Jennie Wade House Museum & Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum in Gettysburg, PA

Jennie Wades House Museum and Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum are across the street from each other and less then a block away. It is best to go to Jennie’s house first to get tickets for a tour. If it over an hour or more wait time, then Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum is a great place to go to for the a visit.

Jennie Wade House Museum

Except for the Gettysburg Cyclorama, I believe that Jennie Wade House Museum is the most important place to see is Gettysburg. This site is about the only direct civilian casualty of the Battle of Gettysburg who was a 20 year old female named Jennie Wade.

The cost of the tour is $9 Adults, $6.75 children 6 to 12 year old, and free to children under 5 years old. The tour include a set of stairs up to the second floor and back then to the cellar. This tour is not handicap or stroller accessible.

The house is close January and only open two days in February. Weekends at the beginning of March and by the end of March daily through August. But the web site didn’t have any information listed about September through December.

The house opens at 10 am before March 20th then at 9 am for the summer. The closing hours run from 4 pm to 8 pm depending on the the month and day, so check out the site for detail.

The tour starts in the gift shop with a wonderful tour guide dressed in period clothing who travels with you through the house and tells you the story of Jennie Wade, her mother, her sister, her sister’s new baby, and her brothers.

I loved my guide. She was full of energy and dealt with questions articulately, keep a upbeat attitude, and most importantly, keep the children in the group entertained as we processed through the house.

The house tour starts outside and shows were the well was and several bullet holes on the outside of the house. Once inside, you enter the kitchen and tour the first floor then the second floor where you get a bit of a surprise then down to the attic.

The house is full of items that were in the house at the time of the Civil War and the fatal day that Jennie Wade died. It is amazing that so much of it was saved. Like the bed her sister was in with a bullet hole in it.

This is not only a tour but a history class with great teachers. It takes you back the Civil War where you can almost smell the gun powder.

Brief History

On July 3, 1863, Jennie Wade was kneading the dough for bread when a bullet passed through her heart killed her instantly. The Wade house was actually the house of her sister who could not be moved due to having just given birth.

The day after her death, her mother baked 15 loaves of bread with the dough Jennie was kneading and used it to fed the Union soldiers. In 1882, the U.S. Senate voted a pension to Jennie Wade’s mother because Jennie was killed while she was making bread for the Union cause.

A monument is in Evergreen Cemetery for Jennie Wade which includes an American Flag that flies at all times. Jennie Wade and Betsy Ross are the only two women that have been honored with a perpetual flag in U.S. History.

Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum

Civil War Tails at the Homestead Diorama Museum is this great little quirky little museum with all the clay soldiers being cats.

The museum has over 8,000 one inch clay cats for their dioramas and other display of several sites of the Gettysburg Battlefield sites. The scense are historical actuart with little clay cats in both the grey and the blue uniforms.

The cats are on the Battlefield charging with swords in hand, on horses, and on foot. Little clay cats shooting off canons. They are so uniquely cute but the museum is made to scale with the accurate amount of men on the field, the landscape, and who was where on the Battlefield for that brief moment.

This museum was a hobby for twin sisters Rebecca and Ruth Brown who love cats and Civil War History. It is just so very interesting.

The hours are generally 11 am to 8 pm from April to November with a 10 am opening on Saturdays.

During the Winter, the hours are 1 pm to 7 pm from December to March with at 10 am opening on Saturdays.

But the museum is closed on Wednesday, Sunday, and the first Thursday of each month. But check their site for Special Hours during February and March and closures or openings for different holidays.

Adults are $6.50, children ages 6-12 is $5, and children under 5 are Free.

If you have a Civil War or cat person or know of one, check out their online gift shop. They have some very interesting items that would make great gifts such as little and large display domes with clay cat in Civil War uniforms in different scene and the book called, “Civil War Tails: 8,000 cat soldiers tell the panoramic story.”