Yesterday marked 162 years since the battle of Gettysburg began. On July 1, 1863, fighting took place outside of the Swope family’s home as the Eleventh Corps of the Union army retreated through the streets of Gettysburg, towards Cemetery Hill. As they were retreating, a soldier of the 154th New York fell mortally wounded a few hundred feet from the Swope’s home. As he lay dying, he pulled out a photograph of his three young children—Frank, Frederick, and Alice—to gaze at them one last time. After the battle, a description of the photograph was published in northern newspapers in an attempt to find someone who could identify the body. Eventually the description made its way to Phylinda Humiston, who recognized it as the picture she had sent her husband, Amos, of their children. She made her way to Gettysburg to claim his body and Humiston was laid to rest in the New York plot of Soldiers National Cemetery. Phylinda stayed in Gettysburg and opened an institution called Soldier’s Orphan’s Home. A monument to Amos Humiston now stands diagonally across from the Swope Manor’s Carriage House, near the Gettysburg fire station.
Source:
https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/monuments-to-individuals/amos-humiston/