Tillie Pierce (also known as Matilda Alleman) was the author of At Gettysburg, or What A Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle: A True Narrative. Published more than a quarter of a century after the Battle of Gettysburg, the book recounted her experiences during the American Civil War.Alleman, Mrs. Tillie (Pierce). At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle: A True Narrative. New York: W. Lake Borland, 1889.
Formative years Born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on March 11, 1848, Matilda Jane ("Tillie") Pierce was a daughter of Margaret A. (McCurdy) Pierce, a native of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Maryland native James Pierce (1806–1896), a butcher. According to historian Uzal Ent, she was the youngest of the four Pierce children; her older siblings were James Shaw Pierce (1836–1909), William Henry Harrison Pierce (1841–1908), and Margaret ("Maggie") Pierce (1845–1867).Ent, Uzal W. The Pennsylvania Reserves in the Civil War: A Comprehensive History, p. 375. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014.Walters, Mark. "Owner Tries to Sell Tillie Pierce House." Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Gettysburg Times, June 2, 2011.
During her formative years, the family lived above the Gettysburg butcher shop of their patriarch, whose real estate and personal property were valued at $6,500 in 1860, according to the federal census taker that year. The Pierce household included James and Margaret Pierce and their children: James (aged 24), William (aged 19), Margaret (aged 14), and Matilda (aged 12), as well as 12-year-old Franklin Culp and Eliza Fetterhoff, a 48-year-old seamstress.Kessler, Jane. "Gettysburg battle witness lived in Selinsgrove." Sunbury, Pennsylvania: The Daily Item, March 14, 2011.United States Census (Gettysburg, Adams County, Pennsylvania). Washington, D.C.: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, 1860.
American Civil War As a teenager, Tillie Pierce became well acquainted not with just the worries of war, but the horrors of military combat when a key battle of the American Civil War broke out in her hometown. Her older brothers, James and William, had enlisted as privates with the Union Army in 1861 and 1862, respectively; James was a member of Company K of the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves (30th Regiment) while William was a member of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry's E Company.Pierce, Shaw J. and William, Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861–1866. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State Archives.Ent, The Pennsylvania Reserves in the Civil War.
As her brothers and other Union soldiers battled Confederate States south of Pennsylvania, Tillie Pierce and her parents and sister "often heard that the rebels were about to make a raid, but had always found it a false alarm." Their calm was shattered in June 1863, however, when they received word that CSA troops had reached Chambersburg in neighboring Franklin County. A week later, while working on literary exercises at the Young Ladies Seminary, a private finishing school for girls at 66–68 West High Street which she attended with her sister, Maggie,Ent, The Pennsylvania Reserves in the Civil War.Kessler, Gettysburg Battle Witness, The Daily Item, March 14, 2011. she was directed by her teacher to run to her home when CSA troops appeared on the outskirts of Gettysburg. She arrived there just as CSA infantrymen began their removal of horses, food and other supplies throughout the town in order to sustain their march before departing later that night.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle. Her next encounter with soldiers occurred early the next week as Union troops arrived.
They passed northwardly along Washington Street, turned toward the west on reaching Chambersburg Street, and passed out in the direction of the Theological Seminary.
It was to me a novel and grand sight. I had never seen so many soldiers at one time. They were Union soldiers and that was enough for me, for I then knew we had protection, and I felt they were our dearest friends. I afterwards learned that these men were Buford's cavalry, numbering about six thousand men.
A crowd of "us girls" were standing on the corner of Washington and High Streets as these soldiers passed by. Desiring to encourage them, who, as we were told, would before long be in battle, my sister started to sing the old war song "Our Union Forever."Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
Tillie was certainly less generous when it came to describing the fear felt by her African American neighbors in the days leading up to the battle, writing:
I remember one evening in particular, when quite a number of them had assembled to guard the town that night against an attack from the enemy ... On these occasions it was also amusing to behold the conduct of the colored people of the town. Gettysburg had a goodly number of them. They regarded the Rebels as having an especial hatred toward them, and believed that if they fell into their hands, annihilation was sure ...
I can see them yet; men and women with bundles as large as old-fashioned feather ticks slung across their backs, almost bearing them to the ground. Children also, carrying their bundles, and striving in vain to keep up with their seniors. The greatest consternation was depicted on all their countenances as they hurried along; crowding, and running against each other in their confusion ; children stumbling, falling, and crying. Mothers, anxious for their offspring, would stop for a moment to hurry them up, saying:
'Fo' de Lod's sake, you chillen, cum right long quick! If dem Rebs dun kotch you, dev tear you all up,' and similar expressions. These terrible warnings were sure to have the desired effect; for, with their eyes open wider than ever, they were not long in hastening their steps.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
Eve of the Battle of Gettysburg When Tillie Pierce and her friends heard that Union troops were already on the move just after breakfast on the morning of July 1, 1863, they hurried off to watch the spectacle unfold on Washington Street:
First came a long line of cavalry, then wagon after wagon passed by for quite awhile. Again we sang patriotic songs as they moved along. Some of these wagons were filled with stretchers and other articles; in others we noticed soldiers reclining, who were doubtless in some way disabled.
