Civil War Stories of my great, great Grandfather

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My great, great Grandfather fought in the Civil War in Tennessee for a unit from Ohio. My grandfather shared some stories with my brother that his grandfather told him.

1. He was underage when he fought. He wanted to vote for Abraham Lincoln. His commander told him that if he was old enough to fight then he was old enough to vote. So he was able to vote for Lincoln.

2. While fighting in Tennessee he got sick. The sick soldiers were sent to an island in the middle of some river to be treated. Both union and confederate soldiers were treated there and they took care of each other.

3. My great, great Grandfather attended the 50th anniversery of the Battle of Gettysburg (1913?). Pickett's Charge was re-enacted. The Union soldiers were lined up behind stone walls. Most of the soldiers were too old to re-enact the whole battle, so the Confederate soldiers were taken by carriage to within about 100 yards of the stone walls. The Confederates started to march toward the Union lines and both sides were expected to shake hands when the met. Instead a giant fist fight broke out.

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2. The sick soldiers were sent to an island in the middle of some river to be treated. Both union and confederate soldiers were treated there and they took care of each other.

3. The Confederates started to march toward the Union lines and both sides were expected to shake hands when the met. Instead a giant fist fight broke out.

Since you're referring to Tennessee, the island you mentioned wouldn't have been Rock Island, Illinois (not the city on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, but the actual island in the river itself, where I have worked for the Army at the current headquarters/arsenal that still operates there). However, there was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp on Rock Island, and there is still a Confederate cemetery there that the U.S. maintains. Every Memorial Day, a Confederate flag is placed on each of the graves.

I've seen newsreel footage (from Ken Burns' series on the Civil War) that showed the Gettysburg veterans (North and South) at the 75th reunion in 1938, but I don't recall any fisticuffs. Maybe by that late date, passions had cooled somewhat, or age had taken its toll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzOAbekZoOc

[46zilzal]

My mom was a long time member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and she had to prove her relationship to a Confederate colonel by entry in the family Bible since all the records had been burned up in a fire at the court house.

[highnote]

My mom was a long time member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and she had to prove her relationship to a Confederate colonel by entry in the family Bible since all the records had been burned up in a fire at the court house.


That's a shame so many records were destroyed. It would make doing genealogical research very difficult, if not impossible.

[kenwoodall2]

"http://financialaid.ucdavis.edu/scholarships/pdf/UCAppRestCodesforUCD.pdf"
UC Davis near Sacramento gives scholarships if you can prove you are descended from a Confederate soldier!

[NJ Stinks]

Thanks for sharing, Swetyejohn! :ThmbUp:

[toetoe]

Swet,

I personally celebrate your story. However, be prepared to hear your family and its story vilified as racist, illegal, unconstitutional and out of context. Notwithstanding such judgements, more power to you. :ThmbUp: .

[highnote]

Swet,

I personally celebrate your story. However, be prepared to hear your family and its story vilified as racist, illegal, unconstitutional and out of context. Notwithstanding such judgements, more power to you. :ThmbUp: .

Not sure why this story would be controversial. It was told to me by my brother, who heard it from our grandfather, who heard it from his grandfather.

I thought the best story was where sick and wounded Union and Confederate soldiers helped each other heal.

I thought the fist fight during the re-enactment of Pickett's Charge was kind of funny. The thought of senior citizens getting into a brawl strikes me as funny. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time, but there is an element of comedy there. I'm sure it must have been very emotional for both sides to re-enact that battle. Could you imagine if the soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge would have re-enacted their fight. What if in 50 years the Battle of Fallujah is re-enacted?

[toetoe]

Speaking of which, did you ever read The Red Badge of Courage ? Just a vignette of the Civil War, two or three skirmishes over 24 hours or so, I think.

I've heard allegations that Stephen Foster was the Dominique Wilkins of American literature, i.e., vastly overesteemed. Your thoughts ?

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I'm pretty certain I read the Red Badge of Courage a long, long, long, long time ago. Unfortunately, I can remember the story, but I remember the title.

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I've heard allegations that Stephen Foster was the Dominique Wilkins of American literature, i.e., vastly overesteemed. Your thoughts ?

I agree that Stephen Foster wasn't much in the way of an author. Nor was Stephen Crane that hot as a composer. :)

However, Stephen Crane did write one of my favorite short poems, as follows:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."