Hummelbaugh House

A Union field hospital located on Seminary Ridge where Confederate Brigadier General William Barksdale died after being wounded leading a charge. The interior became a surgery room where amputated limbs were thrown out the window, creating a massive pile outside.

German immigrant Jacob Hummelbaugh built this two-story farmhouse in the 1840s south of Gettysburg. During the Battle of Gettysburg, the house served as headquarters for Union General Alfred Pleasonton and was converted into a field hospital by the surgeon of the 148th Pennsylvania Regiment. The interior became an operating room where amputation was the standard treatment, with surgeons throwing severed limbs out the windows to pile up outside.

Confederate Brigadier General William Barksdale was mortally wounded leading a charge on July 2, 1863, and was brought to the Hummelbaugh House. A Union officer reported last seeing the general lying in front of the house, a young boy giving him water from a spoon, though Barksdale continued to beg for water as if the boy did not exist. He died there and was temporarily buried on the grounds. When his wife later came to exhume his remains with his loyal hunting hound, the dog flopped beside the grave and howled all night, refusing to budge.

Locals say on the anniversary of July 2nd, an unearthly howl echoes across the farm. Author Mark Nesbitt, a former National Park Ranger who lived in the house, described it as having slanted floors and a back bedroom and attic where "something just did not feel right." The Hummelbaugh farm is now owned by the National Park Service and remains one of Gettysburg's most haunted locations.