Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Civil War Oddities #94


Novelist Martha Caroline Keller, author of “Love and Rebellion”, described a pair of Confederates she believed to have been at Gettysburg. One of them, “a dreaming boy who fought with tiger fierceness,” lay beside an older soldier. Instead of sleeping, “this strong, manly warrior” remained awake to “guard the resting youth.”

Their comrades considered them to be father and son. Actually, Kelly wrote, “This fair young soldier is the man’s wife.

That account is undocumented, but similar stories are buried in records of both Confederate and Federal forces.