Shriver House Museum
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Sadie Shriver was only seven years old when she witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg from her grandparents farm which sits at the bottom of the hills known as Big and Little Round Top. Eleven years later, two weeks shy of her nineteenth birthday, Sadie died of consumption (today called tuberculosis) and was laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery. For reasons unknown no marker was ever placed on the grave of the young girl who was an eyewitness to one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.
On Sadie's birthday, November 20th, at 10:30 am, 137 years after her death, a headstone will be placed on Sadie's grave to commemorate the life of one young girl who called Gettysburg home in 1863. Meet at the Shriver House Museum at 10 am to follow Hettie and Mollie to Evergreen Cemetery for the dedication. After the ceremony refreshments will be served at the Shriver House Museum.
July 7, 2012
Watch a live play on the sidewalk at 5 pm depicting the reaction of the citizens of town when the Battle of Gettysburg began. Hettie Shriver and her neighbors are frantic - should they stay or leave town. Hettie's decision to seek safety elsewhere left her home abandoned and ripe for occupation by the invading Confederates.
Learn why Hettie Shriver took her two girls, seven-year-old Sadie and five-year-old Mollie, and her 15-year-old neighbor, Tillie Pierce, to seek safety outside town only to find themselves deep within the battle lines - at the base of Little Round Top!
Speak with Confederate soldiers as they prepare for battle while witnessing sharpshooters fire their muskets from the Shrivers' attic window. When the battle ended the Shrivers' home was used as a hospital for some of the thousands of wounded soldiers left behind after the conflict.
Come watch as surgeons struggle to save lives in a make-shift hospital in the summer kitchen. At the conclusion of the tour cool off with a root beer in Shriver's Saloon while younger visitors have a nurse bandage their wounds (leaving a small spurt of blood seeping through the bandage) or make whirligigs to take along as a memento of your visit. The Battle of Gettysburg encompassed not only the surrounding countryside but the streets of this historic town as well. Come witness the only reenactment to take place in the streets
of Gettysburg - in the very house where it actually happened on July 1, 2 & 3 1863.
Tickets available in advance or at the door.
Date: Saturday, July 7, 2012
Time: 5 - 9 pm
Admission: $10/adult; $7 children 12/under
Thanksgiving evening and Saturdays through December 17, 2011.
Take a step back in time to discover how Christmas was celebrated in the mid-1800s as Hettie, Sadie (7) and Mollie (5) prepare for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Learn how families celebrated the holidays while fathers, sons, and husbands were separated from loved ones during this tragic time in American history.
Regardless of our posted hours, reservations for groups of ten or more are welcome at any time, day or evening, throughout the year. Simply call or email to make arrangements.