Brother
Friend against Friend
Brother
V S
A Story of Family, Friendship,
Love, and War
BY JAY BELLAMY
J
uly 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettys-
burg—the battle that many believe signaled the beginning of
the end for the Confederacy.
It has often been said that the Civil War pitted “brother against
brother and friend against friend.” is was never more true than in
the case of Wesley Culp and Jack Skelly, two young men who grew
up together in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, before the start of the war
in 1861.
John Wesley Culp—born in 1839 and named for the founder of
the Methodist Church—was the third of four children born to Easias
“Jesse” Culp and Margaret Ann Sutherland Culp. Wesley was espe-
cially close to his two sisters, Barbara Ann and Julia, who probably felt
protective of him since he was much smaller than most of the other
boys and most likely endured a great deal of teasing and bullying.
Johnston “Jack” Hastings Skelly, Jr., was two years younger than
Wesley and also a third child. ere were 10 Skelly children in all,
although two died before reaching the age of four. Skelly Sr., a tailor
by trade, had moved to Gettysburg in 1836. e following year, he
married Elizabeth Finnefrock, and the two then settled down to begin
a family and start a tailoring business in Gettysburg. Skelly made sure
that all the children were taught the trade, including the girls.
As boys growing up together, Wes Culp and Jack Skelly became
fast friends. ey would often go exploring on Culps Hill, a prime
piece of Gettysburg real estate owned by Henry Culp, a family
relative. In many of their excursions they included young Mary
Virginia Wade, better known to her friends and family as Jennie.
e Wade family was not held in very high esteem in the Get-
tysburg community. James Wade, Jennie’s father, often found
himself on the wrong side of the law. After being found guilty of
larceny in November 1850, Wade spent two years in Eastern Peni-
tentiary in Philadelphia. Mary Wade then asked that her husband
be declared “very insane” and placed in the Adams County Alms
House, where he remained until his death in 1872.
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Brother
V S
Brother
As the years passed and the three childhood friends grew into their
teens, Jack and Jennie’s feelings for each other intensied. Wesley,
however, had little time to feel neglected, as he had taken a job with
C. William Homan, a local carriage shop owner. When Homan
decided to move his business to Shepherdstown, Virginia (now West
Virginia) in 1856, he asked Wesley and several other employees to
go with him. Wesley’s brother William declined, but Wesley quickly
agreed to relocate, as did Charles Edwin Skelly, Jack’s brother.
e War Begins,
Choices are Made
By the end of the 1850s, the country was in turmoil. Southern states
threatened secession if a Republican was elected President in 1860,
and John Brown’s failed raid on the Harper’s Ferry arsenal in 1859
clearly showed the division within the country.
While the South denounced Brown as a lunatic and murderer, many
in the North mourned his execution and hailed him as a fallen martyr.
When Abraham Lincoln, a Republican, was elected in 1860, Southern
states began seceding, beginning with South Carolina and followed by
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
On April 12, 1861, batteries of the new Confederate army opened
re on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. After 34
straight hours of bombardment, Sumter’s commander, Maj. Robert
Anderson, reluctantly surrendered the fort. e rst shots of the Civil
War had been red, and it was now time for allegiances to be made
and sides taken. One of those forced to make a choice was Wesley
Culp, formerly of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Before the war, Wesley had registered with the Hamtramck Guards, a
social and military organization that many young men in Shepherdstown
joined to meet and make new friends. When war broke out and the other
Gettysburg natives prepared to head north, Wes informed Edwin Skelly
that he would not be returning with them. He had made a new life for him-
self in Virginia, he explained, and was prepared to stay “come what may.”
When informed by the returning Gettysburg boys that Wes-
ley had chosen to remain behind in Virginia, William Culp was
Left: Jack Skelly enlisted in the Union army with the Second Pennsylvania
Volunteers in April 1861. His unit fought Wesley Culp’s unit at Falling Waters in
Virginia on July 2, 1861, but the two did not meet in battle.
