Who We Held Dear, Our Ancestors' Mute Testimonials

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
father girl 2.JPG

This child's face is worth any 1,000 words glued together. She seems a little pre-war or at least very early, man in photo may not be a soldier. Little girls lost fathers, more between 1861 and 1865 than we'd ever conceived when all the flag waving started. This practice associated with mourning may not have been traditional ( it takes generations for something to qualify, little hard when photography was brand, new ), it sure left us images of pain. We don't have to told this man was her father, recently gone from a little girl's life. Her eyes fill us in on that void.

Better known image we know is from the war. Yes, a dreadful moment to witness; point is what this country endured, North and South. There are no degrees of right or wrong who did what and when and do-overs on pain. We shattered each other at our deepest level. These images make us remember that.

holding fam new.jpg

The war left us ample evidence of its visible pain as family members vanished. You do not have to guess, you know- somewhere smack in the middle of the war some family member marched to war. Faded and indistinct, this woman's face is still horrifyingly revealing. A soldier's warm arm surrounds her, but will she one day have two images in her lap?

Intent is not to tug anyone's heartstrings. It's to bring us closer to our past and the ancestors we can't meet. Smitten by romantic images, floating belles in hoops, mid Victorian mansions and noble steeds, with words like ' gallant ' and ' dashing ' occluding History, too easy to gloss over what it was.

widow.jpg

He may have been a husband lost in the war, fashion points to early in the war if so. Has a Southern feel, don't ask me why since fashion was the same all over.

holding photo2.JPG


They didn't come home. That's the bottom line.

wow holding soldier pic.jpg


And I'm not sure it matters which image these widows show us are Union and which Confederate husbands, they're all widows. Someone's worst day ever times 620,000.

widow union.JPG


There's more, saving for another day. Tough thread to work on.

father girl old.jpg
 
View attachment 261442
This child's face is worth any 1,000 words glued together. She seems a little pre-war or at least very early

Home run . . . once again !

Where do you find these images ?

There's no doubt this little girl is thinking 'Enough with the photo shoot . . . I have better things to do' .
 
What always gets me is the reverse of this (not to say that I don't love this thread). The image that the soldier carried of home and those he held dear... and especially the iconic one that Sgt. Amos Humiston carried. That one really hits a nerve for some reason. [Learning since about the carnage and unfair situation that Coster's Brigade found themselves in makes it far, far worse]
 
What always gets me is the reverse of this (not to say that I don't love this thread). The image that the soldier carried of home and those he held dear... and especially the iconic one that Sgt. Amos Humiston carried. That one really hits a nerve for some reason. [Learning since about the carnage and unfair situation that Coster's Brigade found themselves in makes it far, far worse]


You know, that story may be so well known it's legend but it still flattens you every, single time- talk about tugging the heart! Gee whiz. Couldn't come up with a better illustration of what war was.

Home run . . . once again !

Where do you find these images ?

There's no doubt this little girl is thinking 'Enough with the photo shoot . . . I have better things to do' .


Right? Like the image of the little girl, hands on hips, actually glaring at the camera. Liked it better before some photographer invented the ' say cheese ' thing ( not sold on that theory no one smiled because cameras were slow- think I've done 3 threads on smilers ). It's nice, seeing a whole group smiling but I want to see who they were, not their teeth.

Oh heck, all over? It's entertaining- Ebay, LoC, National Archived, NYPL, on-line museum collections, college collections, historical societies. TV is a snore, FB annoying, news terrible, can't drink, what's a girl to do?
 
Well said. My gg grandfather was killed during the War. He left behind a wife and two little girls.


Yes. There's a danger we tend to ignore. I mean, your grgrgrandfather never came home. Someone's husband, the children's father. I don't think we're shocked enough to take it to heart, viewed from a distance of 150 years. Dad always said ' The Civil War was yesterday ' and I finally know what he meant. Have a feeling if we understood how close we are to these stories, we'd be a lot nicer to each other.
 
View attachment 261442
This child's face is worth any 1,000 words glued together. She seems a little pre-war or at least very early, man in photo may not be a soldier. Little girls lost fathers, more between 1861 and 1865 than we'd ever conceived when all the flag waving started. This practice associated with mourning may not have been traditional ( it takes generations for something to qualify, little hard when photography was brand, new ), it sure left us images of pain. We don't have to told this man was her father, recently gone from a little girl's life. Her eyes fill us in on that void.

