The Roger House is located on the west side of the Emmitsburg Road,
about a mile south of Gettysburg, midway between Meade’s line of battle
on Cemetery Ridge and Lee’s line on Seminary Ridge. On the afternoon of
July 2nd, after Sickles advanced his corps from its first position to
the Emmitsburg Road, it was surrounded by the right of the new line. The
1st Massachusetts Regiment, whose monument stands adjacent to the house,
held this part of the line, and was hotly engaged when the brigades of
Wilcox and Wright advanced during the assault of Longstreet on the Union
left on the afternoon of the 2nd. During Pickett’s Charge, on the
afternoon of the 3rd, the house was again surrounded by fighting men.
While the battle raged on all sides, a granddaughter of the owner, Miss
Josephine Miller, remained, and, notwithstanding the great danger, baked
bread and biscuits for the hungry soldiers. In 1896, Miss Miller, then
Mrs. Slyder, paid a visit to her old home, and related the following
story of her experience to Mr. Wilfred Pearse, of Boston, Mass., a
visitor to Gettysburg at the same time. After his return he published
the following article.
“The veterans of the 1st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment will be glad to
learn that the only woman member of the 3rd Army Corps ‘Veterans’
Association,’ Mrs. Slyder, née Miss Josephine Miller, granddaughter of
farmer Roger, owner of the farm near which the 1st Massachusetts
monument stands, is visiting her old home on the battleground where she
stood from sunrise to sunset for two days of the battle making hot
biscuits for the Boys in Blue. She refused to take money for the bread,
and refused to stop her work even when Confederate shells were bursting
around the house. She told me the other day that when her stock of flour
was almost exhausted six members of the 1st Massachusetts kindly
volunteered to go out and steal three sacks of flour from General
Sickles’ commissary stores. In an hour’s time they returned with flour,
raisins, currants, and a whole sheep, with which a rattling good meal
was made.
“The old range still stands in the kitchen, and in it, at the last
reunion of the 3rd Corps, Mrs. Slyder cooked a dinner for General
Sickles.”