Right: Wesley Culp had been a close friend of Jack Skelly’s in Gettysburg until
he decided to enlist in the Confederate army in April 1861. Wesley died at
Gettysburg on July 2, 1863.
Brother vs. Brother
Jack Skelly wrote his mother on April 7, 1863, that Jennie had denied keeping late hours with anyone, and that he
hoped the matter “was all over for the Present.”
Jack Skelly discounted stories of Jennie Wade keeping company with gentlemen callers, writing to his mother on May 4, 1862, that
the rumors were being spread by “some persons interfering with us to raise a fuss between Jennie and I.”
furious. For the rest of his life, so the story
goes, he would not allow his brother’s name
to be mentioned in his presence. On April
20, 1861, just eight days after the attack on
Fort Sumter, Wesley enlisted with the Con-
federate army at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
(Harper’s Ferry would not become a part of
22
Prologue
West Virginia until that state’s admittance to
the Union in 1863.)
Soldiers Answer the Call,
And a Letter Is Sent
When the call for Union soldiers was an-
nounced and four more Southern states
had seceded, Jack quickly answered the
call.
“My country needs me, Mother,” he ex-
plained when asking for permission to enlist.
“May I go?”
“Yes, my boy,” she answered, “and may
God bless and keep you.”
Having secured his mother’s permission,
Jack, along with William Culp, enlisted with
the Second Pennsylvania Volunteers and was
mustered into service on April 29, 1861.
It didn’t take long for the three young men
to ght on the same eld of battle. On July
2, 1861, the Second Pennsylvania was engaged
in action at Falling Waters in Berkeley County,
Virginia, against Confederate forces com-
manded by Col. omas (Stonewall) Jackson.
Wesley’s militia unit, the Hamtramck Guards,
had been mustered into service as the Second
Virginia Infantry (soon to become known as
the famous “Stonewall Brigade”) and was part
of the rebel force facing the Union divisions
of Maj. Gen. Robert Patterson. Although the
battle ultimately proved a Union victory, Patter-
son was relieved of his command after failing to
block the rebel retreat to Winchester.
After their 90-day enlistment expired, Wil-
liam and Jack returned home to Gettysburg,
where they were most likely treated as return-
ing war heroes. By September, however, they
had both decided to re-enlist for a three-year
period with the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry.
We can only assume that Jack was present for
the next three months, as his service records at
the National Archives in Washington, D.C,
are not entirely clear on this matter. Under the
question of absent or present, it simply reads:
“not stated.” Wesley’s service records, howev-
er, show him as “absent on furlough” for the
months of January and February 1862. e
next report, dated June 13, shows him “taken
prisoner while absent on furlough.”
With Wesley being held as a prisoner of war,
William managed to put aside his ill feelings to-
ward his brother just long enough to visit him
in a Union prison camp. He wrote to Barbara
Anne that Wesley was doing well under the cir-
cumstances and hoped to be released soon. On
Spring 2013
August 5 Wesley was released in a prisoner ex-
change. He rejoined his unit after walking back
to Shepherdstown and rst enjoying a brief pe-
riod of rest and relaxation.
Meanwhile, Jack was receiving letters from his
mother—who was concerned about her son’s
relationship with Jennie—informing him that
word on the street had Jennie keeping company
with several gentlemen callers late into the night.
In reply to his mother, Jack mentioned
that he would very much like to know who
was supposedly visiting Jennie. He stated
that he did not have as much faith in most
of the people of Gettysburg as he did in a
“worthless set of dogs” and that if it were
not for family in Gettysburg, he wouldn’t
care if he ever returned home again. He be-
lieved that these rumors were being spread
by “some persons interfering with us to raise
a fuss between Jennie and I.”