Better known image we know is from the war. Yes, a dreadful moment to witness; point is what this country endured, North and South. There are no degrees of right or wrong who did what and when and do-overs on pain. We shattered each other at our deepest level. These images make us remember that.

View attachment 261438
The war left us ample evidence of its visible pain as family members vanished. You do not have to guess, you know- somewhere smack in the middle of the war some family member marched to war. Faded and indistinct, this woman's face is still horrifyingly revealing. A soldier's warm arm surrounds her, but will she one day have two images in her lap?

Intent is not to tug anyone's heartstrings. It's to bring us closer to our past and the ancestors we can't meet. Smitten by romantic images, floating belles in hoops, mid Victorian mansions and noble steeds, with words like ' gallant ' and ' dashing ' occluding History, too easy to gloss over what it was.

View attachment 261440
He may have been a husband lost in the war, fashion points to early in the war if so. Has a Southern feel, don't ask me why since fashion was the same all over.

View attachment 261439

They didn't come home. That's the bottom line.

View attachment 261441

And I'm not sure it matters which image these widows show us are Union and which Confederate husbands, they're all widows. Someone's worst day ever times 620,000.

View attachment 261445

There's more, saving for another day. Tough thread to work on.

View attachment 261443
The often unseen but true cost of war, very sad.
 
View attachment 261442
This child's face is worth any 1,000 words glued together. She seems a little pre-war or at least very early, man in photo may not be a soldier. Little girls lost fathers, more between 1861 and 1865 than we'd ever conceived when all the flag waving started. This practice associated with mourning may not have been traditional ( it takes generations for something to qualify, little hard when photography was brand, new ), it sure left us images of pain. We don't have to told this man was her father, recently gone from a little girl's life. Her eyes fill us in on that void.

Better known image we know is from the war. Yes, a dreadful moment to witness; point is what this country endured, North and South. There are no degrees of right or wrong who did what and when and do-overs on pain. We shattered each other at our deepest level. These images make us remember that.

View attachment 261438
The war left us ample evidence of its visible pain as family members vanished. You do not have to guess, you know- somewhere smack in the middle of the war some family member marched to war. Faded and indistinct, this woman's face is still horrifyingly revealing. A soldier's warm arm surrounds her, but will she one day have two images in her lap?

Intent is not to tug anyone's heartstrings. It's to bring us closer to our past and the ancestors we can't meet. Smitten by romantic images, floating belles in hoops, mid Victorian mansions and noble steeds, with words like ' gallant ' and ' dashing ' occluding History, too easy to gloss over what it was.

View attachment 261440
He may have been a husband lost in the war, fashion points to early in the war if so. Has a Southern feel, don't ask me why since fashion was the same all over.

View attachment 261439

They didn't come home. That's the bottom line.

View attachment 261441

And I'm not sure it matters which image these widows show us are Union and which Confederate husbands, they're all widows. Someone's worst day ever times 620,000.

View attachment 261445

There's more, saving for another day. Tough thread to work on.

View attachment 261443
Thank you for reminding us all grieving women/children count no matter which side of the conflict they were on. People today need to remember that not all of the South's monuments were put there years later, after recovering financially from the loss of war, to glorify the Confederacy. Many are by the UDC to finally give those family members a place to remember/mourn the loved ones (like the girl in the photo) that simply never came home. Think of all the soldiers buried in mass graves in the battlefields , ditches by the road, etc. thrown in the ground like dead chickens. No special marker or gravestone to bring flowers to, only a photo that can deteriorate after so many years.
 
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There have been soldiers who have never came home in every war. No better in WWI or WWII. It is sad to see a stone in a cemetery for someone who never came home. In many cases they will never recover any remains. Sad to say, but how many men just never went home, because they didn't want too. It is not such an odd idea. You would think everyone wanted to come back home, but some might have just wanted out of the war, not so hard to do after a battle, then just slip away. Change their name, and become someone else. It probably happened. Either way it would have been a hard thing for a family to take. Fathers sometimes crawled into a bottle and never came out. Some Mothers just gave up on life, not often smiling the rest of their lives. Still many managed to cope with loss. I knew people like this, and so did my parents. Worse yet when the loved ones burial places could not be found. A man I met told me his brother never came back from the war, and was listed as missing. He said his mother and father expected him to come walking into the house at some future point, and he never did. Interviewing other people about the war, I heard a similar statements. One lady said her mother just never gave up hope and thought her son was not dead until the day she died, and she kept his room just like he left it waiting for him when he returned home again. Hope was a steadfast anchor for many, waiting for someone who never came home in the Civil War or now.
 
