Civil War Couples

[donna]

It is fun to look at old family photos and see the resemblance with those ancestors. I always study the eyes, nose and mouth as these are usually giveaways to being alike.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Alexander Fulwiler & Mary Fulkerson Ratliff were married in Washington County, east Tennessee in 1870. Mary's first husband, Robert Ratliff died of disease shortly after enlisting in the Confederate Army's Company C 60th Tennessee leaving her and two small children destitute and in the care of the County :

Minute Book, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Book A, 1863 – 1868, page 58 - 59 One years allowance to Polly Ann Ratliff, Widow of Robert Ratliff State of Tennessee , Washington County We the undersigned freeholders of said County after duly sworn have proceeded to set apart to Polly Ann Ratliff, Widow of Robert Ratliff dec'd so much of the crop and provisions on hand as will be sufficient in our opinions to support her and her her family one year from the death of her said husband. We set apart to her for said purpose the following to wit- All the corn & wheat on hand and the growing crops for the present year. One cow and calf. Three head of hogs. One mare & colt. Two beds and all that pertains thereunto. All the household and kitchen furniture that she has on hand. One loom and harness. All the bacon on hand. One pair of plow gears, one large and one small plow. All the poultry on hand. All the sheep and one saddle and all the money that is due her husband for his services as a volunteer in Captain Crouch's Company Crawford's Regt of East Tennessee Volunteers,Confederate States Army This 10th day of April 1863.

Mary's second husband was a Tennessee Yankee veteran, Alexander Fulwiler a Blacksmith in Company D Union 4th Tennessee Cavalry. Alex and Mary both experienced tragedy during the war. Alex's brother, William, also a blacksmith in Company B, drown in the Chattahoochee River during the Georgia campaign in 1864. Alex and Mary soon left the animosity and division of east Tennessee and headed west finally settling in Kansas. Mary died in 1908. Alex a decade later.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Alexander Fulwiler & Mary Fulkerson Ratliff were married in Washington County, east Tennessee in 1870. Mary's first husband, Robert Ratliff died of disease shortly after enlisting in the Confederate Army's Company C 60th Tennessee leaving her and two small children destitute and in the care of the County :

Minute Book, Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, Book A, 1863 – 1868, page 58 - 59 One years allowance to Polly Ann Ratliff, Widow of Robert Ratliff State of Tennessee , Washington County We the undersigned freeholders of said County after duly sworn have proceeded to set apart to Polly Ann Ratliff, Widow of Robert Ratliff dec'd so much of the crop and provisions on hand as will be sufficient in our opinions to support her and her her family one year from the death of her said husband. We set apart to her for said purpose the following to wit- All the corn & wheat on hand and the growing crops for the present year. One cow and calf. Three head of hogs. One mare & colt. Two beds and all that pertains thereunto. All the household and kitchen furniture that she has on hand. One loom and harness. All the bacon on hand. One pair of plow gears, one large and one small plow. All the poultry on hand. All the sheep and one saddle and all the money that is due her husband for his services as a volunteer in Captain Crouch's Company Crawford's Regt of East Tennessee Volunteers,Confederate States Army This 10th day of April 1863.

Mary's second husband was a Tennessee Yankee veteran, Alexander Fulwiler a Blacksmith in Company D Union 4th Tennessee Cavalry. Alex and Mary both experienced tragedy during the war. Alex's brother, William, also a blacksmith in Company B, drown in the Chattahoochee River during the Georgia campaign in 1864. Alex and Mary soon left the animosity and division of east Tennessee and headed west finally settling in Kansas. Mary died in 1908. Alex a decade later.

Hate to be nosy, ( almost said ' E. T., then said, OH, and better not ), does Alexander have PA connections? The name is big in the Schuylkill County area, is the thing- a good friend of mine has the a family of that name in her not-too-distant tree.

