A photo of
three children which had been found in their dead father’s hand following the
Battle of Gettysburg was published on October 19th 1863, in an
attempt to identify the soldier.
Following
the Battle of Gettysburg a dead soldier was found clutching a photo of his
three children. This photo made its way
to a local tavern where it was viewed by Doctor John Francis Bournes, a
Philadelphia physician who was caring for the battle’s wounded. Bournes took it upon himself to try to find
out who those three children belonged to. He had published in “The Philadelphia
Inquirer” on October 19th 1863 the story “Whose Father Was He?” it
described the photo of the three children, their ages and what they were
wearing, with, “After the Battle of Gettysburg, a Union soldier was found in a
secluded spot on the battlefield, where, wounded, he had laid himself down to die. In
his hands tightly clasped, was an ambrotype containing the portraits of three
small children…and as he silently gazed upon them his soul passed away. It is earnestly desired that all papers in the
country will draw attention [so] the family…may come into possession of
it".
To the north
in Portville, New York, Philinda Humiston read the description of the photo in
“The American Presbyterian” a church magazine, on October 29th 1863,
and since she had not heard from her husband since the Battle of Gettysburg,
she responded. Bournes sent her a
carte-de-visite copy of the photo which confirmed that the dead soldier was
Amos Humiston. Bournes made the trip to
the Humiston home in New York to return the original photo to her.
The
publicity surrounding the photo of the three small children also help to raise
the funds that open the Gettysburg orphan’s home, or the “National Homestead at
Gettysburg”. It was to be a home for the
children of fallen Union soldiers. It
opened in 1866.
