Wills House Virtual Identity: Anna Garlach

Anna Garlach

Seminary Ridge Museum

You have selected to discover the story of Anna Garlach

To Begin. . .
Read the “Before the War” section below and then proceed to the next room in the Wills House and return to page when prompted.

 

Before The War

Anna Garlach, age 18, lived on Baltimore Street – about halfway between the David Wills House and Cemetery Hill – with her parents, Henry and Catherine, and siblings, George, William, Katie and Frank. Henry was a cabinet-maker, with a shop and wood supply behind the house on the half-acre plot he had owned since 1855. As the oldest child, Anna had a great deal to do including care of baby Frank most of the time. She also attended Rebecca Eyster’s Female Academy just a block away on Washington Street. On June 30, Anna was at the Academy when Union cavalrymen rode through town, and joined some of the other girls in singing for them. That evening, the family would feed some of those same troopers. On the morning of July 1, Anna went to the garden behind the house to pick some beans, possibly in anticipation of another meal with the soldiers. Her father walked south to Cemetery Hill to get a better look at the fighting west of town; there he got cut off from returning to his family until battle’s end.

From Here:
Read more about the Garlach family during and after the battle of Gettysburg after you have toured the first floor of the Wills’ home.

 

During The War

As the battle heated up, Anna observed “more people in the street than I have ever seen at any time”; this was the Union retreat through town. Soldiers told the family to get to the cellar, which they could not do comfortably as there was a foot of water there. When both Baltimore Street and the alley behind the house became occupied by Confederates, Anna observed Union General Alexander Schimmelfennig hiding near the pig pen in her back yard: He was “between the barrel and rank of wood from the evening of the first day to the morning of July 4th. That last night everything grew so quiet and as soon as there was light we got up and mother hurried down and out, anxious to know what had become of the man.” An additional 11 people were staying in the house by this time and Mrs. Garlach made beds for all on the floor for fear of stray bullets above. By evening of July 2, her mother and brother had fixed up the cellar for all to retreat to whenever the fighting started again, and this meant using much of the wood (from the woodshop) to create dry safe spaces overtop of the foot of water down there. Mrs. Garlach took care of everyone in her husband’s absence, even kicking out sharpshooters attempting to get to the attic and cooking meals for all in the kitchen late at night after the fighting has ended for the day.

From Here
Find out what happens to Anna and the rest of her family after you tour the second floor of the home.

 

After The War

Anna recorded that some Confederate soldiers asked to use wood from the shop to make a coffin for one of their generals, but they had to retreat before it was finished. According to her, the coffin they started was eventually used for the remains of Jennie Wade, the only civilian killed during the battle of Gettysburg. During the procession preceding the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery on November 19, 1863, President Lincoln rode by the Garlach house on a horse that was too small for him. If Anna watched that day, she left no written record of it. Eventually she would marry a man named Jacob Kitzmiller and the couple would have two daughters, Ida May and Louise. Frank, the little brother that Anna cared for during the battle would live until 1935. Anna died in 1919 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery on Cemetery Hill.