What a super story, thanks for bringing them here- can't get enough of folk's stories, you know? " The Lord said ' It is enough, come up Higher ' ", is marvelous, isn't it? You know what I hate, is looking at the dates on the long-married couples, always makes me sad. He outlived her by 10 years, ouch. There's a big movement, not to have cemeteries, these tombstones, anymore. Guess there's a point, we run out of room, the expense- but gosh, what we'll be missing by way of recognition, what was a life worth? Alexander and Polly Ann, his wife. Ha. The dates, what they lived through in time- where they are buried, even what is written on their stones- says a LOT. Love cemeteries, nothing to do with ghoulish delight in them. It's the History, the folks who walked through it.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Hate to be nosy, ( almost said ' E. T., then said, OH, and better not ), does Alexander have PA connections? The name is big in the Schuylkill County area, is the thing- a good friend of mine has the a family of that name in her not-too-distant tree.

What a super story, thanks for bringing them here- can't get enough of folk's stories, you know? " The Lord said ' It is enough, come up Higher ' ", is marvelous, isn't it? You know what I hate, is looking at the dates on the long-married couples, always makes me sad. He outlived her by 10 years, ouch. There's a big movement, not to have cemeteries, these tombstones, anymore. Guess there's a point, we run out of room, the expense- but gosh, what we'll be missing by way of recognition, what was a life worth? Alexander and Polly Ann, his wife. Ha. The dates, what they lived through in time- where they are buried, even what is written on their stones- says a LOT. Love cemeteries, nothing to do with ghoulish delight in them. It's the History, the folks who walked through it.

In the 1850 census, Alex age 22, William age 20, are members of a Barnett household in Montgomery County, Virginia.
John Barnett is listed as a Blacksmith, as is Alex and Will. My first thought is John's probably an older cousin, took them in and taught them the blacksmith trade ?

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

Colonel of the 30th Iowa and wife

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

What a stunning couple, so serious! Always makes you think about their thoughts when you see these- at whose insistence did the couple have a photo done in the knowledge it could be the last? ' The War' being foremost in their minds, tearing them apart, no way of communicating satisfactorily- if he was killed she would not know if for days possibly. Captured? Maybe never depending on circumstances. ( That isn't anything snide on Southern prisons, swear, neither side had the monopoly on prisoners dying by the score )

Sometimes you'll read where these men did come home, wouldn't you have given a bazillion bucks to be witness at that homecoming? Now, for all the genius photographing the professionals were doing with this new area of pursuit- Brady, O'Sullivan ( my favorite ), one of them would have asked some of these couples to have posed for them again free of charge- on homecoming. Even with the requisite minutes ticking by to hold a pose, bet the sheer joy leaks through into the camera.

 

[EJ Zander]

Great pictures. It took my wife and I the first 20 years to get those stoic expressions on our faces. We are slow learners I guess.

 

[John Hartwell]

Somewhere, hope to hunt it down, is a small collection of ancient photos of people from the Revolution who were still alive. That is, as I remember, really remarkable! They had a few famous folk but mostly it was just vets and their wives and families. There's a rare one of Andy Jackson in his old age wearing specs. Think it was done just before he died - a daguerreotype. There is one of Lee done toward the last that, once cleaned up, showed a shallow scar on one side of his face. It confirmed his story that Yankee sniper durn near missed him one day!

Try: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ment-heroes-War-Independence-later-years.html
also: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread718278/pg1
Didn't find any wives, though.

 

[diane]

Thanks! That is great. It's an odd thing. There were some Revolutionaries still alive only a couple, three years before the Civil War. Usually their wives or other female relatives would be living even longer - of course, not so much interest in the old ladies! Still, considering how women took the Civil War, it would be interesting to find out about the women who saw the Revolution as well.

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

What a stunning couple, so serious! Always makes you think about their thoughts when you see these- at whose insistence did the couple have a photo done in the knowledge it could be the last? ' The War' being foremost in their minds, tearing them apart, no way of communicating satisfactorily- if he was killed she would not know if for days possibly. Captured? Maybe never depending on circumstances. ( That isn't anything snide on Southern prisons, swear, neither side had the monopoly on prisoners dying by the score )

Sometimes you'll read where these men did come home, wouldn't you have given a bazillion bucks to be witness at that homecoming? Now, for all the genius photographing the professionals were doing with this new area of pursuit- Brady, O'Sullivan ( my favorite ), one of them would have asked some of these couples to have posed for them again free of charge- on homecoming. Even with the requisite minutes ticking by to hold a pose, bet the sheer joy leaks through into the camera.

