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Jennie Wade was a 20 year-old resident of Gettysburg, engaged to be married to Cpl. Johnston H. Skelly of the 87th Pennsylvania. Her sister had given birth with great difficulty on 28 June and Jennie was caring for her at her home on Baltimore Street, less than 50 yards north of Cemetery Hill. On 1 July Jennie, her sister, and the infant found themselves in the midst of the Battle of Gettysburg. Protected by the sturdy brick walls of the house, they lived for three days in the midst of the greatest battle ever seen in this hemisphere. On the morning of 3 July, while Jennie was making bread, a Confederate musket ball smashed through a door on the north side of the house, pierced another into the kitchen, and struck Jennie in the back, killing her instantly, the only civilian casualty of the battle. Nor was the tragedy complete, for unbeknownst to Jennie, her fiancee, Corporal Skelly, had been wounded and taken prisoner at Winchester on 13 May. Transferred to Virginia, he died in a hospital on 12 July.

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