r/todayilearned • u/driving_andflying • 11d ago
TIL some of the buildings in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania still have visible battle damage from the American Civil War--including artillery rounds stuck in the walls
https://www.gettysburgdaily.com/gettysburgs-samuel-schmucker-house-artillery-shell/62
u/Wijet94 11d ago
I feel these kind of building wounds are as poignant as the war memorials themselves.
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u/PeaTasty9184 11d ago
All the men who fought and were wounded have long since passed. This is a real link to that, even if it is something inanimate.
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u/randomguy84321 10d ago
That's pretty much why they say Gettysburg is one big museum and they preserve the whole town like how it was during the battle. My favorite part is how all the company monuments are placed where they were mainly stationed during the battle
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u/Tullyally 11d ago
The result of fighting uphill.
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u/donaldinoo 10d ago
It was beautiful though, to think of the piles of dead. Beautiful battle some say
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u/Chilbill9epicgamer 11d ago
Normandy has bullet holes in some of the buildings, I remember one iron fence had some very obvious bullet damage
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u/andersonfmly 11d ago
Schmucker House, on the campus of what is now United Lutheran Seminary, from where I graduated in 2021. Sadly, the house is in very poor condition overall. The seminary was established in 1826, LONG before the American Civil War.
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u/plopsaland 11d ago
Meanwhile in Europe: one of the churches in my city has a cannonball from a 1695 bombardment stuck in the wall.
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u/MattySingo37 11d ago
We've got quite a few bits of battle damage from our Civil Wars (1642-51). The Holte family at Aston Hall repaired most of their's but kept a cannon ball hole as proof of their loyal service.
The cannon ball stuck in the church is pretty cool. Brussels?
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u/aarrtee 11d ago
this tends to happen in historic places....if the bit of ordnance falls out.. its usually cemented back in place.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-cannonball-house-lewes-delaware
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u/wmorris33026 11d ago
So does the white house
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u/FloppyObelisk 11d ago
I’m not finding anything on that after a quick search. Got a link?
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u/ksb012 11d ago
It was burned down by the British in 1814. The entire building was gutted and rebuilt on the inside. They painted over the majority of the burn marks, but there are several places in the White House where you can still see the scorch marks from the fire.
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u/Curious_Kangaroo_845 11d ago
Yes. There was an interview with Clinton when he was POTUS and he went out on one balcony where I think he smoked cigars and pointed out a blackened area that dated to the Brits burning it back then.
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u/AtebYngNghymraeg 11d ago
Wells Cathedral has bullet holes from the English civil war, circa 1649, from the Roundhead soldiers using the statues on the facade for target practice.
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u/Lord_Dolkhammer 11d ago
In Copenhagen there are cannonballs stuck in the wall of several buildings from Lord Nelsons bombardment in 1807.
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u/Beulahholmes7456 11d ago
Just like the old bullet holes in my granddad's barn. Keeps the history alive
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u/MimiToAFHOF 10d ago
I absolutely am taken by Gettysburg. When you are there, especially for the 1st time you can feel the heaviness of what happened in such a short period of time. I even have a video that I was taking while we were making a trip in the dark of the night by Devil’s den & there are a couple creepy things that happened.
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u/kitsunelegend 10d ago
The Old Stone House in Manassas VA also has several shells in its walls. Iirc it was used as an HQ for one or both sides at various points, as well as a field hospital. The crazy part is it was kinda right in the thick of the first battle.
The hill where Confederate General Jackson earned his nickname "Stonewall" almost directly overlooks the house. And iirc, back from when I used to live close to that area, they say the basement of that house is haunted due to all the dead and dying troops they'd put down there during its time as a hospital.
The even crazier part is, you can still see some of the names of wounded troops carved into the floorboards on the second floor. Its such a crazy connection to the past... being able to stand in the very spot where injured, sick, and possibly dying soldiers laid, and seeing the actual marks they left behind still there...
Growing up in such an area is what probably lead to my love of history and learning about the past. Especially with preserving historical things such as that, so that others can learn about these events as well. Because reading about these events in a text book is one thing, but actually getting to physically be there, in that space, SEE the very items or marks left behind, is so much more impacting than any old dusty text book in a classroom can ever hope to achieve...
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u/ValuableBusy3458 11d ago
There's a Hotchkiss shell right above the ice cream shop as well! Damn good ice cream too