JOHN BURNS OF GETTYSBURG. 347 



On the other 



BARBAKA, 



Wife of John L. Burns, 



Born June 15th, 1797, 



Died July 1st, 1868. 



'■ Thy word is as a lamp unto my feet 

 And a light unto my path." 



It will be noticed that Barbara died on the anniversary of 

 the fight her husband made himself famous in. 



They had no children, but left an adopted daughter, Jennie, 

 who lives with a family by the name of Martin, on the 

 " Diamond," as the central square of Gettysburg is called. 

 She was but two years old at the time of the battle. 

 * * * * 



I have since re-visited Gettysburg and found additional 

 evidence that Burns was the patriot his admirers claimed him 

 to have been. I also saw the same disposition among some of 

 his neighbors to belittle him to strangers. They can scarcely 

 speak a good word for him, and it is the utterance of these 

 which make visitors believe he was what they term him— a 

 drunken braggart. As I have before said, he was at one time 

 addicted to drink, but he reformed, and the later years of his 

 life was a sober man. He had made effort to enlist at the 

 beginning of the war, but the recruiting-officer would not take 

 him, as he was then sixty-seven years old. I was told that he 

 served in the Mexican war, but it being afterwards contra- 

 dicted, as John led a double life in Gettysburg, it is hard to 

 say whether it is true or not. In gathering information about 

 Burns, it was a common thing for the second informant to 

 nullify what the first said. It is very evident he had been a 

 soldier at some previous time. He received a pension from 

 the Government for his day's work at Gettysburg up to the 

 time of his death. 



