Elizabeth thorn gettysburg biography

In honour of the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a story of an ordinary woman thrown into extraordinary circumstances and how she rose to the occasion: Elizabeth Thorn, known today as The Angel of Gettysburg.

A Woman’s Courage at Gettysburg.

Mrs. Peter Thorn, of Gettysburg, lived in the house at the entrance of the borough cemetery. The house was used as headquarters by General 0. 0. Howard. Mrs. Thorn’s husband was away from home at that time (serving in the 148th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers, and stationed in Virginia), leaving her with two [actually three] quite young children. During the first day of the fight General Howard wanted someone to show him and tell about different roads leading from Gettysburg, and asked a number of men and boys who were in the cellar of the house to go with him and point them out. But these persons were all fearful and refused to go. Then Mrs. Thorn showed her courage and patriotism by voluntarily offering to show the roads. This offer was at first refused by General Howard, who said he did not

•

'The Angel of Gettysburg' Buried Union Soldiers While 6 Months' Pregnant

For one week, Elizabeth Thorn, her three young sons and her parents abandoned their home during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. When they returned, Thorn not only discovered barely a belonging left at their residence at Evergreen Cemetery, but -- as the fill-in for her husband, Peter, who left his job as its caretaker to fight against the Confederacy -- she was responsible for digging graves for the Union's dead.

The stench of decomposing bodies was overpowering, the terrible smell made all the more repugnant by the stifling July heat. It was no job for a woman who was six months' pregnant, and yet, Thorn somehow met the moment.

"It was only excitement that helped me to do all the work," Thorn recalled in a first-person account posted by the website CivilWarTalk in 2014.

Born in 1832 in Germany, Elizabeth immigrated with her parents, John and Catherine Masser, to the United States when she was in her early 20s. When they arrived in New York, they realized their luggage had been stole

•

Elizabeth Thorn

American cemetery caretaker (1832–1907)

Elizabeth Möser Thorn (December 28, 1832 – October 17, 1907) was an American cemetery caretaker who served as the caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery in Adams County, Pennsylvania, while her husband was serving in the Union Army. While pregnant, Thorn buried approximately one hundred soldiers who had died at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.^[1][2]

Early life

Born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in 1832, Elizabeth and her parents, John and Catherine Möser, immigrated to the United States in 1854. Little was known about her early life. After settling in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, she married another German immigrant, Peter Thorn, in September 1855. Her husband became the first caretaker of Evergreen Cemetery in February 1856, earning $150 a year and living with his family in the gatehouse rent-free in exchange for digging graves and maintaining the grounds. He enlisted in the Union's 138th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment on August 16, 1862, leaving his wife in charge of the cemetery. She had three y