It is all very sad to think of, from any war or tragedy, all those affected.
In my direct paternal line, my 3rd Great-Grandfather, a CSA infantry soldier wounded at Allatoona, GA., suffered for 9 years afterwards and at 34 years old passing due to his wound, leaving a wife and 8 or 9 children in late 1873 ( also the year is significant due to the panic of 1873 also known as the "Long Depression" of 1873-1879) without a husband and father.
No telling how it has impacted the later generations of all families who had been through it, even to this day.
Just unfathomable.
 
No telling how it has impacted the later generations of all families who had been through it, even to this day.
Just unfathomable


Have frequently thought exactly that, how tragedy like these and maybe being in the war, or wounded, sent shock waves through families we don't know we're feeling in 2019. I hope it's not intrusive to ask why you feel that? It can get misinterpreted as perhaps blaming something from 150 years for difficulties in 2019 but this isn't that. At least 2 of my grgrgrandfathers were terribly impacted- deaths of several brothers, wounds-too long to get into but both men's experiences impacted generations.
 
Thank you for reminding us all grieving women/children count no matter which side of the conflict they were on. People today need to remember that not all of the South's monuments were put there years later, after recovering financially from the loss of war, to glorify the Confederacy. Many are by the UDC to finally give those family members a place to remember/mourn the loved ones (like the girl in the photo) that simply never came home. Think of all the soldiers buried in mass graves in the battlefields , ditches by the road, etc. thrown in the ground like dead chickens. No special marker or gravestone to bring flowers to, only a photo that can deteriorate after so many years.


You know how Mother's Day was originated by the daughter of the woman who had the original idea that bringing women who lost so much in the war together could heal? Bet it worked at the time- you can't tell me women who lost sons, husbands, brothers and father didn't find comfort, sharing that grief. Because Southern women lost men and too frequently everything they owned, have a feeling their losses made Northern women feel closer, bet it lessened the distance between all of us.

I think of this moment in time every, single Mother's Day. Beyond the cards, chocolate and lovingly burned pancakes is our real story.
 
Have frequently thought exactly that, how tragedy like these and maybe being in the war, or wounded, sent shock waves through families we don't know we're feeling in 2019. I hope it's not intrusive to ask why you feel that? It can get misinterpreted as perhaps blaming something from 150 years for difficulties in 2019 but this isn't that. At least 2 of my grgrgrandfathers were terribly impacted- deaths of several brothers, wounds-too long to get into but both men's experiences impacted generations.

Not blaming, just a thought I have pondered over the years to have an enriched understanding of possible ancestral generational attitudes, beliefs, traits. circumstances in their lives and possibly connections to the present.

Personally, I had very little knowledge of my family history before my late 30's.
Bits and pieces were all I knew without real content or explanations.

ln my quest for knowledge I have found an improved understanding of my ancestors and have not dwelled on justifications for anyone's behavior or choices. I can only speak for myself with certainty.

One goal I have in my life is providing my children and grandchildren records on our ancestors so if they should want to find information it will be available to them in convenient formats to reference and ponder.

In my deep thoughts to possibly explain ancestral generational trait correlations, life events, the era they each lived in impacts, the
conditions of life and the likely psychology of them as applicable as well to myself, my children and grandchildren.

For possible insight, having empathy for as many contributing factors I can possibly take into thoughtful consideration.
I would like to produce a personal collaboration of references. anecdotes, graphics, anything to enhance and enrich my family members understanding, that is based on facts and educated conjecture.

Since I have been a child I've asked why in search of a better understanding of life.

Life is a perpetual mystery.

Not about to stop asking why now!:smile coffee:
 
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Well Karen, to be technical, he was killed a few months after the war. All part of the spiral of violence that continued in East TN. And other places after Appomattox. Dead in some holler that nobody ever heard of, but just as dead as if he was at Gettysburg or Vicksburg. A tragic waste of life.
How tragic!
 
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