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The Bliss Farm: Almost a Citadel

 by Diana Loski

Vestiges of the Bliss Farm, looking toward Cemetery Ridge<br>
  (Author photo)

Vestiges of the Bliss Farm, looking toward Cemetery Ridge

 (Author photo)



The Battle of Gettysburg created such an exorbitant amount of loss and destruction that it is impossible to calculate the entirety of its devastation to both human life and property. 

Not surprisingly, many properties were in ruins after the men in blue and gray vacated the historic battlefield.  One whose farm was reputed to be one of the handsomest in Adams County was the prosperous William Bliss. 

While some farms no longer stand due to the ravages of time, William Bliss’s farm was utterly destroyed before the battle at Gettysburg ended – it had the misfortune to be situated in the middle of the Pickett’s Charge field, near the Emmitsburg Road – the proverbial eye of the storm.

No photographs survive of the Bliss Farm, but it was one of the grandest properties nestled in the most picturesque of settings in the valley south of town, ringed by trees and pastures.  It was built as early as 1835, with an original 29 surrounding acres. William Bliss, who was born in Massachusetts on September 4, 1799, was the third owner of the farm, purchasing the property in 1857.1

William married the former Adeline Carpenter, also born in Massachusetts, on March 13, 1823.  Six children were born to the couple, but only three survived childhood: Sarah, Adeline, and Frances.  Of the three surviving daughters, only Adeline married.  When William Bliss, a well-to-do farmer and businessman, purchased the Gettysburg farm, his two unmarried daughters lived in the home with their parents.2

The Bliss Farm boasted a stately, weather-boarded house, a large barn that measured 75 feet long and 33 feet wide, with five doors to house the livestock, two wells and several outbuildings.  A soldier from the 14th Connecticut Infantry described the barn as “almost a citadel…expensively and elaborately built.”  The house, according to another soldier, was “long and capacious.”  Still another claimed the Bliss home was “a mansion.”3

The Bliss family wisely vacated their farm during the conflict at Gettysburg.  Their farm, however, due to its placement directly between Seminary and Cemetery Ridges, was constantly in the middle of the fight.  On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, Confederate snipers from Seminary Ridge crept into the vacated Bliss buildings and used them for cover as they shot at Union troops on Cemetery Ridge.  According to Chaplain H.L. Stevens of the 14th Connecticut, the farm “was a paradise for sharpshooters with long range rifles.”4

General Alexander Hays, a division commander of the Federal Second Corps, ordered the Bliss property to be captured.  Four companies of the 12th New Jersey regiment were ordered forward for the task.  According to Chaplain Stevens, they “ charged in gallant style and captured it, losing several of their number” in the process.  The Confederates had ample cover.  They fired from the barn windows, and ducked behind the bricks to protect themselves from Union bullets that replied.  The 12th also captured a goodly share of Confederate prisoners for their efforts.  During the night, more Confederates crept into the Bliss buildings, retaking the position and harassing anew the soldiers on the Union line.5

On the morning of July 3, it became clear that the Bliss farm was going to remain a problem for the Union troops.  The idea to burn it was first mentioned by Captain Arnold of the 14th Connecticut Infantry.  Otherwise, Union troops would have to recapture the buildings and continually protect it.  To destroy the property would save lives.  The idea reached the ears of Colonel Thomas Smyth, the brigade commander in charge of the New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut men on the ridge.  He passed the recommendation to General Hays, who took a moment to ruminate over the idea.  The buildings were private property, and lovely to behold. He had recently given an order to retake the farm – and he would determine then the fate of the picturesque estate.6

Not realizing that in a few short hours, a massive Confederate assault would appear from the wooded Confederate position on Seminary Ridge, several companies of the 14th Connecticut launched themselves at the Bliss Farm, over nearly a half-mile of open field.  One survivor described the attempt as “a rush across the bullet-swept plain.”  As the awful moments of certain death loomed for those determined soldiers, one recalled: “The excitement, the frenzied effort, the terrible sense of imminent, savage danger could not be clearly called up nor could words express them – as Lieutenant Fiske once wrote us: ‘When I try to write it I get stuck; in fact a battle is a plaguey poor thing to put on paper – somehow it won’t fight.”7

Realizing that the attempt to keep the farm would result in a tremendous loss of life, General Hays ordered the property burnt to the ground. 

