh that's been put in on the roof and then there's a a glass panel there for the photographic studio for light.

[01:01:13]And you can still see the Now, this one I really like. You can see some of these houses along the street there.

[01:01:21]And again, here's that one that Again, I I don't know when it was taken. But, one thing is really cool and um the letters written between Dan Skelly and Dan Skelly Jr., he tells his son that he wants to include this photograph and he says, "I am standing um I think he says I'm standing between the trees. So, maybe he's got to be over here then."

[01:01:48]Well, I don't know now. Maybe he thinks this is a tree.

[01:01:53]But, he says that the man standing off to the right is Basil Biggs, the uh black citizen of town who helped in the burial operations after the battle. And he actually mentions all the people in the view. It's got to be him though.

[01:02:07]It's got to be him in this view.

[01:02:10]But again, you see the Mumper's photographic studio uh in you know, the windows there.

[01:02:18]And there is another another view of the platform there.

[01:02:21]Oh, here I got a close a better closer up view.

[01:02:24]Let me see. No, you know what? That's him right there.

[01:02:28]I guess I had missed it when he says I'm between the trees. I still don't know what he means. This tree and the telephone pole?

[01:02:35]It's It probably was a tree, right?

[01:02:38]Okay. And he does give the other names of the people that are standing with him in the image.

[01:02:44]Okay, I think that might be Warner, his partner.

[01:02:49]And see that look, there's Mumper. The Mumper's not only had a photographic studio, they all had also had a furniture store in that building.

[01:02:56]Now, I don't know how familiar you are with the um the history of uh that uh building, but by the 1970s, the building was in a sad state of disrepair and the building was going to be demolished and turned into an Ace Hardware, if I remember, which we really needed.

[01:03:18]And um the Adams County Historical Society purchased the building. And today the building is owned by the Adams County Historical Society. We own the building.

[01:03:32]Now, we gave like a 99-year lease to the uh um Adams County Home for the Aging.

[01:03:42]I forget exactly what their name is, but it's a So, it's a assisted living uh it's kind of an independent assisted living place, but you can um apply and there are apartments in that building.

[01:03:58]Uh but because we own it I have the maintenance guy's number on my phone and I can call him and say, "I'm coming to the roof."

[01:04:08]Andrew thinks that's really cool.

[01:04:11]And so, we've been on the roof multiple times. And it is kind of interesting to see a spot associated battle that is very difficult to get to and to, you know, appreciate. But again, you see there's an extra uh like story uh onto the building now. So, it's a little bit different.

[01:04:33]See, there's there's right before they were going to tear it down.

[01:04:37]It was going to be torn down. There was no doubt about it.

[01:04:43]Um boy, that's good. You remember that um the reason you're I think it's a dollar.

[01:04:49]Is it a dollar?

[01:04:51]Okay. Well, we get a dollar a year.

[01:04:52]That's good.

[01:04:55]But, you know, they did put I mean like um I guess it's been like 20 years ago, but they did put a huge amount of money into restoring the building.

[01:05:03]And um I guess they wanted to make sure that their investment in the building was to their benefit. So, but I suggested I, you know, early on when we were looking for a new home for from Schmucker Hall, I said, "Hey, why don't we move into our building on Baltimore Street?" And what was really funny was everybody looked at me and said, "What?"

[01:05:22]I don't think we didn't even know most of people didn't even know we owned it when we were talking about it.

[01:05:28]But I didn't know that we had such a requirement or lease on it.

[01:05:33]And John Faust looked into it and that's why he we learned that we don't make much money from it.

[01:05:40]Okay. But I'm sure the people who live there are very grateful for us saving it.

[01:05:56]What's I mean, you I think every building in town, you know, can be put on the national register.

[01:06:04]Um but what I remember about the national register of historic places, especially in the '90s, um we were told by the town preservation bureau office preservation officer not to put individual buildings on the national register, that the whole town qualifies for the national register. And if you want to get a plaque saying you're on the national register of historic places, you supply for the plaque based on the fact that the town is on the national register.

[01:06:34]And if you remember correctly, there's a house built in 1876 on Baltimore Street, it's the Elizabeth Keys House.

[01:06:42]To me, not historic in any way, shape, or form, but it has a plaque on it saying on the national register of historic places, but that building is not.

[01:06:52]The The town is on the national register. And I think they might have one on the Hotel Gettysburg.

[01:06:58]So, but but and then not too long ago we were somebody's telling us, "Hey, we don't have enough buildings in our town on on national register. We should put someone on the national register.

