Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4

Author Topic: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?  (Read 3732 times)

Duuvian

  • Bay Watcher
  • Internet ≠ Real Life
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #15 on: December 05, 2011, 04:06:01 am »

I'm Australian of Dutch/English descent. I'm related to a guy who was a general called Tilden sometime in America's past, though I'm not sure when.

Didn't find a general but I found this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Tilden

Seems like a pretty cool dude.

Actually he probably should have been president from his track record.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Zombie Tilden for 2012!
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 04:08:43 am by Duuvian »
Logged
FINISHED original composition:
https://app.box.com/s/jq526ppvri67astrc23bwvgrkxaicedj

Sort of finished and awaiting remix due to loss of most recent song file before addition of drums:
https://www.box.com/s/s3oba05kh8mfi3sorjm0 <-zguit

klingon13524

  • Bay Watcher
  • The Mongols are cool!
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2011, 04:09:45 am »

I'm fairly shure my Fathers side of the family immigrated after the civil war, but I'm not at all shure. My mother's side is European, so they probably weren't fighting for or against Lincoln.
Logged
By creating a gobstopper that never loses its flavor he broke thermodynamics
Maybe it's parasitic. It never loses its flavor because you eventually die from having your nutrients stolen by it.

Reudh

  • Bay Watcher
  • Perge scelus mihi diem perficias.
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #17 on: December 05, 2011, 04:30:35 am »

That's the one! The Tildens have been around since the 1000s and in the 1600s some split off and went to America, and others stayed and later moved to Australia. I'm descended from the australian ones.

Deadmeat1471

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #18 on: December 05, 2011, 05:10:38 am »

Nope. Ancestors migrated here 70 years ago. Too late for that.

Although I wonder why are some people so obsessed with the Civil War anyways? Seems like a terrible war people would rather forget, instead people seem almost nostalgic about it.

Also, why do they name US military bases after confederate generals? (Fort Lee, ect) Why honor and memorialize traitors?

First, i'm interested in history and the Civil War has gained my interest due to its immense size, the issues involved and the characters involved. I see it as a duty to those who died to study such things, not something to be swept under the carpet

As for the the 'traitors', not being an American I can only guess its because they were all Americans, and great Americans, which was the point of the war (to restore the Union).
Logged

Aqizzar

  • Bay Watcher
  • There is no 'U'.
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #19 on: December 05, 2011, 05:46:46 am »

Also because after the "Reconstruction" of the South ended after the war (prematurely in the eyes of Northerners), the former Confederate states became a big honking foot in national politics for the better part of a century.  It was a rare President from 1880 to 1964 who openly insulted or questioned anything about the South and its history, let alone that people with roots in the South were as integrated into the rest of the country as anybody.

It's not that big a surprise that at least the Confederacy's generals got a lot of respect in military history, especially since 75% of the nation's officer corps defected to the South around 1861 (being mostly the sons of plantation owners) and the main reason why the war lasted more than a year.


Anyway, I know I have at least one relative who fought in the Civil War, but it's been years since I heard about it.  I know he was from Tennessee (i.e. Confederate) and a cavalry officer, which tells me he probably had some money.  Obviously he didn't keep it or much favor with Reconstruction, since around 1865 he "arrived" in Texas, married a Caddo Indian, and founded a six-generation legacy of mediocrity.  I can't even remember his name, but I think it was Calhoun or Kilrain or something, there's a long long Irish-American streak in my family.

Holy crap, reading about it, I have this crazy feeling my ancestor fought under Cthulhu's great-to-the-nth granddad.  Wouldn't that be weird.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 05:49:48 am by Aqizzar »
Logged
And here is where my beef pops up like a looming awkward boner.
Please amplify your relaxed states.
Quote from: PTTG??
The ancients built these quote pyramids to forever store vast quantities of rage.

Deadmeat1471

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #20 on: December 05, 2011, 06:06:17 am »

Also to be fair, the term 'Rebel' was used in order to not call the war an invasion of another country. If they are rebels, they are inside the country and can be suppressed, if they are soldiers from a new nation - then the USA would have defacto accepted their secession from the Union.

If anything I think they saw the Confederates as misguided countrymen, not traitors. Obviously there will be exceptions.

I'll add our people to the original post later, we have 1 or two :D
Logged

thobal

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #21 on: December 05, 2011, 11:55:30 am »

Cripes, I've probably got ancestors who fought on both sides.
Logged
Signature goes here.

Necro910

  • Bay Watcher
  • Legendary Drunk +5
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #22 on: December 05, 2011, 12:34:47 pm »

I'm second generation German on my father's side, and Umpteenth generation Norse on my mother's. we probably didn't fight in the war due to them being in South Dakota.

My great x 5 or 6 grandfather was John Hunt Morgan, a Confederate general.
A salute to you, good sir.

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #23 on: December 05, 2011, 02:17:55 pm »

Heh...I think I already expounded on some of this in the AGEOD Civil War thread over in Other Games, but here goes:

GGG-grand-uncle Pinckney ("Pink") Cranford (if there was one thing the South had in surplus, it was WTF first names) and his brother (another GGG-grand-uncle) John Parson Cranford and a cousin Levi Cranford, were all conscripted in November 1862 into Company G, 52nd NC Infantry Regiment.

