WOOD REMOVED FROM LEE’S HEADQUARTERS AT GETTYSBURG

$185.00 ON HOLD

Quantity Available: 1

Item Code: 1251-74

This piece of wood is nicely matted and framed in a Riker mount along with a photo of Lee’s headquarters soon after the battle and a display label. This comes from the Thompson house, built in 1833, which was partially owned at the time of the battle by prominent Republican Thaddeus Stevens, but occupied by 70-year-old widow Mary Thompson. Situated on Seminary Ridge, the farm was involved in the first day’s fighting on July 1 and was taken over as Lee’s headquarters after U.S. troops had been driven back through the town since it offered a good observation point to scan U.S. lines and could readily be found by couriers. Lee purportedly slept in the house the first night, pending the arrival of his headquarters baggage and tents. The house and property also served as a hospital for casualties of the first day’s fight and Confederate artillery units posted nearby took part in later phases of the battle.

Mary Thompson left the property briefly after the battle, but soon returned and lived there until her death in 1873. The interior of the house was rebuilt after a fire in 1896 by owner Phillip Hennig, who deemed it a battlefield relic, and recognized it had a certain attraction for visiting Confederate veterans, and in the early 1900s ownership again changed hands with Clyde Daley opening a souvenir shop there and in 1921 adding tourist cabins and turning the house itself into a museum. The property, including a hotel and restaurant, became Larson’s Cottage Court in 1945 and later the site of a Quality Inn, which was purchased and demolished as part of the American Battlefield Trust acquisition in 2014.

After that purchase the house underwent a complete restoration by 2016, including restoring surrounding property to its 1863 appearance. Some 200 artifacts in the museum’s collection were placed with the Gettysburg National Military Park, which reserved certain items with tight provenance to the house for eventual display there, placed items associated with other battlefields with appropriate Park Service units, such as Monocacy, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, and others, and sold items deemed duplicated in its existing collections to raise funds for the restoration.

This is nice relic, well presented, measuring 5” x 1 ½” x ¼” and housed in an 8 ½” x 12 ½” Riker box, and coming from a significant structure on the battlefield with history of use by Lee during the best known battle of the Civil War.  [sr][ph:L]

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