Looked up my family last name. Found one of my relatives had received the Medal of Honor... but a short time later was busted from Sargent to private for unknown reasons... LOL
When I looked up my family name it ended up just being the name of the ship they came over on lol. My dad's side of the family were quakers/church of brethren, not far removed from the Amish.
Grant was a relative on my mother’s side. Her side, the Clark’s arrived in the early 1600’s, and I think there were so few people, most everyone got interrelated. My mom said there was an uncle who visited who walked with a limp from a Civil War mini ball wound. Was an Ohio Regular. We forget that the CW was not really that long ago. My mom was born in 1914. Same year WW1 started which was only 49 years after the CW ended.
This is a shameful topic. It makes me think hateful thoughts ... of Ducks vs. Beavers games -- which I always envisioned in Union vs. Confederate terms. Not.
My ancestors fought on both sides. What can I say? Do I need to apologize, maybe weep? Go to bed early without dinner?
I have read a number of letters penned by Civil War soldiers and came away impressed by how well they commanded the language. Very eloquent letters for the most part.
Growing up, I saw the Stars and Bars all of the time. Never really felt it as racial or even Confederate thing. Funny that I just saw it as a meaning people were from the South. My black friends didn’t seem to pay much attention to the flags.
Any way, all of my relatives were Cavalry. All but one of the many in the Union. Several died. Someone else will have to do the apologizing since my bloodline did their part in the Civil War. I remember growing up that there was a cavalry rifle at my grandmothers. Many of my relatives were very good with horses.
Of course, we didn’t connect the dots until my brother was doing the research decades later.
Growing up, I saw the Stars and Bars all of the time. Never really felt it as racial or even Confederate thing. Funny that I just saw it as a meaning people were from the South. My black friends didn’t seem to pay much attention to the flags.
Any way, all of my relatives were Calvary. All but one of the many in the Union. Several died. Someone else will have to do the apologizing since my bloodline did their part in the Civil War. I remember growing up that there was a calvary rifle at my grandmothers. Many of my relatives were very good with horses.
Of course, we didn’t connect the dots until my brother was doing the research decades later.
My Great, great grandfather was a Major in the Union Army, commanded the Dept. of Pennsylvania then became a lawyer and served 3 terms as a Pennsylvania Congressman
My Great Grandfather, while serving in Cavalry during the Spanish American War, caught Typhoid in Cuba, was transferred to the National Guard and ended up as a guard at the Lewis & Clark Centennial in Portland - He roomed in a house on NW Roosevelt St, my Great Grandmother lived at the house next door, a perfect twin - One evening he accidentally walked into the next door house, up the stairs and into my G G's room (same location as his room next door, alcohol may have been involved) 7 or 8 months later they got married
No relatives here. Have any of you visited a Civil War battlefield? If you have, did you experience a wierd feeling? We have been to Vicksburg, Gettysburg and Custers Last Stand. There's a wierd aura at each IMO.
Being raised in tne South in the 40-50's we referred the the war as either, The War of Northern Aggression or The War Between the States. Even the nuns called it that!
Been to Vicksburg many moons ago. In transit to the left coast from Orlando.
Stopped at a Denny's to have breakfast and was seated where I could see the old cannons overlooking the big river.
I was so wrapped up in the history of the place, I just grabbed my coffee and took a big gulp.
My first ever encounter with chicory coffee! :excited::excited:
Nearly repainted the wall next to me.
I've never been there but am reading two books recently published about the Vicksburg campaign. Have they conserved much of the battlefield there? Do you still get a sense of the landscape that caused the Union so much grief in their attempts to storm the works from the East?
Vicksburg has blue and red signs designating the battle lines. They're like 25 yds apart. There are terrific monuments there. There are monuments to special events like "Logans Advance" where a Union officer kept tunneling under a Confederate hilltop outpost only to get repeatedly blown up by Confederate mortors. There's also Grants canal where he tried to divert the Mississippi River.
Grant attacked the Southern cities which is also how he won at Vicksburg.
"The way they are treating Civil War history all those records will soon be but a puff of smoke in the wind. The Civil War will soon not even happened.
I’ve seen a lot of Civil War sites. I’m pretty sure they sites will survive. Most have plaques as well as a story and some have old cannons. The sites are more interesting than the statues.
I’ve been to Vicksburg a couple times. Somewhere I have a copy of Grant’s autobiography- a must read - he writes very well. Moving that army through the Swamp all those months, the feinting attacks, the 47 day siege and then, after each side losing approximately 10,000 men, Grant grants parole to the surrendering Confederates... generous really.
Here’s a great little 20 min documentary specifically about Grant’s tactics, the battle and siege of Vicksburg, MIssissippi.
Thanks for posting that. It was helpful to see the sweep of the campaign across the region. That was the "good."
I am surprised that the video omits a couple key things.
1. It completely neglects the engineer (Locke?) who designed and oversaw construction of the Secessionist defenses. His brilliant design is worth study.
2. Also missing is the lay-of-land that made it so difficult for the Federals to attack Vicksburg's eastern side. I was hoping to see more of the gullies and ravines that the rebels also filled with debris. Charges got bogged down and casualties mounted, slowing and ultimately thwarting the frontal assaults of May 17-22 1863.
Thanks CW. That was well put together and follows what we were told when we visited. They didn't mention "Grants Canal" though. He sure thought "outside the box".
According to some very exhaustive research by several family members, they uncovered that a relative was the first officially listed casualty in the Revolutionary War.
On the British side.
Rest of the family escaped to Canada for a while, until the 1800's
Dads side of the family came from Tennessee hill country, well known moonshiners, went out with some of the first settlers to the Puget Sound area.
Having been raised in the south in the 40's and 50's, our take on the "Civil War" was, it wasn't "Civil" at all. Bombarding towns like Vicksburg, burning farms and killing livestock throughout the South, Shermans march thru Georgia and the Carolinas was talked about like it happened yesterday. Even the minor battle my college which was then known as "The Seminary on the Swanee", now Florida State, was a "legend". :twocents:
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