Jennie Wade's Grave

Mary Virginia Wade was the only local civilain to lose her life in the battle of Gettysburg. She and her mother came to the small house on the slope of Cemetery Hill to take care of her sister, Georgia Wade McClellan who had just given birth. At about 8A.M. on the morning of July 3, Jenny Wade was preparing dough to make biscuits when a stray sharpshooter's bullet came through two doors and struck her in the back, killing the twenty year old instantly. She was buried the following day outside Georgia's house. In early 1864, the body was moved to a cemetery in town and, following the war, she was moved a third time to her present resting place in Evergreen Cemetery.

Just after the war the McClellans moved to Iowa where Georgia became involved in the Women's Relief Corps. In the WRC convention of 1900, a vote was taken to erect a statue over the grave of Georgia's sister. Contributions were solicited and Anna Miller was chosen to execute the statue that now exists. It was dedicated September 16,1901 in the presence of many members of the Iowa Relief Corps including Georgia McClellan. Nine years later, the Gettysburg Association of Iowa Women purchased and placed a steel flagstaff on the grave. On this pole an American flag is permitted by law to fly day and night. Each year, the Women's Relief Corps send two new flags to fly over the grave.