A Tale of Two Brothers

The sons of Easias Jesse and Margaret Sutherland Culp, William E. "William," born in 1831, and John W. "Wesley," born in 1839, grew up in Gettysburg and worked for carriage maker Charles William Hoffman. In 1856 Hoffman moved his business to Martinsburg, Virginia, and Wesley followed while William remained in Gettysburg. When the Civil War began, their loyalties followed the same pattern: Wesley enlisted in the 2nd Virginia Infantry, while William joined the 2nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, a 3 month unit, and later the 87th. Although they became brother against brother, it is unrecorded whether they ever saw each other again. Their regiments faced each other in combat only once, at the Second Battle of Winchester on June 15, 1863. Neither was wounded there, but Wesley recognized a Gettysburg friend, Union soldier Jack Skelly, who had been wounded. Skelly gave Wesley a note for his girl, Virginia "Jennie" Wade, in Gettysburg, but Wesley could not deliver it because he was shot and killed on his uncle Henry's farm on July 2, at Culp's Hill. Like many Confederate soldiers, Wesley now rests in an unmarked grave. After the war, William returned to Gettysburg in 1882 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, where Wesley's absence serves as a silent witness to the personal cost of conflict.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania · United States