The story of an ex-slave named Mark Thrash

I was visiting the Chickamauga battlefield in northern Georgia today. I stumbled across a plaque dedicated to the memory of an ex-slave named Mark Thrash. He was born in Virginia on December 25, 1820 - during the the presidency of James Monroe. He was almost 43 years old when he arrived three days after the battle had concluded. And he remained there.....for the next 80 years of his life. He lived in a log cabin and worked for the national park service there from 1893 until he retired at the age of 101 in 1922. He often told visitors little anecdotes dating back to the administration of John Quincy Adams.

Even after his retirement he remained in that log cabin on the Chickamauga battlefield until his death in 1943. He was 122 years old. He had lived through 28 different presidential administrations, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and almost half of World War II. He was born before the invention of the locomotive and died just before the dawn of the atomic age.

I would have loved to have sat down and listened to his stories.