Lee’s Army Heads North
Toward Historic Battle
Nearly a year later, Jack informed his mother
that he had questioned Jennie about the al-
legations, and although she admitted to en-
tertaining company on occasion, she denied
keeping late hours with anyone.
is admission was apparently good
enough for Jack, as he then went on to ad-
monish his mother: “You should have said
something to me when I rst commenced
going there [referring to his own visits with
Jennie] if you did not like it.”
Jack further reiterated that it was his hon-
est belief that someone was just trying to
raise a fuss between him and Jennie and that
as far as he was concerned, the matter “was all
over for the Present and I hope for the future.”
After August 1862, the service records for
Jack, William, and Wesley show them all pres-
ent until the May–June 1863 report for the
87th Pennsylvania. Under remarks, it says for
Jack: “Missing in action on June 13, 14 &15,
1863.” In truth, Jack was lying in a Confed-
erate hospital after being critically wounded
during the Second Battle of Winchester, also
known as the Battle of Carter’s Woods.
Brother vs. Brother
Jack Skelly’s service record reveals that he died in a hospital in Winchester,Virginia, on July 12, 1863, of wounds
suffered in a battle nearby—the Battle of Carter’s Woods.
(Union newspapers traditionally named
battles for landmarks near the actual battleeld
locations, whereas Southern papers would use
the name of the town closest to the battle.)
It was earlier that month, on June 3, that
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army
of Northern Virginia departed Fredericksburg,
Virginia, to begin their second invasion of the
North. Lee and his army had attempted their
rst incursion into Union territory the previ-
ous year, when they were narrowly defeated at
the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, Mary-
land, on September 17, 1862.
Between June 12 and 15 of 1863, the Army
of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of
the Potomac were engaged in battle near Win-
chester, Virginia, with Confederate forces pre-
vailing in the end. For the second time, Wesley
and William Culp and their friend Jack Skelly
were present on the same eld of battle. A third
Culp, William and Wesley’s cousin, David,
was also ghting for the Union and was taken
prisoner during the battle.
Another Union soldier taken prisoner that
day was Edwin Skelly, who along with his
younger brother Jack and neighbor William
Culp had signed up with the 87th Pennsylva-
nia almost two years earlier. Not to be outdone
by his two sons, Johnston Skelly, Sr., whose
unit was not present on this day, was ghting
Prologue
23
Georgia Wade McClellan, Maria Comfort, and Jennie Wade (left to right). Maria Comfort was an older friend
of Georgia’s who lived across the street from Jennie’s birthplace on Baltimore Street.
with the 101st Pennsylvania Infantry—truly
making this war a Skelly family aair.
Jack Skelly Hurt in Retreat,
Gives Letter to Wesley Culp
After being ordered to surrender, Jack was
struck in the arm by a minié ball and severely
injured while attempting to ee from advanc-
ing rebel troops. When Wesley learned of
Jack’s injury, he visited his friend in a Confed-
erate eld hospital, where it is said that Jack
gave Wesley a letter to deliver to Jennie Wade
if he ever made it back home to Gettysburg.
Historians and everyday students of the
Civil War have speculated on the contents of
this letter for generations. Many claim it was
an expression of devotion or even a marriage
proposal, but no one can be sure. ere is little
doubt that Wesley was asked to deliver some
24 Prologue
kind of message to Jennie, and within just
weeks, remarkably, he had the chance.
For nearly a month, Lee’s army marched
through Virginia and Maryland, arriving in
Pennsylvania at the end of June. Following close
behind were Union troops under the command
of Gen. Joseph Hooker, who would be replaced
during the pursuit by Gen. George Meade.
Having been informed by a spy that the Union
army was close behind, Lee ordered all troops to
converge at a central location. Because multiple
roads led into town from all directions, Gettys-
burg seemed to be the logical meeting point.
e Second Virginia Infantry, including
former Gettysburg resident Wesley Culp, was
part of Lee’s invading force. Wes had nally
come home, but he was now considered by
many, including family, to be a traitor to his
town and country. Several family members
had even threatened to shoot him on sight if
they ever saw him again. But Barbara Anne
and Julia were still devoted to their brother,
regardless of which side he chose in this ter-
rible war. When Wesley showed up at Barbara
Anne’s door on the night of July 1, she greeted
him with open arms.