It was between nine and ten o'clock when we first noticed firing in the direction of Seminary Ridge. At first the sound was faint, then it grew louder. Soon the booming of cannon was heard, then great clouds of smoke were seen rising beyond the ridge. The sound became louder and louder, and was now incessant. The troops passing us moved faster, the men had now become excited and urged on their horses. The battle was waging. This was my first terrible experience.
I remember hearing some of the soldiers remarking that there was no telling how soon some of them would be brought back in those ambulances, or carried on the stretchers. I hardly knew what it meant, but I learned afterward, even before the day had passed.
It was almost noon when the last of the train had passed and I began to think of dinner and the folks at home.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
Later that night, her parents made plans to send her to what they believed would be a safer place – a farm owned by Jacob Weikert, the father of one of the family's neighbors. They informed her that she would depart with that neighbor (Mrs. Schriver) and her children the next day. The Weikert farm, she was told, was located near the foot of a rocky hill south of Gettysburg known as "Round Top." What her parents could not have known was that, as the Battle of Gettysburg raged over the next three days, their daughter would not only be in a position to witness the intense fighting which occurred nearby, but would also be called upon to help army surgeons care for the fallen men. "The only preparation I made for the departure," she later wrote, "was to carry my best clothes down to the cellar, so that they might be safe when I returned; never thinking of taking any along, nor how long I would stay."Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.Ent, The Pennsylvania Reserves in the Civil War.
Battle of Gettysburg (day one) Tillie Pierce departed for Jacob Weikert's farm with Mrs. Schriver around 1 p.m. on July 1. Walking down Baltimore Street and through Evergreen Cemetery, they soon witnessed Union artillerymen readying their cannon.
They told us to hurry as fast as possible; that we were in great danger of being shot by the Rebels, whom they expected would shell toward us at any moment. We fairly ran to get out of this new danger.
As I looked toward the Seminary Ridge I could see and hear the confusion of the battle. Troops moving hither and thither; the smoke of the conflict arising from the fields; shells bursting in the air, together with the din, rising and falling in mighty undulations. These things, beheld for the first time, filled my soul with the greatest apprehensions.
We soon reached the Taneytown road, and while traveling along, were overtaken by an ambulance wagon in which was the body of a dead soldier.... We continued on our way, and had gotten to a little one and a half story house, standing on the west side of the road, when, on account of the muddy condition of the road, we were compelled to stop. This place on the following day became General Meade's headquarters.
While we were standing at the gate, not knowing what to do or where to go, a soldier came out and kindly told us he would try to get some way to help us further on, as it was very dangerous to remain there.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
After a short wait, the soldier found a place for them on a wagon; they quickly reached the Weikert farm just before the battle broke out near Round Top and Little Round Top. Her initial excitement quickly dissipated when the first wounded soldier was carried into the Weikert's house. Still alive, he had been hit in the head by artillery shrapnel. As more Union infantrymen began flooding the area, the 15-year-old soon realized she could do more than just watch.
Obtaining a bucket, I hastened to the spring, and there, with others, carried water to the moving column until the spring was empty. We then went to the pump standing on the south side of the house, and supplied water from it.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.
That same afternoon and evening, she encountered increasing numbers of wounded soldiers.
Some limping, some with their heads and arms in bandages, some crawling, others carried on stretchers or brought in ambulances. Suffering, cast down and dejected, it was a truly pitiable gathering. Before night the barn was filled with the shattered and dying heroes of this day's struggle.
That evening Beckie Weikert, the daughter at home, and I went out to the barn to see what was transpiring there. Nothing before in my experience had ever paralleled the sight we then and there beheld. There were the groaning and crying, the struggling and dying, crowded side by side, while attendants sought to aid and relieve them as best they could....
As we entered the basement or cellar-kitchen of the house, we found many nurses making beef tea for the wounded. Seeing that we were crying they inquired as to the cause. We told them where we had been and what we had seen.... They soon dispelled our terror and caused us to laugh so much that many times when we should have been sober minded we were not; the reaction having been too sudden for our overstrung nerves.Alleman, At Gettysburg, or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle.