The original German Reformed Church located here in 1814, served as a "Union brick church" with the town's Lutheran congregation until 1848. The core of the present building, erected in 1851, was newly refurbished at the time of the battle.
On July 1st, following the Confederate occupation of Gettysburg, Dr. Abraham Stout, Surgeon 153rd PA., opened the church for a hospital at the urging of one of his captors. It was a welcome action. Dr. Stout recalled, "In less than a half hour it was filled with wounded, mostly Union men."
For several days surgeons worked at operating tables in the "lecture room." Citizen volunteer nurses recalled newly painted walls "splattered" and pews "soaked" with blood, "and they had to bore holes in the floor to let the blood run away . . . " Eventually, many wounded were transferred to the public school next door.
Following the battle, the church served a more traditional role. Jenny Wade, the only civilian killed in the battle, was buried in the adjoining church graveyard. She was reinterred in Evergreen Cemetery in November 1865.
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Trinity United Church of Christ ca. 1863. During the battle a red banner hung from the cupola signifying a hospital to the Union gunners on Cemetery Hill. The public school, directly to the west of this building, also served as a hospital, as did many other public and private buildings following the battle.
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