Full standing view of Gettysburg civilian soldier John Burns, standing with one elbow resting on photographer’s prop column.  Wears a buttoned up coat and a hat.  On the reverse in period ink is Burns’ signature, “John L. Burns / Gettysburg / Age 73”.  BM: Wenderoth, Taylor &  Brown, Philadelphia.

Overall in good condition, some light staining & soiling on both front & reverse.  Slight waviness to mount.

Burns was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a civilian citizen of Gettysburg when the battle erupted on July 1, 1863.  After the preliminary skirmishing of the battle of Gettysburg began, Burns met a wounded Union soldier, borrowed his rifle and ammunition, with which he went to the front and offered his services as a volunteer to Maj. Chamberlain of the 155^th Pennsylvania regiment.  He was referred to the 7^th Wisconsin volunteers nearby, they being sharply engaged with the enemy. The old man proved himself such a skillful sharpshooter that the colonel commanding the regiment sent him a favorite long-range rifle, which he used all day with deadly effect in the advanced line; he was however badly wounded in the afternoon, when the Union troops were forced back.  He told a plausible story to his Confederate captors, and got himself carried to his own house, where his wounds were dressed by the surgeons; and after a narrow escape from execution as an un-uniformed combatant, he was left when the Confederates were in turn driven back. The story of his patriotic zeal aroused the greatest interest in the northern states; he was lauded as the “Hero of Gettysburg”, and after the war, as his home was on the battlefield, became an object of curiosity of visitors and accumulated a competence through their generosity.