When Abraham Lincoln prophetically spoke of a "house divided", he might well have referenced the sons of Easias Jesse and Margaret Sutherland Culp. Both boys, William E. "William", (b. 1831) and John W. "Wesley", (b. 1839), grew up in Gettysburg and were employed by the town's noted carriage maker, Charles William Hoffman.In 1856, Hoffman uprooted his business and moved it to Martinsburg, Virginia. Perhaps seeking his own independence, Wesley followed but brother William did not and remained in Gettysburg. When war came, the brothers' allegiances followed this pattern; Wesley enlisted in the 2nd Virginia Infantry, and William signed up with the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a 3 month unit, and later the 87th.Although now "brother against brother", it is unrecorded if William and Wesley ever saw each other again. William and Wesley's regiments did face each other in combat just once, at the Second Battle of Winchester on June 15, 1863. There, neither was wounded, but Wesley recognized a Gettysburg friend, Union soldier Jack Skelly, who had been (wounded). Skelly gave Wesley a note to give to his girl, Virginia "Jennie" Wade, back home in Gettysburg. However, Wesley was unable to deliver the note as he was shot and killed on his uncle Henry's farm, July 2nd, the famed "Culp's Hill." Wesley, like so many Confederate soldiers, now rests in an unmarked grave. Post-war, William returned to Gettysburg in 1882 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery where entire family plots are common and where Wesley's absence serves as silent witness to the personal cost of conflict.The Culp Brothers MemorialErected by thePvt. John Wesley Culp Memorial Camp #1961Sons of Confederate VeteransGettysburg, Pa.Dedicated July 6, 2013
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