The Shriver House Museum is one of Gettysburg’s greatest treasures. Located on 309 Baltimore Street, just blocks from the battlefield, the restored home of George Washington Shriver and his family tells the story of the battle of Gettysburg from the civilian perspective.
Mrs. Shriver and her two young daughters, Sadie and Mollie, and their teenage neighbor, Tillie Pierce, witnessed the entire battle from Mrs. Shriver’s parents farm next to Little Round Top. Ironically, they had gone there to escape the fighting in town, thinking it would be safer, and having no idea they were about to be caught in the crossfire of some of the worst fighting yet!
For many days the battle literally raged around their heads, and they had to scream to hear each other over the noise of cannons and musket fire. The group spent most of their time trying to help the wounded as best they could, baking bread for them and cleaning their wounds.
Upon returning home afterwards Mrs. Shriver and the three girls found a totally different town than the one they had left. Broken fences, destroyed crops, and the dead and wounded lay everywhere. The Shrivers’ home had been damaged too. In their absence a Confederate snipers nest had been set up in their attic and holes were knocked into the home’s back wall so that the rebels could shoot Union soldiers on Cemetery Hill.
The Shriver House is open to the public every day from April threw Remembrance Day and on weekends in December and March. Visitors can tour all four levels of the home, from the attic where the two Confederate snipers died (and still occassionally make their presence felt), to the homes basement where George Shriver (who ultimately died in Andersonville Prison) once operated a saloon.