18thVirginia
Major
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2012
Dutch Gap, Virginia (vicinity). Deserted farm house near Dutch Gap canal.
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These photos are awesome.
So far I've tracked down three USCTs who were enslaved on the Rice family's plantation, and several others from neighboring plantations. I always want to cheer for them. My favorite documents are the ones which show their successes after the war. Like the 1891 enumeration of male voters - two of these guys who were in the 4th colored artillery are on the register together, one name is next to the other, both men were 70 years old by then, they were no spring chickens when they ran away to join the Union army. I hope they were allowed to vote. The marriage documents from 1867 which legalized relationships that had already endured for years. And the census from 1900-something which says that neither of the adults, born in slavery, can read or write... but all their children can. Yeah!
Then there are the sad moments, like the man whose pension says he was blinded, and the man who went all the way to Paducah to sign up and then died of typhoid in camp. One of them died of pellagra after the war, which is a dietary deficiency people get when they eat almost nothing but corn. I think maybe the saddest was an old soldier and his wife... They lived together until he was 99 years old. Her clothing caught fire when she was cooking and she died. And he died the same year. Sometimes you find a record and you wish you could unfind it.
I need to get better about documenting my finds in a way that I can relocate them. I'm not giving names because I'm doing this from memory and I don't want to mix people up. I need to keep better notes. Still learning this researching stuff.