After spending several hours with his sisters,
enjoying a nice meal and catching up on the lo-
cal news, Wes bid them a good-night. Barbara
Anne and Julia begged him to stay until morn-
ing, but he insisted on leaving. His command-
ing ocer had graciously given him a pass to
visit with his family, he explained, but he was
still expected to return to camp that evening.
Before departing, however, he mentioned that
he had a message to deliver to Jack Skelly’s mother
and hoped to be able to visit again the following
morning. Descendants of Jennie’s sister Georgia
believe Jack’s message was to inform his mother of
his intention to marry Jennie in September when
he was eligible for furlough. When asked if he had
a message for anyone else in Gettysburg, Wesley
simply avoided the question.
“Never mind,” he told them, “you’ll get all
the news from Mrs. Skelly.”
Barbara Anne and Julia oered to visit Mrs.
Skelly on his behalf, probably out of concern that
Wesley might be spotted in town, but he was ada-
mant about delivering the message himself.
Wesley was unable to follow through on
his plan to return. Before he could visit Mrs.
Skelly or Jennie Wade, his short life tragically
came to an end.
e Mysterious Death
And Burial of Wesley Culp
ere has been a great deal of controversy over
the years as to where and when Wesley Culp
was killed. While many believe he died on July
3 near the hill bearing his family name, others
insist he was killed on July 2 after looking up
from behind a large boulder to see what was
happening around him. Although the July–
August service record for Wes reads: “killed in
battle at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863,” Confeder-
ate recordkeeping was notoriously haphazard.
Supporting the July 2 date is the report of Pvt.
Spring 2013
Jennie Wade had moved to the home of her sister, Georgia Wade McClellan, for safety during the Battle of
Gettysburg. As the battle drew closer, Jennie died from a stray Confederate bullet.
Benjamin Pendleton, who served in Wesley’s
unit. Pendleton knew Wes from their days in
Shepherdstown and had even met Julia on sever-
al occasions when she visited her brother before
the war. Pendleton claimed he had helped Wes-
ley obtain a pass into town that rst night and
then joined him on the skirmish line the next
morning. As the line advanced, Pendleton stat-
ed, Wesley was shot and killed. When Pendleton
delivered the news to Barbara Anne and Julia the
next evening, he described Wes’s grave as being
somewhere under “a crooked tree.” After a thor-
ough search, however, the family never located
his grave. All that was found was the stock of his
gun, which had been modied to accommodate
his 5´ 4´´ frame, with his initials carved into it.
Further evidence comes from a 1913 Pitts-
burg Gazette Times article written by George
Fleming. Fleming had spoken to a number
of individuals who claimed to have been with
Wes at the time of his death. He wrote:
“When Geary’s division of the Twelfth
Corps had entrenched the line, the right of
the Union army on Culps Hill, at 8 o’clock
on the morning of July 2, Gen. Geary ad-
vanced a strong skirmish line to the foot of
the hill along Rock Creek. From the Twenty-
eighth Pennsylvania the whole of Company
G of Sewickley, under First Sergeant omas
J. Hamilton, was on the line, and they had a
hot day of it, being driven in at dusk by the
advance of Johnson’s whole division, but Wes
Culp had been killed in the morning’s skirmish-
Brother vs. Brother
ing in their front and was buried by his com-
rades where he fell ” [emphasis added].
e last piece of evidence comes from Bar-
bara Anne herself, who supposedly conrmed
the July 2 date to her daughter Margaret years
after her brother’s death.
