David Getz
David Getz died on September 22, 1863 at his home in Beaver Springs. His death was caused by injuries he had suffered at the Battle of Fredericksburg the previous December. He was forty years old at the time of his death and had worked as a shoemaker before the war. Getz was in Company F of the 131st Pennsylvania regiment.
The 131st was heavily involved in the Battle of Fredericksburg, where Company F took part in the doomed charge at the Stone Wall on Marye’s Heights. It was during one of these charges that Getz was injured severely in his left leg. His femur was shattered just below the hip by two bullets. He fell in the chaotic stretch of ground in front of the wall and was later reclaimed by Union troops. Getz was taken to Emory Hospital in Washington, D.C., where surgeons determined that his wound was too extreme to contemplate continued service. He stayed in the hospital for six months. Fellow members of Company F went for him when he was discharged, and they took him by ambulance to the train. They eventually got him home to Beaver Springs in early July 1863.
His wound was infected and his leg was swollen and painful. His wife Mary attested that he spent the last three months of his life confined to his bed, numbed by steady doses of opium. At the time of his death, he and Mary had seven children under the age of sixteen.
