The farm of the fifty-one year old Reverend Michael Bushman and his wife Amelia is about three miles south of Gettysburg on the east side of the Emmitsburg Pike. The original portions of the house date to 1808. It was deeded by Sophia Hammer to her daughter, Amelia, who included Michael in the will when they married in 1834. The Reverend Bushman was nationally known as a minister in the German Baptist Brethren Church, known today as the Church of the Brethren. The Bushmans had no children. They added the brick addition with dining room and kitchen in 1860.
Amelia died after the war in 1875. Michael married Louisa Rupp in 1878. When Michael died in 1893 Louisa did not inherit the property, as the original will provided that the house would go to Michael and Amelia’s children when they died. As there were no children, the property was sold in 1894 to the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association. In 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service.
(below) The view from the patio behind the house includes nearby Big Round Top as well as Little Round Top (out of photo to the left). The white farmhouse in the distance is the Slyder farm, reachable from here by the Slyder Farm Lane. A trail then leads to South Confederate Avenue at the base of Big Round Top
On July 2nd of 1863 Hood’s division swept across this land on the way to attack Little Round Top and the Devil’s Den. Hood may have been wounded in the Bushman orchard. The Bushman barn was probably used as a temporary field hospital, and eight Confederates were buried beside it. Like many other Gettysburg residents, the Bushmans, who had left before the battle, suffered losses, theft and destruction of property.
In 2017 the house was beautifully renovated by the Park Service, and is available for rental. It has three bedrooms, including a first floor master bedroom; one full and one half bathrooms; a fully-equipped modern kitchen with stove, microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator; dining room; and sitting room. The house has central heating and air conditioning.
The smokehouse still stands behind the Bushman kitchen. The barn is a short distance away.
Most of the wood in the smokehouse is original, coated with generations of wood smoke.
(below) Details of the original construction of the smokehouse include wood pegs.
