John Burns became a national hero after the battle. When President Abraham Lincoln stopped in Pennsylvania to deliver his Gettysburg Address he asked to speak with Burns and met him at his home. Burns was also photographed and even a poem written about him (see last post).
A statue of John Burns was erected on the Gettysburg Battlefield and still stands today.
Am inscription of the base of the statue reads: "My thanks are specially due to a citizen of Gettysburg named John Burns who although over seventy years of age shouldered his musket and offered his services to Colonel Wister One Hundred and Fiftieth Pennsylvania Volunteers.
"Colonel Wister advised him to fight in the woods as there was more shelter there but he preferred to join our line of skirmishers in the open fields when the troops retired he fought with the Iron Brigade. He was wounded in three places."
These words were from the official report of Union General Doubleday.
Quite the Character. --Brock-Perry
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