NF What Advice to Your Grandson...?

[Private Watkins]

Thought I'd share a recent used book store find, and then ask you good folks here to put yourselves into the shoes of an old Civil War Veteran grandpa and think about just what advice you would give to your grandson...

David Emmons Johnston, Sgt. Major in the 7th Virginia, wrote a fine memoir in 1914 called The Story of A Confederate Boy in the Civil War.

Opposite page 304 is a plate depicting him in later years, together with his grandson and namesake David Emmons Johnston Wilson.

What makes this particular used-bookstore-found book special is that this is the very copy that Grandfather David E. Johnston gave and inscribed to Grandson David E.J. Wilson...

All of which leads to my question for you, Dear Reader... if you were a Civil War veteran, Confederate or Union take your pick, (I know that's a leap, but there's a lot of knowledge and expertise here in the CWT community and many of you certainly have strong opinions on just about everything CW related...) what advice would you give your Grandson...? (Obviously we've got to stay away from modern topics, and you might conclude your advice wouldn't differ as a CW veteran from what you'd say today... but I'd still like to hear it anyway). What good advice, what bad advice, might come from the lips of a CW veteran to his grandson...? Did the old fellows see things any differently than when they were youngsters...?

I'd also love to hear from anyone who has read the book and what they thought about it...?

I'm aware there is another thread about D. E. Johnston, but thought this was a different enough topic that you'll allow me the grace of a separate thread...
( http://civilwartalk.com/threads/ser...hnston-7th-virginia-infantry-mountain.114713/ )

 

[Private Watkins]

And finally, I would love to hear from anyone who has information about young Master David Emmons Johnston Wilson... did his life reflect the noblest aspirations... or was he scoundrel? Did he live a long and noble life... or were his years cut short? What fate lay in wait for him when his Grandfather gave him this very book...?

 

[JAGwinn]

God, Family and Country...do nothing to shame them.

 

[alan polk]

I think that's impossible to answer, but I like the spirit of the question. Depends on the grandfather. Was he a poor or yeoman farmer with no skin in the game and conscripted, or was he in line to inherit "property" from his father and thus volunteered to protect his "birthright"? The difference is a chasm as wide as the Grand Canyon, and I suspect any advice drawn from those experiences would reflect that in advice to the next generation

 

[John Winn]

In this life all you've really got in the end is your honor and your word. Do nothing that would call either into question.

 

[12th Missouri Yankee]

I think that's impossible to answer, but I like the spirit of the question. Depends on the grandfather. Was he a poor or yeoman farmer with no skin in the game and conscripted, or was he in line to inhetit "property" from his father and thus volunteered to protect his "birthright"? The difference is a chasm as wide as the Grand Canyon, and I suspect any advice drawn from those experiences would reflect that in advice to the next generation

I guess I would tell him to work hard, take care of your family and the people you love, live your life with honor and courage, and to enjoy the present because each day is a gift.

 

[JAGwinn]

From the Introduction of the volume:
"The chief motive which inspires this undertaking is to give some meager idea of the Confederate soldier in the ranks, and of his individual deeds of heroism, particularly of that patriotic, self-sacrificing, brave company of men with whose fortunes and destiny my own were linked for four long years of blood and carnage, and to whom during that period I was bound by ties stronger than hooks of steel; whose confidence and friendship I fully shared, and as fully reciprocated."
Doesn't appear to be in it for the money (birthright).

 

[alan polk]

Don't mean to get cross-ways with folks here. My opinion is based on my experience with the old folks I came to know in my family when I was an impressionable child. Some were descendants of slave holders, others were descended from folks who were not. They all had brave and honorable men who fought for the Confederacy. There was a difference, though, in interpretation that was handed down. Sorry if that's my experience. The question of honor and deeds within the rank is not the issue- at least as I understood the OP. As far as I know, none of my relations deserted but stood steadfast to their posts. And for all of them, both poor and rich, whether they volunteered or were conscripted, whether they died or survived in the process, were just as honorable as the other! However, what was handed down was a bit different between the two classes over generations. I can't back it up with any stats, but I think the "solid south" did not become that "solid" until after the conflict ended and the subsequent introduction of Reconstruction, as instituted upon the South by the North. The question of duty and honor is universal in America. Nonetheless, what an ACW veteran grandfather would advise his grandchild years after the conflict ended might be based on how he viewed the war through the lens of his lived experience. That experience might be shaded in his advice. One might say life is the equivelant of a "rich man's war and a poor man's fight," where another might say "knowledge is power, and power is a means to an end". Those are different world views based on lived experiences. But the honor and duty expressed on the battlefield during the War was evident among them all regardless of their beliefs of the reasonableness of the conflict at the time. I hope the good folks here will give me a little bit of breathing room on this one!!

 

[Private Watkins]

I hope the good folks here will give me a little bit of breathing room on this one!!

I'll give you lots of breathing room, appreciate your reply. But handing down political interpretation of one shade or another isn't all that I had in mind... what might an old veteran who has seen so much death, destruction, & sacrifice, but also bravery, honor, & heroism, really wish to convey to his grandson?

Might he say don't rush to the fight? Might he say don't trust some of the politicians, nor believe all that you read in the newspapers...? I don't know... what do you think?

 

[Private Watkins]

Perhaps Johnston had his grandson in mind when he wrote these words in the final chapter of his book...?

The Confederate soldier, as I have already said, accepted in good faith the result of the war, bore no malice toward those whom he had fought face to face, knowing:

Malice is a wrinkled hag, hell-born;
Her heart is hate, her soul is scorn.
Blinded with blood, she cannot see
To do any deed of charity.
​

And again remembering the thought expressed in the lines:

You cannot tame the tiger,
You dare not kill the dove;
But every gate you bar with hate
Will open wide to love.​

 

[Private Watkins]

I'm aware there is another thread about D. E. Johnston, but thought this was a different enough topic that you'll allow me the grace of a separate thread...
( http://civilwartalk.com/threads/ser...hnston-7th-virginia-infantry-mountain.114713/ )

Sad article in the previous thread on Johnston about his old historic home being torn down...
http://www.ptonline.net/news/histor...cle_3957fd25-7732-511a-8028-7d2db7a6d22c.html
The article only shows a photo of the house torn down, rubble; here I believe is what it looked like before:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8716885