A modern view of the heavily modified house near Farmers, Pennsylvania, that in 1863 was the site of the headquarters of a soon-to-be-prominent Confederate general during the Gettysburg Campaign.
Background posts: Confederate camp site series, Wiest house in Spring Grove.
By late May of 1863, Farmers area resident Jacob S. Altland and his wife Lucy may have been following the war news, discussing the latest events following the Battle of Chancellorsville and wondering what the next great conflict might be. Or, like many others, they could have been ignoring the distant war, figuring that it was down south and of no immediate consequence to them. The focus would be on the upcoming summer harvest. Their tidy farmhouse was tucked into a hillside just off the bustling Gettysburg Pike, away from the winter winds and situated over a fresh spring, which bubbled up in the cool cellar.
Little could the Altlands realize that within a month, their house would be the epicenter of an ecampment of more than 1,500 enemy soldiers, and their commander would be sleeping in a feather bed in their home (and, more than 145 years later, their house would be featured worldwide on some new-fangled invention called the global Internet)...