Am I the only one who thinks Brady wasn't a very good photographer? His portraits were OK but I like O'Sullivan and Gardner much better for the outdoor scenes.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Great pictures. It took my wife and I the first 20 years to get those stoic expressions on our faces. We are slow learners I guess.

Crying!!!

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Am I the only one who thinks Brady wasn't a very good photographer? His portraits were OK but I like O'Sullivan and Gardner much better for the outdoor scenes.

OH my gosh, exactly!! Thanks for saying that out loud! I think I posted this exact statement sometime this past week somewhere- opinion only, Brady's outdoor scenes seem so tame compared to O'Sullivan's, right? Yes, Brady's portraits are good, are they fabulous? I just do not have the photographer's eye to make the call, you know? I'll say that so, so often, we'll post portraits here, photographer unknown, which just kill you with delight because the person managed to capture some part of the subject's personality or emotion. I only say that because I just, plain can't- have tried through 3 college courses on the grounds that if you're an artist surely one can also take a shot. Nope. So this elusive thing delights the stuffing out of me personally- and O'Sullivan coaxes ' It ' out of LANDSCAPE? Plain, bare earth with decorations here and there? Unbelievable.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Thanks! That is great. It's an odd thing. There were some Revolutionaries still alive only a couple, three years before the Civil War. Usually their wives or other female relatives would be living even longer - of course, not so much interest in the old ladies! Still, considering how women took the Civil War, it would be interesting to find out about the women who saw the Revolution as well.

Never thought of this aspect you guys are bringing up thank you! Wonder if we could get permission to post any of those photos, and who would we ask? I'm still waiting to hear back from the owner of a super, super collection on Flickr Jno told me about- SO many terrific CW pics, would love to share some found over there. This ' old lady' thing, how fascinating! Bet there's be an awful lot of interest if they were properly identified, right, or is it just we History freakoids?

Dad had this ' Thing', ran chills straight up your back. It applies, talking about the Revolutionary War photos. He said he once looked into the eyes of a Civil War drummer boy, very ancient fellow, used to sit outside the vet's club in Tamaqua PA when he was a boy. That man talked of having looked into the eyes of a Revolutionary War soldier when he was a child. I get all confused trying to work out the numbers but if you think about Lee and his father, it'd have to work, right? Anyway, Dad's thing was well, he kind of passed that look on, talking about it, I told my children- makes History fold itself in for us a little closer, like you can touch it almost, doesn't it?

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

I think that Brady was self-consciously trying to be an "artist" with carefully arranged painterly tableaus and landscapes. Gardner and O'Sullivan were beginning to understand that photography was something entirely different and were sometimes able to capture moments like modern news photographers, given the limits of their equipment. To my mind the very best Civil War images are the tiny sections of un-posed life, unnoticed by the photographer, that he has inadvertently caught. Today we can enlarge them like a window or tunnel into the past. My favorite is this one:

This wounded soldier at the Savage's Mill Field Hospital in 1862 has the "1000 yard stare". It's the same look as the WWII Marines in the Pacific had in Life Magazine. He has "seen the elephant" and will never be the same.

 

[John Hartwell]

Thanks! That is great. It's an odd thing. There were some Revolutionaries still alive only a couple, three years before the Civil War. Usually their wives or other female relatives would be living even longer - of course, not so much interest in the old ladies! Still, considering how women took the Civil War, it would be interesting to find out about the women who saw the Revolution as well.

Four Revolutionary War veterans are known to have lived past the Civil War, (google "last revolutionary war veterans"). There is a really great website about one of them here: http://www.burrcook.com/history/lemuel.htm.

