re: Civil war ancestors/family stories

One ancestor was at Vicksburg. Life spared when a silver dollar in his pocket deflected a bullet. Sent North as a POW. Hired out to a farmer who liked him so much he offered to go into business with him but he decided to go back home.

Another ancestor wounded in some unnamed skirmish, became a lifelong morphine addict. It came up the river from New Orleans and he would have screaming fits when the boat was late.

Two others, father and son joined together. The son was a 15 year old drummer boy.

I am descended from Wade Hampton

quote:

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My uncle told me if I ever looked into my ancestry I'd find things I didn't want to know

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don’t we all have a crazy uncle?

My great-great-great uncle was a POW somewhere near Louisville. All family members had given him up for dead when they hadn't heard from him in over a year. All of a sudden he comes walking up one day with a long beard and hair with lice all in it. Walked all the way from Kentucky to Central Mississippi. This story was told to me by my Great Grandmother who was born in 1897 and died in 1985. It was her uncle. She told me all kinds of historical stories before she died when I was 12. She probably lived through the generation that saw the most change ever. She remembered the sinking of the Titanic, both World Wats, women getting the right to vote, the Great Depression, the Cold War, development of nukes, invention( or first getting one) of the car, airplane, radio, telephones, television, and electricity in homes. She remembered many family members and others who had fought in the Civli War and Spanish-American War. She was a living history book.

My great-something grandfather was in the 124th NY regiment and was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. Got to go there when I was in high school and saw his name on a monument which was pretty cool.

My dad's from Texas and Mom from New Jersey. I've got Civil War veterans all over both sides. Just to keep it simple, I'll stick with my patrilineal line:

3x Great Grandfather from Georgia

He was part of 7 brothers born all around Talbotton, GA. All fought.

3 served in Company B, 32nd GA Infantry
2 served in Company I 46th GA Infantry
1 served in Company A 14th AL Infantry (this unit fought from Williamsburg to Cold Harbor, Petersburgh, Appomattox, 2nd Manassas, Chancelorsville and Gettysburg)
1 served in 29th GA Cavalry

All survived, which is pretty amazing. Some stayed in Georgia, some came to LA, and the balance went to TX in the 1880s.

My dad's people were potato famine refugees. They settled in the NE corner of Alabama and intermarried with some Cherokees who had hidden there to escape the Trail of Tears. According to what I have heard, they were Union sympathizers. I suspect they basically just wanted to be left the hell alone and wanted no part of the fighting. They had no dog in that fight. The Union controlled the Tennessee River for most of the war, so the Union was the predominate influence during the war.

My GG GF was the Postmaster in his town in North Georgia, he had six or seven sons, half went for the Confederacy and half for the Union. The brothers and father who went for the Union quietly helped Confederate deserters and kept their head down.
One of the Confederate brothers became a leader of the Home Guard that tracked down deserters and sympathizers. He had his father brought before a grand jury (from the town), the GJ refused to charge the father, but the father had to live in a cave in the hills to stay safe for the rest of the war.
All of the brothers survived the war but the Union sympathizers weren’t safe post war. A few years later the entire family set out for Oregon. One or two ended up in Iowa, one in Arkansas and one in Texas. The father and two sons made it to Oregon. My G GF was born on the Oregon trail and my GF and father in Oregon.

My great grand father was a gunnery sergeant at Fort Sumpter.

Don't know how many levels back I would have to go but on my dad's side was a Confederate soldier that was a POW. Maybe it was my dad's grandfather. I am not the family genealogist so I have no stories.