A Mother's Heart Buried At Mound City; Times Seven, Times Infinity

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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Children played at being soldiers while mothers' hearts sank. Men in suits shook fists at each other as War crept closer, lapping doorsteps- and into families, like the vilest kidnapper of them all.

Nurse A.H. Hoge, at Mound City couldn't keep up with the sheer scope of tragic vignettes. I nearly created a thread about one, shattering scene. Mrs. A. H. Hoge worries about a woman sitting beside, her wounded son in shambles. If a mother could be walking and comatose, grief caused it. This boy was the 7th and last of seven sons enlisted in the Union army. Six killed, she'd been told by doctors, by morning she would have no sons.

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Early in the war, ' giving ' your sons to The Cause ' was one of those flag waving, patriotic, impressive gestures- seven of them? You do wonder what the mothers really thought. If I have time, will research these families to see who did come home.

Nearly researched the Mound City hospital mother, for a thread before remembering The Bixby Letter. OHHH no, that dirty fraud Mrs. Bixby only lost what, three? Four sons? Not, God Bless her the five for which a President sent condolences. Like she was somehow cheating. Challenging grief and who has the right to cry is some kind of macabre past time, like the backwards bullying of orphans. Drat it, Mrs. Bixby, send our letter back. Or lose a few more sons.

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Three mothers with 21 sons between them, 18 fighting for the South. How many came home?

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1862, plenty of time to lose more children, and their mother, her husband, too.

Thought I'd dig around on siblings who served. Our family had five brothers in uniform, JPK was one, only two came home. It may have been six, cannot trace one- and he may have been killed. Five? began the search with seven. Then six- the number of families whose seven sons served, then six, is staggering. North and South. Somewhere is a mother - or mothers, who met a nurse, maybe A.H. Hoge at Mound City, or Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Lookout Point or Cold Harbor. And we never heard of them.

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New York

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Vermont

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West Virginia

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Wisconsin- think the point is being made. It is not difficult to discover these stories nor are they mere agenda, patriotic propaganda. There are round 20 more snips, all newspapers remarking some family whose sons served nearly ' en mass '.What we do not know is how many came home- and for any, did the unthinkable happen?

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Seven sons- by 1864 three re-enlisted, none have been lost. You'd be holding your breath daily. It makes you a little hopeful, the same fate/chance depriving one family of all seven would bring another's through.

' Only ' three brothers from family, lost to the war. Putting faces to these stories is helpful instead of mere words.
James P.K. Huson, Gettysburg, Calvin Huson, Jr., Richmond, Samuel Huson, Shiloh, in order.
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Thank you, JPK Hudson 1863, for reminding us that history is often filled with blood, grief, and sacrifice.

It is a lesson that should be taught often, with no attempt at revision or reduction of such pain and loss.

For doing such, I hope, will teach others that violence is truly, hopefully, and fervently, a terrible, last resort.

Sincerely,
Unionblue
 
Remembered as a child, watching our town's Memorial Day parade, after the mincing horses, high school bands and batons, after our veterans passed ( some broke ranks to throw candy to children en route- our VFW was full of big softies ), came convertibles, hoods down, women in back seats. Early-mid sixties, we were paying respects to mothers who once had a mother's worst day ever. Golden Mothers.

It's been the same loss, on a personal level, since Lexington. Someone's son gone, in service to all of us for a few hundred years.

Thought about this mother just this morning. Long gone from the pain, she's in my parade today anyway. Bless all of them.
 
To Betsey Crego Huson, mother of three lost sons. I do not mean to personalize this but it's important we do. It brings home what these losses were and are. She is my grgrgrgrandmother. How much more poignant is this day, for all of them?

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Have other photos, of a younger Elizabeth- Betsey. This one contains her pain- and strength.
 
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To Betsey Crego Huson, mother of three lost sons. I do not mean to personalize this but it's important we do. It brings home what these losses were and are. She is my grgrgrgrandmother. How much more poignant is this day, for all of them?

