We had a wedding in our family in late May of this year....it was in Jamaica, and, yes, its was just beautiful. I have a very pretty new daughter-in-law.
Summer came upon us, and I slowed down with the heated weather, which included my writing.
But, now I am back. And I have been collecting so many new topics to write about. I can't wait to share them with all of you. So, let's do this!
I began to look at records of those better known families in our American history. Wouldn't it be interesting to find family members of those well known Americans who had enlisted into the military service, either Union or Confederate? I did find some and I'll share them with you.
Remember Paul Revere? That awesome guy who rode his horse, using the signal "one if by land, two if by sea", had a grandson. Col. Paul Revere, named after his grandfather, was an officer serving in the Union troops during the Civil War. Unfortunately, the colonel died at the Battle of Gettysburg. I had heard about this while viewing a program on The History Channel. The website FindAGrave does have quite a nice tribute to Colonel Revere, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?GRid=5845791&page=gr , which includes photos of his grave.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), served with the Union Army . He hailed from Boston, Massachusetts, son of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., a noted person himself. Mr. Holmes later became Justice Holmes.....he was a Justice of the Supreme Court in the early part of the 1900s. There are many photos of him, and much written about him. Wikipedia has a wonderful biography of the Honorable O. W. Holmes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Wendell_Holmes,_Jr.
George Armstrong Custer, better known for his demise at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also served in the Civil War. He was admitted into West Point where he graduated in 1858....being the last in his class. When the Civil War began, he was called to duty in the Union Army. After the war, he was a Calvary commander in the Indian Wars on the Great Plains. Much can be found on the Internet, including http://www.georgearmstrongcuster.com/
Did Frank and Jesse James serve in the Civil War? Well, there are some very interesting documents that have been digitized. And, these tell of the James brothers as Confederate guerrilla fighters. Frank James did serve in the Confederate Army, was captured, and was forced to swear allegiance to the Union. Jesse James, born in 1847, was too young to join the military, but that did not stop him from joining the bushwhackers with his brother. I found the site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/james-frank/ has so much information about the James brothers and their activities before and after the Civil War.
