Few stories of “human interest” from Gettysburg are more touching than the “Children of the Battlefield.” Reportedly found clutched in the hands of an unidentified dead union soldier, the image of three children was widely circulated in northern newspapers in an effort to identify the man and his family. The attention garnered by the campaign not only led to the identification of the soldier as Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154^th New York, but helped support the movement to establish a Pennsylvania “asylum” for the orphaned children of soldiers. Established in 1866 in Gettysburg, the asylum’s first matron was Mrs. Humiston, and her three children were residents. Fundraising was done in part through the sale of images like this, published by Wenderoth, Taylor and Brown of Philadelphia. The front of the image shows a good copy of the original photo of Humiston’s three children with their names printed below. The reverse of the card bears printed information on the image, a fund-raising message and copyright warning by J. Francis Bourns, who supervised the project. Mrs. Humiston subsequently remarried and left the asylum with her children. Bourns was later accused of mismanagement and a new matron of mistreatment. The asylum closed after only twelve years in operation.  [SR]

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