William T. King’s downtown tailor shop sign
Adams County Historical Society (achs-pa.org)
For the residents of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the battle fought there over three days in early July 1863 was as terrifying as it was disruptive: soldiers fighting through the town’s streets on the first day; sharpshooters occupying the rooms of various buildings, exchanging fire with a distant enemy; troops seeking shelter and sustenance in residents’ houses and outbuildings. After the battle ended and troops had left, residents could assess the damage. As the bullet-riddled sign pictured here shows, William T. King’s downtown tailor shop—like the buildings of other Gettysburg residents—bore scars from the fighting. King, 34, who had lived in Adams County for most of his life, opened his shop in April 1852, and soon married a local woman. He had been away during the battle, having enlisted in the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry only the month before. King’s family remained in town, and as one of his daughters wrote to him after the fighting, “twenty rebbels burst in” to the building on the battle’s second day, ransacking the place.
King resumed his tailoring business when he returned from the army in 1864. It was still going strong in 1886, the year he was profiled for a history of Adams County, which noted that King “has gained a reputation of being a correct cutter and a fine workman” and was “an upright, honorable dealer, and a courteous, genial man.” The sign was donated to the Adams County Historical Society in 1943 by one of King’s children.
