The Army of Northern Virginia had been marching north for several days towards the battle that changed the tide of the war. General Robert E. Lee had carefully laid out the campaign plans and intended to win this war once and for all. Crossing the Pennsylvania border, the Confederate troops found themselves in a small town in southcentral Pennsylvania where ten major roads met. Gettysburg, a small unknown town, not too far distant from the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg, would be the site of the largest battle ever fought on American soil.
On the morning of July 1, 1863 fighting began on Chambersburg Pike. Confederate units from Mississippi, Tennessee, and South Carolina fought their way towards Seminary Ridge; units from Pennsylvania and New York held the Confederates back. The Federal troops were hard hit: Union units from Michigan took significant losses and the entire Federal line was pushed back across Seminary Ridge. Union forces refused to flee, broken lines were reformed but they couldn’t overtake the Confederate troops led by General Robert E. Lee.
The Union Army was pushed farther back to Cemetery Ridge and fighting continued through the next day. On July 2, the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry arrived on the battlefield just a short distance south of Gettysburg. Thousands of men on each side had already perished; the smoke from the previous day’s battle lingered in the air and the smell of blood and death was all around. The fighting on July 2 would be some of the most intense of the war. More reinforcements continuously arrived, and as men and companies fell, replacements quickly found themselves on the line filling gaps to keep the Confederates from advancing.
John W. Eddy, a tall skinny lad, was just 24 years old when he marched into what many call the fiercest battle of the American Civil War. He had enlisted with his brother Michael and another brother just ten months earlier and had mustered in with Company A of the 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. John had seen little of the world outside of his family farm in Wayne Township, Greene County, Penna., and as a single man his parents and his family were the most important parts of his life. He was surely comforted by his brothers at his side as he walked into that scene of torment and bloodshed on July 2, 1863.
On July 3, when the 140th found themselves in the midst of the battle, the fighting was focused on Cemetery Hill. The Confederates hammered both flanks of the Union Army. Between 1 and 2 PM the battle was raged. The 140th fought valiantly while taking many casualties. John W. Eddy was shot by attacking Confederate troops. His wound would not take him, but the retreating Confederate troops would. John was captured and taken prisoner on Cemetery Hill on July 3, 1863. The Union Army would go on to win the Battle of Gettysburg and it would be remembered as one of the bloodiest battles in our history.
It would be some weeks before his father, also called John, would hear the news of his son’s capture. His father wrote frantically to his other sons, seeking any information on what happened to the beloved son who bore his name. No answer ever came.
John’s brother Michael somehow collected John’s kit after he fell, and they would be passed down through the Eddy family for generations before being lost in the mid-20th century; many Eddy descendants would recollect seeing these items and hearing the story of their distant Uncle John who was taken away with so many other men by the retreating Confederate Army.
John was never forgotten and eventually his family learned that he was taken to the Confederate prison of Belle Isle, just outside of Richmond Virginia, where he died in January of 1864. His poor family would have no grave where they could gather to mourn their loss, John was buried in a mass grave at Belle Isle with little ceremony and no eulogy.
All that remains of this brave Lad is a copy of a photograph taken of him before the war that would be printed in a Memorial Day Pamphlet in 1915, a few scraps of paper, some family stories and a couple brief entries in the Eddy family history.
As I write this I can look up from my desk and see a framed copy of that photograph of John W. Eddy sitting on the fireplace mantle in my office at the museum. That photo would bring me closer to John W. Eddy that I could ever realize.
In the summer of 2019, working with paranormal researcher and author Kevin Paul, I encountered two people who would end up becoming very good friends, Joey and Tonya Madia. Joey and Tonya also are researchers with an interest in the paranormal; Kevin and I had invited them to the Greene County Historical Society Museum to do an investigation. During a break in the investigation, we had retreated to the museum office to relax for a few minutes before continuing our task.
I had gone into my office to check my email when Tonya came in and we began chatting. Tonya noticed the photo of John W. Eddy which was, and still is, located in a very prominent spot on my fireplace mantle. The photo was taken about 1859, when John was a very young man, wearing a nice shirt and jacket, and a wide brim hat – his Sunday best.
Tonya picked up on John immediately, “This man was in the Civil War, wasn’t he?” Being the skeptic, I responded only with, “Well, he was alive during that time period.” I was very interested in what Tonya would have to say, so I continued, “What can you tell me about this man?” She studied his photo for a few moments and told me, “He misses his brother very much, and he’s frightened. I can see him on a wagon, and he’s very frightened, and I think he’s been wounded.” Trying to keep a stoic look on my face, I asked her to continue. “Yes, he was in the war, and he was taken away.” She asked if he had been shot, and I confirmed that he had. “He was a good man, he loved his family, and they loved him, he knows they never forgot him.”
I was amazed; to be honest, I was fighting back tears. There is absolutely nothing about the photo of John that would indicate that he was in the American Civil War, and merely being a copy of a copy that lacked clarity it would even be quite difficult to date the photo based solely on the image itself, but Tonya somehow managed to capture a small glimpse of John’s life just by looking at that photo. That short conversation left a great impact on me and opened my mind to a view of reality that I had never contemplated. I had gone into the meeting with Tonya with an open mind, but not really expecting much, and I was certainly proven wrong.
Joey, Tonya, Kevin and I finished a very exciting investigation of the Greene County Historical Society Museum and planted the seeds of a wonderful friendship. I have been privileged to get to meet with Joey and Tonya a few times since that day last summer and have gained an entirely new respect for serious paranormal investigators.
John will live forever in the memories of those he left behind and their descendants. John’s sister Rachel was my 3rd great grandmother, and I have been honored over my many years of research to have been able to speak to many Eddy descendants who keep his memory alive and honor this man who could have easily been forgotten to history. To borrow from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, “As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,” and that is exactly what John did.