Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) · Jennie Wade, only documented civilian casualty of the battle · National Homestead at Gettysburg (1866-1877), Civil War orphans' home · Rosa Carmichael abuse case (1876), documented 19th-century institutional cruelty
Gettysburg Battlefield Tours operates primarily as a Civil War battlefield bus-tour company, running air-conditioned coach and open-air double-decker tours of the battlefield alongside group programs for school and scout groups. Its Ghostly Images of Gettysburg division, based at 778 Baltimore Street, has run walking-tour ghost products on the Baltimore Street corridor since 2003, distinct from both Haunted Gettysburg Tours (27 Steinwehr Avenue) and US Ghost Adventures (which meets separately at the Brickhouse Inn).
The Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) produced roughly 51,000 combined casualties and remains the deadliest battle of the Civil War. Jennie Wade, a 20-year-old Gettysburg civilian, was killed by a stray bullet while kneading bread in her sister's kitchen on Baltimore Street on July 3, 1863 — the only civilian death documented during the battle itself; her home is preserved as the Jennie Wade House.
The operator's Haunted Orphanage Tour is built around the documented history of the National Homestead at Gettysburg, founded in 1866 by Philadelphia physician Dr. John F. Bourns to house children orphaned by the Civil War. In the early 1870s, matron Rosa Carmichael took charge of the home and was documented, through survivor testimony and contemporary press coverage, to have subjected children in her care to solitary confinement and physical punishment. Local authorities arrested Carmichael in June 1876 on a cruelty charge involving a 12-year-old orphan; the case was covered in a Philadelphia newspaper and reprinted in the Gettysburg Star and Sentinel in 1877, and the orphanage closed that December. This history is documented independently of the tour operator, including by the Gettysburg History Society and Wikipedia's entry on the National Homestead at Gettysburg.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Homestead_at_Gettysburg
- https://gettysburghistory.org/national-soldiers-orphans-homestead/
- https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60798-d3498348-Reviews-Ghostly_Images_Of_Gettysburg-Gettysburg_Pennsylvania.html
EVP recordings near the Jennie Wade House kitchenVideo orbs in photographs and recordingsReported activity at the former orphanage site
The Spirits of Jennie Wade Tour and Ghostly Encounters draw on reported EVP recordings and video orbs the operator says have been captured near the first-floor kitchen where Jennie Wade died, consistent with material already documented independently in this corpus's Jennie Wade House entry. The Haunted Orphanage Tour is presented as a themed, costumed re-creation centered on Rosa Carmichael, portrayed by an actor, with reviewers describing the experience as immersive storytelling rather than a paranormal investigation; the operator's marketing frames the site as reportedly haunted by former residents, which is presented here strictly as the operator's account, not as an independently verified claim.
This is the tour operator's own marketing material describing what its tours cover, not documented history independently verified for this listing. The abuse history behind the Haunted Orphanage Tour — matron Rosa Carmichael's documented cruelty toward children at the National Homestead orphanage in the 1870s — is established fact, sourced independently of the tour operator; any paranormal framing applied to that history remains attributed to the operator alone.
Notable Entities
Rosa Carmichael (documented 1870s orphanage matron, historical figure; portrayed by a costumed actor on the Haunted Orphanage Tour)
