Some things we find out in our family history give us a desire to visit places that not only bring back good memories, but almost sacred memories, as we journey through the darkness of the struggles that they faced. The more I study family history the more 'connections' I find. Let me illustrate one I just found, and probably will find a few more involved in this same event. Most of us have long been somewhat familiar with the Civil War's most notorious prison camp at Andersonville, GA. So here are the 'ancient connections' I've found. On my father's side there is an ancestor who married a widow whose former husband died at Andersonville camp [and this ancestor was with Gen.Sherman on his famous march to the Sea, so does this make his wife both a war widow, then a war bride?]. On my mother's father's side an ancestor married a woman whose brother survived 14months at Andersonville, that has to be some kind of record; then on my mother's mothers side an ancestors wife's uncle died at Andersonville. I've got documented proof for almost all of this info, and find that as I find more relatives who experienced this horror, I want to visit this place. Morbid, no not at all, perhaps there's a sense that my presence there will add some acknowledgement to the price they paid, I don't know, I just want to go there.
In an earlier war, 'The Revolutionary War' I found another 'family connection.' This connection came in the Battle of Kings Mountain. This was a battle in which the revolutionary forces defeated Loyalist troops and stopped Gen.Cornwallis from invading the Southern Colonies; matter of fact most historians believe this to be a major turning point in the war. It was mostly a battle between 'Patriot' troops that were against British 'Loyalist' troops that supported the King. Some historians believe that the only true British person in the conflict was the commander for the Loyalist side. The connection is that 1]on my father's father's side an ancestor fought on the side of the 'over-mountain men' and was even captured in a further skirmish, but escaped to continue fighting with Gen.Greene; 2] on my mother's fathers side an ancestor, who was probably the only doctor in the 'REvolutionary troops in this battle, although its still questionable how 'trained' he was - he is talked about as a surgeon, served also with those same 'over-mountain'men. Makes me want to visit King Mountain, NC. I guess I'm getting quite a list of places to tour - well, maybe one day.
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I've been to King's Mountain--you could probably do hit it as you drive down or back from GA. In some book, I think Confederates in the Attic, the author talked about Andersonville and the horrors there, but when you looked at percentage of soldiers who died, it was higher but not that much higher than POW camps in the north. At the end of the war, the South was overwhelmed with POWs, after the north started a policy of not exchanging prisoners, knowing that the South didn't have the resources and were being overwhelmed by prisoners... There's another infamous camp outside of Salisbury, NC. If I also am remembering correctly, the commandant of Andersonville was a citizen of Sweden and his execution created a bit of a rift between the two countries.
ReplyDeleteSage .......... I'm sensing some southern loyalty coming through your remarks, and I honor that,being a yankee. If my memory serves me right, and I've been doing a lot of research on Andersonville since a number of my ancestors experienced it, including dying there, Captain Wirtz was the only one executed for war crimes.
ReplyDeleteHave you visited the national park there?
I've not been to Kings Mountain or Andersonville. Of course, in my family, we always heard about the Yankee prisons where all of us good Southerners were locked up.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Now that's really southern sympathy coming thru!:~D
ReplyDeleteNot being well read on the Revolutionary war, the only prison camp I'm familiar with was Andersonville. Must be my Yankee showing through.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with any Revolutionary war prison camps; but thanks for the idea, I'm going to do a little research on the subject.
ReplyDeleteA number of sites state that the real management of 'prisoner of war camps' in the US came in the Civil War. In the Revolutionary war prisoner of war camps were few, the most notable one was at York, PA. In the revolutionary war, British and Indian prisoners were shipped taken to the edges of the western frontier, without hardly any necessities to exist on ....
ReplyDeleteSorry about the brain fart but I meant Civil War camps.
ReplyDelete