Lewis and Mary at the Battle of Gettysburg: A True Story

By Frederick Easton Walter

Lewis B. Walter and Mary Trostle were children growing up near the quiet farming town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. On July 1–3, 1863, their lives and the history of the United States of America was forever changed. From a prosperous farming town, to a battlefield, to President Lincoln’s address in November 1863, to a National Military Park, the name Gettysburg echoes through time.

Lewis and Mary’s story is another rich fiber in the tapestry of the Gettysburg story. How they survived, how their family rebuilt the Trostle Farm, and how the Trostle Farm became a piece of the Military Park is fascinating American history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 17, 2007
• ISBN: 9781469123097

Frederick Easton Walter

Frederick Easton Walter was born in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and lived at Eighteen East Locust Street for five years with his parents and his great-grandfather, Lewis B. Walter (Granpa Walter). This is where Granpa Walter retold the stories about the great battle at Gettysburg. When Lewis Walter died on March 31, 1950, the Walter Family (Roy Jr., Mary Jane, Fred, and Scott) soon moved to Arizona and then to El Segundo, California, and lived there until 1968. They moved back to the Village of La Anna, Pennsylvania, in the Pocono Mountains where they presently reside.

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Copyright © 2007 by Frederick Easton Walter.

Library of Congress Control Number:                2007904009

ISBN:         Hardcover                             978-1-4257-8030-2

                   Softcover                               978-1-4257-7999-3

                   Ebook                                    978-1-4691-2309-7

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CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE

LEE’S GENERAL ORDERS NO. 75

CAMP NEAR MECHANICSVILLE, VA

FORWARD

MARY

MILITARY

EPILOGUE

REFERENCES

MY GETTYSBURG JOURNAL

DEDICATION

In memory of Dad and Mom, Captain Hezekiah Easton,

Lewis (Granpa Walter) and Mary (Grandma Mary)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The Battle of Gaines Mill in June 1862 and the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 were separated by location and time.

One of the common denominators of both battles was the presence and generalship of Robert E. Lee.

When my father, Roy Leslie Walter Jr. (grandson of Lewis B. Walter and Mary Trostle), married my mother, Mary Jane Easton (great-granddaughter of Captain Hezekiah Easton) on September 20, 1944, the history of the Walters and Eastons was woven together in a true American story of great personal sacrifice to preserve the Union and the vision of the Founding Fathers. For sixty years, my parents shared the oral history and old family photographs of the Trostle—Walter and Easton families to keep the family history alive.

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Roy L. Walter and Mary Jane Easton Walter

La Anna Youth Hostel,

Pocono Mts., PA, 1993

PROLOGUE 

Everywhere on the Western Front of the Civil War, the Confederate army was being defeated by the Union army.

In June 1862, the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, appointed Robert E. Lee general of the Army of Northern Virginia.

In late June, General Lee had to stop the Union general, George McClelland, from attacking the Southern capital, Richmond,