History & local legend
The Wheatfield at Gettysburg was part of George Rose’s farm when fierce fighting swept through it on July 2, 1863. Lieutenant Berzil Inman of the 118th Pennsylvania was wounded on nearby Stony Hill and remained among the fallen after dark. He later recalled stray hogs approaching and rooting at the bodies around him.
The problem continued after the fighting. Within weeks, Gettysburg attorney David Wills warned Pennsylvania’s governor that hogs were disturbing shallow battlefield graves. His letter concerned the wider battlefield, while Inman’s recollection described his own position beside the Wheatfield.
A later ghost tradition gives that history an audible form. People report cries from the field and explain them as the voices of wounded soldiers trying to keep the animals away.
Sources
- Gettysburg Network of 1863, Berzil Inman’s account at Stony Hill and David Wills’s letter to the governor
- Haunts & History field collection, the Wheatfield’s reported cries and their local explanation
- Gettysburg National Military Park, Ranger John Hoptak’s walk through Rose’s Wheatfield, Stony Hill and the woods
- National Park Service, the Wheatfield and its July 2 fighting