[01:07:08]But I I swear we were told we weren't supposed to. So I don't know. It's kind of weird.

[01:07:15]And Yeah.

[01:07:17]Oh yeah. Well, yeah. I I think I think just I think that's a good that's a valid valid point. Okay. I don't want to get too sidetracked here.

[01:07:26]But um so on the second and third day of the battle um Dan Skelly the town is overrun. He's in the town. He spends a lot of time at the Fahnestock house and he spends a lot of time at the courthouse. And he talks about in his narrative how one of his neighbors and to me this is really kind of a subtle clue uh Julia Kulp helps him. So in this image which this is an 1858 image of the Gettysburg Sunday school Gettysburg Methodist Church Sunday school class there's a series of the images of girls and that's Sally Myers on the left um who wrote a kept a diary and was a nurse after the battle and in the center is Julia Kulp Wesley Kulp's younger sister.

[01:08:17]And he hangs out with her and they take uh water to the wounded at the courthouse and actually they go down to McCurdy and Deals um sort of produce factories store warehouse I guess on um Carlisle Street and he has interaction. So all these people you know Wesley Kulp, Jack Skelly, Jenny Wade and their brothers and sisters all know each other really well.

[01:08:47]And you know he mentions her in the book.

[01:08:50]At this point I also wanted to mention that another friend of mine unrelated to the Skellys or anybody else associated with this story or um he just collects Gettysburg stuff.

[01:09:04]And he bought this. I think he bought it on eBay.

[01:09:07]And it's a post-war photograph of Dan Skelly.

[01:09:13]And no doubt it's him.

[01:09:15]Now, from the back mark, it looks like it's early post-war, like it's 1866, 1867. I don't think it's past 1869, Levi Mumper in Gettysburg. And so, here totally flipped me out.

[01:09:30]I just did not know Dan Skelly was going to be a mustache guy.

[01:09:35]Now, I have a whole different perspective of um Dan Skelly. And you know, that handwriting is Dan Skelly's handwriting.

[01:09:45]Cuz we have letters by him, and you can just compare it and it's the same uh the same uh writing. So, there you go. So, there's a new photograph of Dan Skelly.

[01:09:56]Now, he stays in town during the battle.

[01:09:59]Uh his manuscript is really interesting in the fact that he interacts with the Confederate soldiers that are here in the town.

[01:10:06]Um and and cares for the wounded in the hospitals.

[01:10:10]And um uh as he's doing it, of course later years, he reminisces about the fact that his brother is in a hospital in Virginia had been wounded in battle and is dying.

[01:10:26]And here he is in hospitals taking care of in some cases Confederate soldiers that had been wounded during the battle and Union soldiers. And he thinks to himself that, you know, later on, I hope somebody was caring for my brother the way I'm caring for these people that, you know, I don't know. And of course, Jack ends up dying in Winchester, Virginia.

[01:10:48]But that's the only time really in the book that he mentions uh his brother.

[01:10:53]Now, on the 4th of July, he's sleeping um And it's interesting in his book he says he's sleeping at his father's house on West Middle Street, but in the um uh a newspaper article, he says he's sleeping at the Fahnestock house because all of a sudden there's screaming and yelling and he looks down into the street and on the morning of July 4th, here comes the Union Army reoccupying the town.

[01:11:25]And the civilians in the town really had no idea what was going on. The massive bombardment of Picket's Charge just stunned everybody and they could hear the yelling and screaming at Picket's Charge, but they didn't know who won or who lost.

[01:11:40]And so on the 4th of July, the Union Army reenters the town. And so he goes, whether he's on his father's house on Middle Street or at the Fahnestock house he goes up into the Fahnestock house where they have a large flag hidden.

[01:11:58]And he gets the flag out and he ties it to the roof of the Fahnestock house and he throws the flag over the top of the roof so that all the soldiers entering the town can see the flag.

[01:12:16]And later he realizes that he is the first civilian to put an American flag out for the Union Army coming into the town.

[01:12:28]And that flag, uh we have an article in the newspaper about it. Let's see.

[01:12:34]It's um from 1904.

[01:12:39]The old flag still waves.

[01:12:42]Daniel Skelly is the owner of the first US flag that was thrown to the breeze in this place after the battle here.

[01:12:50]As the Union soldiers were coming into town after the retreat of the enemy, Mr. Skelly put out the flag at Fahnestock's brother store.

[01:13:00]This week, it floats from his residence on Chambersburg Street to welcome the GAR.

[01:13:09]And he would hang it from the front of his house year after year during the anniversary of the the anniversary of the battle. When he died, it was given to his son, Daniel Skelly Jr.

