About the Corporal Jack Skelly GAR Post #9

In 1867, the Union Civil War Veterans of Gettysburg established the Grand Army of the Republic Post #9 and named it after Corporal Jack Skelly,. Corporal Skelly was a resident of Gettysburg and joined the 87th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company "F" which was comprised of members of the Gettysburg Independent Blues, Gettysburg's hometown militia which answered President Lincoln's call for volunteers and was mustered into federal service. Corporal Skelly would meet a tragic fate after the Second Battle of Winchester where he was shot in the arm and died just a few weeks later. In March of 1880, the Post acquired the old Methodist Church which had been abandoned for sometime. The Hall had undergone several transformations over the years. By the 1930s, due to the declining membership of the Post and of the GAR in general, the Post bestowed upon it's auxiliary, Gettysburg Camp 112 - Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, ownership of the Hall. Similarly to the fate of Post #9, Gettysburg Camp 112 experienced a decline in membership. Unfortunately, the Hall had fallen into a terrible state of disrepair, and the Camp was unable to raise the funds necessary to refurbish the Hall. The Camp was faced with a difficult decision. The Camp came to a generous business deal with Historic Gettysburg Adams County (HGAC) in which the Camp would relinquish ownership of the Hall to HGAC while maintaining perpetual tenantship. HGAC refurbished the Hall while incorporating details from the Hall's past as a Methodist Church, while remaining true the aesthetics of the Hall under stewardship of the Post. Today, the Camp continues to meet on the first Sunday of the month in their ancestral home.