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Have other photos, of a younger Elizabeth- Betsey. This one contains her pain- and strength.
No need to apologize, Annie. War IS personal. Everyone's family has ripped apart by war's violence at some point in human history. The Civil War, the deadliest in our nation's history, changed families and communities, almost destroyed brother love... forever.
 
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No need to apologize, Annie. War IS personal. Everyone's family has ripped apart by war's violence at some point in human history. The Civil War, the deadliest in our nation's history, changed families and communities, almost destroyed brother love... forever.


You should know, my friend. Your book brings it home so well, what we all lost as a country and what it looked like from one's front door.
 
Back in the 60’s my brother and I were in college while the Vietnam war raged on. Every Friday the nightly news, which was a much bigger deal then than now, would show the toll for the week: in those years it seemed to average 400 - 500 American deaths every seven days without end. Our parents urged us into ROTC and a commission which they believed would improve our chances vs the draft after our deferments were up. There was never any thought of avoiding service.

My mother’s sister was a big supporter of the war all this time once asked Mom why she wasn’t as well. The answer was pretty simple. “Because I have sons and you have daughters”.
 
Ohhhhh good grief, that's amazing Mike! How to say thank you enough is baffling! We're lucky enough just having a photo of a grgrgrgrandmother, now we can see her more clearly. This one will go on the wall, the other honorably retired. She's always amazed me. Lost all those sons including the family baby JPK, sounds to me like grief killed her husband not long post war and by the time of this portrait she'd buried grandchildren. She's always been a reminder to me- how to face the worst life throws at you with grace.

What a gift. You just made my day, despite what must be monsoon season here in PA the sun came out. Sincere thank you!!
 
Back in the 60’s my brother and I were in college while the Vietnam war raged on. Every Friday the nightly news, which was a much bigger deal then than now, would show the toll for the week: in those years it seemed to average 400 - 500 American deaths every seven days without end. Our parents urged us into ROTC and a commission which they believed would improve our chances vs the draft after our deferments were up. There was never any thought of avoiding service.

My mother’s sister was a big supporter of the war all this time once asked Mom why she wasn’t as well. The answer was pretty simple. “Because I have sons and you have daughters”.


Gave me chills. Mom and Dad did the same thing. Each had a brother over there, one with the K-9's, the other a career Marine. Nightly news, KIA, MIA and wounded. Was it only once a week? I was a kid so the memory is just of huge tension a kid can't wrap their head around. I do remember this little, kind smile Grandmom had all her life, and it didn't budge then. What fear was behind it we'll never know. She'd simply never talk about the war.

That darn wall in D.C. gets me every time- there are always flowers somewhere, against all that black stretching into forever. There are a lot of mother's names there we can't see.
 
Gave me chills. Mom and Dad did the same thing. Each had a brother over there, one with the K-9's, the other a career Marine. Nightly news, KIA, MIA and wounded. Was it only once a week? I was a kid so the memory is just of huge tension a kid can't wrap their head around. I do remember this little, kind smile Grandmom had all her life, and it didn't budge then. What fear was behind it we'll never know. She'd simply never talk about the war.

That darn wall in D.C. gets me every time- there are always flowers somewhere, against all that black stretching into forever. There are a lot of mother's names there we can't see.
Yes, the mothers bear the burden. In that same g grandmother memoir that mentions the Confederate Star quilt she talks about her mother sewing at night when she could hear the big guns at Vicksburg rumble across the flat delta land to her home 75 miles away in north Louisiana. She also wrote that her future husband and his brother, unknown to her then, were trapped in the city and their mother heard the same from 40 miles east in Mississippi. She said, “How many fears and worries and forebodings must have gone under those almost invisible stitches which were made when Mother could not sleep. She on one side of the Mississippi and my husband’s mother on the other often sewed all night when they heard the guns at Vicksburg. Again, I say, those women.”

Pretty powerful, I think.
 
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