[01:13:22]And like in I forget what year. Oh, I should have written down the year. Um but in the 1940s, Daniel Skelly Jr. gave the flag to the Adams County Historical Society.

[01:13:39]So, we got the flag from Daniel Skelly's son, and we have it today on display downstairs in our um uh you know, temporary exhibit gallery. So, if you'd like to see that on your way out, I highly recommend that.

[01:13:57]Now, just a couple more things. Um in his book, he has a wonderful description of the aftermath of the battle and the soldiers' uh burials around the battlefield. Um in 1864, he would be the member of his family chosen to go to Winchester, Virginia and recover um his brother's body.

[01:14:24]And uh the family uh has a pass, and I think this at the moment is on display at the Gettysburg Museum of History uh in downtown Gettysburg. And you can see it's a pass for him to uh uh get the remains of um uh Skelly.

[01:14:48]He was buried at the churchyard in in Winchester. And today he's buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

[01:14:55]And here's a Gettysburg Compiler that came to us that we have in archives from the family. It's September 7th, 1863.

[01:15:06]And in the newspaper, the local newspaper, there's an article about the fighting around Winchester by a member of Company F, 87th Pennsylvania.

[01:15:16]Corporal Skelly of Company F, it seems he was wounded in the arm, which was amputated. But he subsequently died through the neglect and improper treatment. Corporal Skelly was a favorite with his company and also many warm friends in the regiment.

[01:15:34]And then they talk about how much, you know, he was respected by the other in the unit. She's actually mentioned in the paper in September.

[01:15:43]The family, um, told me that they thought this was the first time that people back in Gettysburg knew he had been killed.

[01:15:51]But, or he died. He was wounded in battle and a lot of the men came through and said he was wounded battle. And it had been reported in our paper that he's wounded.

[01:16:01]But, you know, he ended up dying a couple weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg and it took a while for word to get back. So, I'm not sure if that's true, but definitely this is the first time in the paper that they acknowledge the death of, um, Jack Skelly.

[01:16:18]Daniel Skelly is also, uh, at the Soldiers National Cemetery during Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. He actually climbs up on the platform, is holding onto the railing. He watches Abraham Lincoln go by in the procession and is one of those civilians that remarks on how odd President Lincoln looks like on the horseback.

[01:16:39]And, um, you know, I was wondering this photograph of the platform if there's some way, you know, if there's he's hanging on there somewhere in the back according to the accounts.

[01:16:49]But you know, saying who's who in the photograph like this would be very difficult. In 1917, there was a reunion um a man came into town, John White Johnston, and he asked if anyone in town were still alive who heard Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address, could they come out and get their photograph. And so undoubtedly, Dan Skelly is somewhere in that crowd.

[01:17:19]And here he is.

[01:17:21]Uh I think it's 1927 when they put a plaque on the Wills House noting that Abraham Lincoln made a speech from New York Street side of house. There's William Tipton who would have been good friends with Dan Skelly.

[01:17:37]So we have some other photographs of him.

[01:17:41]Here's a There's some articles about him in the newspaper. Here he is riding a bicycle from Little Round Top down to Devil's Den when he loses control and crashes on the bicycle.

[01:17:54]Has that happened to anyone else? It happened to me one day.

[01:17:58]>> [laughter] >> And in 1932, after Daniel Skelly's book is published General Oliver Otis Howard's son comes to Gettysburg to visit.

[01:18:13]And he ends up I think in the article I mentioned, he stays with Skelly. And it you see years later uh one of General Howard's frequent visits to Gettysburg, you know, Mr. Skelly again escorted to the same building I talked about going up on the roof.

[01:18:33]But it's 1932 and they're dedicating a monument to General Oliver Otis Howard on the Gettysburg battlefield and they're questioning statue in 1932 and Daniel Skelly is going to speak at the dedication ceremony and give his memories of General Howard during the battle but he dies a few days before the dedication ceremony.

[01:19:04]And so uh he died the year his book came out.

[01:19:11]So he finally got around to writing his book you know, after his wife had passed away it came out um we have a whole file of letters where people are writing to him congratulating him on his book and giving um you know, uh asking for copies to be sent to them or wanting to buy copies um and he ended up dying right after that.

[01:19:37]So um but you know, uh again, I think it's a book that needs to be reprinted and people should continue to read it. It's been even though it hasn't really been printed on its own, it's been adopted and used in many many books on the battle and it's like I said one of the most popular civilian accounts during the battle.

[01:20:04]Okay. Well, thanks everybody for attending.

[01:20:13]>> [music]