Civil War Oddities #46

According to the New York Evening Post of September 4, 1862, the Seventeenth Connecticut Regiment “left New York for a seat of war” on the previous evening. Having been organized on August 28, the unit was assigned to garrison duty until it participated in the famous “Mud March” of January 1863. A mid-winter storm left Virginia roads of “shocking” condition.

Among the privates who made up the regiment was inventor Elias Howe. At that time, the sewing machine he perfected was widely pirated in England and Europe, but Howe was not generally known. When his improved sewing machine won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition in 1867, the ground was laid for his later induction into the American Hall of Fame.

Civil War Oddities #45

New York native Matthew B. Brady’s portrait studio saw a few table sits for the camera during the 1850’s. He was all but unknown, however, outside a small circle of persons who had learned the photographic process perfected by Louis J. J. Daguerre of France.

Aware that his eye had been damaged, perhaps by chemicals, and that he was fast losing his vision, Brady hired a group of enthusiastic younger men and sent them to war.

They made thousands of photographs for which their employer took full credit. Today much material in the Brady Collection is identified by the name of the photographer who produced it.

Still, no other man who envisioned capturing the war on wet plates is more closely identified with 1961-1865 action than the man who personally saw very little of it.

Civil War Oddities #44

At the outbreak of the war, ex-captain U.S. Grant was a military has been who was reduced to working as a clerk in a family owned leather goods store. Nevertheless, perennial failure Grant” became the first person since George Washington to become a lieutenant general in the U. S. Army, then spent two terms as president of the United States.

Civil War Oddities #43

Brayton Ives signed up with the Fifth Connecticut Regiment in July 1861, later switched to the cavalry, and during four years of war rose to the rank of colonel. He fought at Deep Bottom, Five Forks, Sayler’s Creek, Gaines Mill, Bethesda Church, Cold Harbor Opequon, and Cedar Creek. When he took off his uniform he was considered to be one of thousands of run-of-the-mill officers. Back in civilian circles, he was president of the New York Stock Exchange before winning fame in a select circle of book collectors as owner of a Gutenberg Bible.

What Was Your Ancestor's Property Worth?

Genealogists often find references to money in old deeds and other documents. Even U.S. census records frequently recorded estimates of a person's real estate. The natural question is, "I wonder what that would equal in today's dollars?" There is a Web site that can answer this question.

S. Morgan Friedman's Inflation Calculator can convert a U.S. dollar amount for any year from 1800 through 2001 into the equivalent amount, adjusted for inflation, in any other year of that range. In other words, if you find that your ancestor purchased land for $400 in 1805, the Inflation Calculator will tell you that the money he spent is equivalent to a purchase of $5735.65 in 2010. 

The Inflation Calculator only goes up to the year 2010, the last year for which inflation statistics are available. This should be sufficient for genealogy purposes. The pre-1975 data comes from the Consumer Price Index statistics published in the Historical Statistics of the United States (USGPO, 1975). All data since then is from the annual Statistical Abstracts of the United States. You can access the Inflation Calculator at: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/.

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2012 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. 

Civil War Oddities #42

Forty-two years of age at the time of Fort Sumter, Walt Whitman of New York had failed at practically everything he tried to do. He was successively an office boy, printer’s devil, schoolteacher, typesetter, journalist and editor. After publishing the book of poems Leaves of Grass in 1855, he cringed every time he saw a review of it.

Serving as a volunteer nurse in the hospitals of Washington, he caught an occasional glimpse of Abraham Lincoln, but spent most of him time bandaging wounds. Belated recognition of his poetic genius came first in Europe, then in the United States, after his death.

Armed Forces Insignia

Shoulder insignia, the brightly colored designs worn on the left sleeve below the shoulder to denote division, corps, armies, or organizations within the U.S. Armed Forces, express a warmth and a fraternity which men of all services known from experience. Originated by the 81^st Division in 1918, the cloth patches were soon officially recognized for their value in building morale.

I found this document in my mother-in-law personal papers after she passed away. Thank you Stephanie for saving this.

Source: Sunday August 1, 1954, The Philadelphia Inquirer