They fought at Goldsboro, NC in Dec 1862, deserted to go back home, then reported back for duty around April 1863, just in time to get sent north for the Gettysburg campaign. Pink was wounded and captured on Jul 1 (first day of the battle). John Parson was wounded on the 3rd, but avoided capture. Pink was eventually tranferred to a Union POW camp at Ft. Mifflin, Pennsylvania, where he died in September.

GGG-grandfather James Davis joined up at the ripe old age of 38 or 39, deserted and came back home long enough to father his 6th child, returned to the army, then vanished. Family lore holds that he defected to the North and resettled up there somewhere to raise a new family. I've tried tracking him down, but there's over 25 different James Davis'es in the Confederate forces from North Carolina. (Obviously his name was too normal for him to remain in the South, and he didn't want to change it to McCager, Shadrach, Abednego, Ratio or Otho -- yes, these are all names that appear in my tree).

Got a host of more distant cousins that fought for the CSA. Most of them had similar service records -- sign up for the money (or conscripted), do some marching, say "f**k all this" and head back home. Sometimes they went back, sometimes they stayed home. No officers, no war heroes, and no slaveholders.

Fun fact: North Carolina was one of the last states to secede (and did so reluctantly) and had one of the lowest rates of slaves per capita and slave ownership in general, and yet contributed the most troops and suffered the heaviest losses. The tenacity of North Carolina regiments earned them the nickname "Tarheels", which is still used for the University of North Carolina and the state in general.



My wife's family is from New York, and her side is all mid-level Union officers and local war heroes in the 20th NY Infantry "Ulster Guards" (named for Ulster County, NY). Upper-crust families who bought their commissions (and then to their credit, did a good job and actually got into the thick of the fight...numerous wounded).

In a couple of battles (most notably Gettysburg), her ancestors and my ancestors were actually in the same place at the same time on opposite sides. Never directly shooting at each other, but still....I think the dichotomy in our histories says a lot about the Civil War and why it's not something easily swept under the rug and forgotten. There were so many social divisions involved...rich v. poor; immigrant v. "native" Anglo-Scotch-Irish who had been there 100 years longer; Catholic v. Protestant; agrarian v. industrial; new money v. old money. And many of those divisions were within the same side. The guys shooting at each other frequently had more in common with each other than they did with their commanders.

In the end, it was a war fought mostly by the poor on behalf of the rich (on each side) in an arguement over economics. And a chance for upper-class young men to "earn their honours" the same way that the British high society expected their young men to spend a few years shooting at Indians, Arabs, Boers, etc. 
« Last Edit: December 05, 2011, 03:07:59 pm by RedKing »
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

Willfor

  • Bay Watcher
  • The great magmaman adventurer. I do it for hugs.
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #24 on: December 05, 2011, 02:28:41 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
Logged
In the wells of livestock vans with shells and garden sands /
Iron mixed with oxygen as per the laws of chemistry and chance /
A shape was roughly human, it was only roughly human /
Apparition eyes / Apparition eyes / Knock, apparition, knock / Eyes, apparition eyes /

Dutchling

  • Bay Watcher
  • Ridin' with Biden
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #25 on: December 05, 2011, 03:22:40 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
And my ancestors got kicked out by yours. Second Anglo-Dutch war IIRC.
Logged

RedKing

  • Bay Watcher
  • hoo hoo motherfucker
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #26 on: December 05, 2011, 03:34:19 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
And my ancestors got kicked out by yours. Second Anglo-Dutch war IIRC.
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam....
Logged

Remember, knowledge is power. The power to make other people feel stupid.
Quote from: Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Science is like an inoculation against charlatans who would have you believe whatever it is they tell you.

Virex

  • Bay Watcher
  • Subjects interest attracted. Annalyses pending...
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #27 on: December 05, 2011, 03:51:40 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
And my ancestors got kicked out by yours. Second Anglo-Dutch war IIRC.
Depends on how you count things. The English occupation was made formal with the Treaty of Westminster (well, one of them), which ended the third Anglo-Dutch war. In return, the English gave up their claims on Suriname.
Logged

Willfor

  • Bay Watcher
  • The great magmaman adventurer. I do it for hugs.
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #28 on: December 05, 2011, 04:00:48 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
And my ancestors got kicked out by yours. Second Anglo-Dutch war IIRC.
Actually, my ancestor came in with the Dutch, and and his descendants stayed through British occupation. My last name is an anglicized dutch name. And then some of them decided to side with the revolutionaries, and my own ancestors sided with the loyalists. I have a lot of family members who are heavily into genealogy.
Logged
In the wells of livestock vans with shells and garden sands /
Iron mixed with oxygen as per the laws of chemistry and chance /
A shape was roughly human, it was only roughly human /
Apparition eyes / Apparition eyes / Knock, apparition, knock / Eyes, apparition eyes /

Dutchling

  • Bay Watcher
  • Ridin' with Biden
    • View Profile
Re: Ancestors who fought in the American Civil War ?
« Reply #29 on: December 05, 2011, 04:16:41 pm »

Unfortunately, my ancestors got kicked out of America due to an earlier civil war. The American Revolution.
And my ancestors got kicked out by yours. Second Anglo-Dutch war IIRC.
Depends on how you count things. The English occupation was made formal with the Treaty of Westminster (well, one of them), which ended the third Anglo-Dutch war. In return, the English gave up their claims on Suriname.
IIRC stands for I didn't take the tIme to Read the whole wikipedia artiCle so I hope that what I said is right.
Logged
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4