While it may be romantic to think that Wes-
ley Culp died at Culps Hill on July 3, the most
compelling evidence points to his death occur-
ring on the morning of July 2 somewhere east
of Rock Creek, on or near the farm of Chris-
tian Benner. We will probably never know
what happened to his earthly remains.
Rumors have spread over generations that
Barbara Anne and Julia either found his body
and had him secretly buried at Evergreen
Cemetery or put to rest somewhere near the
family farm. Another story claimed that, after
nding him, they chose to leave him where he
was, afraid that any proper gravesite might be
vandalized by those who still harbored ill feel-
ings toward him.
Others claim that his body was found and
buried in a Confederate cemetery in Virginia,
but there is no convincing evidence, and no
family member has ever spoken about this
possibility. ere is a grave marker for a Pvt.
John Wesley Culp in the Hollywood cemetery
in Richmond, but it is most likely a misiden-
tied Confederate soldier who was moved to
Richmond in 1872, when many of the Con-
federate dead originally buried at Gettysburg
were returned to the South.
Jennie Shot in Her Sister’s Home,
And Jack Skelly Dies of Injuries
With much of the battle’s rst day’s action tak-
ing place near the center of town—where the
Wade home was located—Jennie’s family took
refuge at the home of her sister, Georgia Wade
McClellan, which was south of town. Mrs.
Wade and Jennie helped take care of Georgia’s
newborn baby boy while her husband fought
for the Union. Also moving to the McClel-
lan house were Jennie’s younger brother Harry
and Isaac Brinkerho, a six-year-old crippled
child the family looked after during the day.
For the rst two days of the battle, Jennie
baked bread and biscuits for the tired Union
soldiers. She also made numerous trips to the
well to ll the never-ending procession of empty
canteens. Although others in the neighborhood
were charging for goods, Jennie refused to do so.
e McClellan home was not the safe haven
the family hoped for. To the left was Cemetery
Hill, where ghting had been hot and heavy on
the night of July 2. e small brick house now
sat between Union and Confederate lines.
On the morning of July 3, Jennie was prepar-
ing hot biscuits for Union soldiers camped in
front of the house. Earlier that morning, a bul-
let had crashed through the window of Georgia’s
room, struck a bedpost, and came to rest on the
pillow where Georgia lay sleeping with her baby.
Jennie declared just moments later that if any-
body was to die in the house that day, “I hope it is
me, as George [Georgia’s nickname] has a baby.”
Shortly after 8:30 a.m., as she stood in
front of the stove, a stray Confederate bullet
smashed through the outside door, pierced
To learn more about
• Our “Discovering the Civil
War” exhibit, go to www.
archives.gov/exhibits/civil-war/.
• Starting research in Civil War records,
go to www.archives.gov/research/military/
civil-war/.
• Records of battles, campaigns, and
skirmishes in the National Archives, go
to www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/
1995/fall/.
Prologue 25
A marker at Jack Skelly’s grave records the question
he had asked his mother before enlisting: “My
country needs me mother, may I go?”
In November 1865 Jennie’s remains were relocated
to her permanent resting place in the Evergreen
Cemetery at Gettysburg. In 1900 a monument was
built in Jennie’s memory and placed at her gravesite.
the door that opened from Georgia’s bedroom
into the kitchen, and struck Jennie just below
the shoulder blade before entering her heart
and killing her instantly. Found inside her
apron pocket was a photograph of Jack Skelly.
Back in Virginia, after lying in the Con-
federate hospital for nearly 30 days, Jack died
on July 12. Friends and family in Gettysburg
learned of his fate months later. After being re-
ported missing in action on the May–June and
July–August reports, his service record for Sep-
tember–October reads: “Died at hosp. [hos-
pital] Winchester Va. July 12, 63 of wounds
received in action near that place June 15, 63.”
e deaths of Gettysburg boys Wesley Culp on
July 2 and Jack Skelly on July 12 epitomized
the notion of “friend against friend” during
America’s four years of Civil War.
e Battle of Gettysburg:
A Postscript
e Battle of Gettysburg was fought over the
rst three days in July of 1863. is single
confrontation would result in over 51,000
dead, wounded, or missing in action, clearly
making it the most costly engagement of the
Civil War. Lee lost a third of his entire army
at Gettysburg, yet through sheer resolve the
rebels continued to ght another two years.