Twelve had died between March 1861 and March 1865.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Seems SO, so weird to think about, really plays with your head, this time-warp thing we're seeing. Honestly. It just brings it all so CLOSE. This stuff gets to you, like wishing I'd known enough to ASK both of my grandfathers more questions, Both had Civil War vets for grandfathers themselves, the one on Dad's side had two- makes it all so CLOSE, these nice old men went to Christmas dinner all their childhood with a Civil War soldier- and one of those had a Revolutionary War grandfather. Gosh, the things all of them knew which could have been passed on, probably didn't seem terribly important to them.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

That's a chilling photo glimpse into someone's awfulness, gosh. You hope he made it home, he doesn't appear to be holding hope of that. I've always loved O'Sullivan just because he manages to be believable regardless- doesn't seem to have spent time setting shots up, you know? The pathos of war would be there- sure he'd no doubt have to request folks to hold still, please, but so many were right where he found them. He wished for us to find them there, also. Pretty riveting.

The grave, crest of a wind-swept hill, soldiers- if he titled this, could have been simply ' Six Soldiers '.

The war is all over this one, the faceless suffering of the woman sitting on all her household stuffed into one cart, contained sadness there, or bewilderment. The men resigned, at least the lean oxen are getting a rest, little symbolic, one more ' river' to cross.

You don't know how in heck he got this one, a realistic photograph of men in action- guess it was a real action but they'd have had to stop in mid-preparation at whatever stage they were, loading, cleaning, whatever- the gun crews here. I mean, you could easily take it for granted someone could have just clicked a pic and ' poof', the shutter snapped, there's your pic. This took coordination by the entire line, right? Weren't the crews extremely fast with their preparations, so in normal conditions all you'd see here would be blurs?

 

[Pvt.Shattuck]

I met a fellow who was a guest the last GAR reunion in 1949. He was 14 years old at the time. He said one of the ancient CW veterans told him that he could remember a Rev War veteran riding in a carriage in the 4th of July parade in his town back when he was a boy. That is only one degree of separation between me and the Civil War and two degrees of separation between me and the Revolutionary War!
My 85 year old step-Mom's grandmother sewed buttons on Federal uniforms as an immigrant child in NYC during the Civil War. She lived to be over 100 and my step-Mom knew her well. One degree of separation. Worlds so far away from us yet so close in human terms.
This fellow at Savages Station appears to have a chest wound and that is probably why he is sitting up. If so, he surely did not live.

 

[John Hartwell]

Last surviving veterans is an interesting topic. This isn't really the place for it, but here it cropped up. I'll just offer this webpage for your contemplation: http://www.genealogytrails.com/main/lastveteranobits.html#owenedgar

jno

 

[Mike Serpa]

That's a chilling photo glimpse into someone's awfulness, gosh. You hope he made it home, he doesn't appear to be holding hope of that. I've always loved O'Sullivan just because he manages to be believable regardless- doesn't seem to have spent time setting shots up, you know? The pathos of war would be there- sure he'd no doubt have to request folks to hold still, please, but so many were right where he found them. He wished for us to find them there, also. Pretty riveting.

View attachment 35216

The grave, crest of a wind-swept hill, soldiers- if he titled this, could have been simply ' Six Soldiers '.


View attachment 35217
The war is all over this one, the faceless suffering of the woman sitting on all her household stuffed into one cart, contained sadness there, or bewilderment. The men resigned, at least the lean oxen are getting a rest, little symbolic, one more ' river' to cross.

View attachment 35218
You don't know how in heck he got this one, a realistic photograph of men in action- guess it was a real action but they'd have had to stop in mid-preparation at whatever stage they were, loading, cleaning, whatever- the gun crews here. I mean, you could easily take it for granted someone could have just clicked a pic and ' poof', the shutter snapped, there's your pic. This took coordination by the entire line, right? Weren't the crews extremely fast with their preparations, so in normal conditions all you'd see here would be blurs?

Here is the title and attribution of the first photo.

• Title: Antietam, Maryland. A lone grave
• Creator(s): Gardner, Alexander, 1821-1882, photographer
• Date Created/Published: 1862 Sept.
• Medium: 1 negative (2 plates) : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-cwpb-01109 (digital file from original neg. of left half) LC-DIG-cwpb-01110 (digital file from original neg. of right half)