The order quickly filed through the ranks, and a young captain was seen galloping across the field to deliver the order to “burn the buildings and return to the line.”8

The young officer, Captain Postles of Colonel Smyth’s staff, had raced to deliver the order.  Rebel snipers shot at him, creating a leaden gauntlet for the messenger.  Captain Postles miraculously survived and delivered the order.  He later remarked that he had thought, “ My God, there’s no chance for me. ”  Realizing that only by moving continuously could he escape death, Postles found Major Ellis of the 14th Connecticut, and told him to burn the buildings.  He then rode to “ keep that devil of a beast in motion ”, in a crooked line back to Cemetery Ridge, where he received “a salvo of cheers” upon his return.9

The detail of the 14th wasted no time obeying their orders.  Taking hay from the stables, they piled the bushels and set them alight.  They also set fire to the house and all outbuildings.  They then bravely gathered up their wounded and dead, and returned to Cemetery Ridge.  The men of the 14th Connecticut, as a result, were “a depleted regiment ” like so many others who fought at Gettysburg.  Within the hour, their duty would exact even more of them, as Longstreet’s Assault, otherwise called Pickett’s Charge, would occur.  With the Bliss buildings destroyed, the field between the ridges was now wide open to view, much to the detriment of Lee’s Confederates that day.10

Pickett’s Charge was the culmination of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The skies rained lead before the three Confederate divisions left the woods on Seminary Ridge in their attempt to take the Union center.  The Union soldiers, however, were ready and, as one soldier remembered, “That line meant business, serious business.”  Crossing the property that still belonged to the absent William Bliss, hundreds of Southern soldiers fell to Union shrapnel and bullets.  At the battle’s end, a soldier from the 12th New Jersey wrote that the Confederate dead “were as thick as wheat sheaves.”11

In the days following the battle, the frightened civilians returned to their homes.  Many homes and barns were damaged, some extensively.  William Bliss, and his wife and daughters, however, returned to find that their home was completely gone.

Mr. Bliss filed a claim to the U.S. government for compensation for his staggering loss, but he never received it.  He asked for $1700.00 in damages for his destroyed home and barn, $240.00 for fences, and $1200.00 for personal property – all to no avail.  He was now destitute and homeless.  He and his family were forced to relocate, and they chose to return to Chautauqua County, New York, where Bliss and his wife had lived shortly after their marriage, and where three of his deceased children were buried.  A few years after relocation, their eldest daughter, Sarah, died in 1869.12

William Bliss and his family never returned to Gettysburg, though he spent the rest of his life in the futile attempt at receiving his much-deserved compensation.

William Bliss died in Kiantone, Chautauqua County, New York on August 18, 1888, a few weeks before his 89th birthday.  His obituary claimed that he “was well-to-do before the war, owning a farm at Gettysburg, Pa.  The great battle swept away his property, and he has ever since been trying to obtain from the government recognition of a claim for the sum of his losses…During his later years he was very poor.”13

For a noncombatant, aging farmer, one who had spent his life working to build a familial life, his undoing came at Gettysburg on July 3, 1863.  Many others fared far worse, losing their lives on that same bloodied field.  The Bliss Farm, the proud Pennsylvania citadel, situated beautifully on rolling fields ringed by woods, had found itself in a most untenable position, and joined the ranks of the destroyed in one of the worst storms ever seen on American soil.

An image of the Bliss barn, the 12th New Jersey Monument<br>
  (Author photo)

An image of the Bliss barn, the 12th New Jersey Monument

 (Author photo)




Sources:  The 12th New Jersey File,  Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP).  The William Bliss Claim, William Bliss Farm  File, GNMP.  The William Bliss Family  Tree, Ancestry.com .  The Buffalo News, 24 August, 1888.  The Dedication of the 14th  Connecticut Monument at Gettysburg, 14th Connecticut File,  GNMP.  Pfanz, Harry W.   Gettysburg:  The Second Day .  Chapel Hill, NC: The  University of North Carolina Press, 1987.     Chaplain H.L. Stevens Reminiscences, 14th Connecticut File,  GNMP.    Newspapers accessed through newspapers.com.

End Notes: 

1.  William Bliss Family Tree,  Ancestry.com. 

2.  Ibid. 

3.  Stevens, H.L.   14th CT File, GNMP. 

4.  Ibid. 

5.  Pfanz, p. 68.   Stevens, 14th CT File, GNMP. 

6.  12th NJ File, GNMP. 

7.  Stevens, 14 CT File, GNMP. 

8.  Dedication of the 14th CT Monument at Gettysburg, pp. 17-18. 

9.  Stevens, H.L. 14th CT File,  GNMP. 

10.  Dedication of the 14th CT  Monument, p. 21. 

11.  Ibid. 

12.  William Bliss Claim, GNMP. 

13.  The Buffalo News, 24 Aug. 1888.

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