On November 19, 1863, President Abra-
ham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg to dedi-
cate a new national cemetery in honor of
those who had given “the last full measure of
devotion.” His Gettysburg Address is widely
considered to be one of the nest literary
works in American history.
Wesley Culp’s brother William, whose
regiment was not involved at Gettysburg, re-
mained with the Union army until war’s end,
reaching the rank of rst lieutenant before
being mustered out of service in 1865. Da-
vid Culp and Edwin Skelly—who were both
released from Confederate captivity within
months of their capture at the battle of Carter’s
Woods—ocially ended their military service
in 1864, mustering out on October 13.
A card in David Culp’s le dated October
29, 1889, shows that when he was at Camp
Parole in Maryland—one of three camps des-
ignated to hold paroled Union prisoners until
they could be exchanged for Confederate pris-
oners—he was charged with desertion after
leaving camp from July 28 to October 7, 1863.
e charge was later removed and changed to
“absent without proper authorization” under
an act of Congress dated March of 1889.
Jennie Wade was rst buried in the garden just
outside her sister’s house on July 4, 1863. Her
body was reinterred in the graveyard of a Ger-
man Reform Church in January 1864. In No-
vember 1865 her remains were relocated to her
permanent resting place in the Evergreen Cem-
etery at Gettysburg. A monument to Jennie’s
memory at her gravesite, built in 1900, is one
of the most visited tourist spots in Gettysburg.
It depicts a solemn Jennie rising above the many
tombstones that dot the Evergreen landscape.
A mere 70 yards from where Jennie lies
is the grave of Jack Skelly. Jack’s younger
brother, Daniel, traveled to Winchester,
Virginia, in November of 1864 to retrieve
his brother’s remains for burial in his home-
town. While the Civil War may have sepa-
rated Jack and Jennie in life, they now rest
near one another for all eternity.
P
Jay Bellamy is in the Research
Support Branch at the National
Archives at College Park, Maryland.
He is a student of the Civil War,
with special emphasis on the Battle
of Gettysburg as well as the life of
Abraham Lincoln. In 2008, he published Dear Jennie,
a mystery novel based on the lives of Jennie Wade, Jack
Skelly, and Wesley Culp.
Service records for Wesley Culp are in National
Archives Microlm Publication M324, Compiled
Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served
from Virginia (roll 374), War Department Collection
of Confederate Records, Record Group 109 (also
available online through Fold3.com). e military
service records of Jack Skelly, William Culp, and
David Culp are in Records of the Adjutant General’s
Oce, 1780’s–1917, Record Group 94, National
Archives Building, Washington, D.C.
e letters between Jack Skelly and his mother
are in Jack’s pension le in the Records of the
Department of Veterans Aairs, Record Group 15,
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Additional information about Jennie Wade and
Jack Skelly is in Cindy Small’s book, e Jennie
Wade Story: A True and Complete Account of the
Only Civilian Killed During the Battle of Gettysburg
(Gettysburg, Pa.: omas Publications, 1991) and
Enrica D’Alessandro’s “My Country Needs Me”:
e Story of Corporal Johnston Hastings Skelly, Jr.
(Lynchburg, Va.: Schroeder Publications, 2012).
My special thanks go to Bob O’Connor,
author of A House Divided Against Itself and
other books on the Civil War, for his many email
communications with me regarding the death of
Wesley Culp. I thank him for helping me to put
aside old beliefs just long enough to see things
from a dierent perspective.
N S
Author
26 Prologue
Spring 2013
