Anyone ever looked up their 'Civil War' history?

[LizellaJacket]

I looked into this a while ago and found out that my Great^4 Grandfather John Henry Rainey fought for the 19th Georgia Infantry and as many as 13 cousins fought in various other units for Georgia. I thought about this topic because I went to Kennesaw Mtn Battlefield today for the first time. Here are some pics:

Skyline. Pretty Clear day.

Stone Mtn.

Original Confederate Earthworks

[Newnan]

My dad could have some ancestors who fought in the civil war. Most of my mon's ancestors were still in Europe during that time.

[ironchapman]

My great great (insert a few more "greats" here) uncle was supposedly Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.

[LizellaJacket]

Wow, now thats is impressive. I know Confederate people catch flak(most of the time wrongly), but he was a rigtheous man. I am very proud of my heritage and dont mind showing it off.

[Student]

Where would I go if I wanted to find this information?

[ironchapman]

Wow, now thats is impressive. I know Confederate people catch flak(most of the time wrongly), but he was a rigtheous man. I am very proud of my heritage and dont mind showing it off.

Indeed. Most of the famous Confederate people during the Civil War are more famous for being associated with slavery than they are for achievements or their personalities (though slavery should not be trivialized either. It was a terrible dark spot in American and world history).

[LizellaJacket]

Indeed. Most of the famous Confederate people during the Civil War are more famous for being associated with slavery than they are for achievements or their personalities (though slavery should not be trivialized either. It was a terrible dark spot in American and world history).

Thats really sad too. Robert E. Lee should be a role model. If you ever read his perosnal letters, he is a man of unimaginable character. He believed slavery was wrong.He freed his slaves before the war started(well before Sherman freed his, aftre the War). One of the former slaves refused to leave him and even wrote memoirs about his experince with The General. He is/was a great man.

To me the demonization of Confederate symbols started with all these hate groups going around and adopting the Battle flag as their symbols and in no way did Most of those soldiers fight to keep slavery. My ancestors fought for their families and owned no slaves. They like most fought because they felt they were invaded.

Where would I go if I wanted to find this information?

Student, I actually contacted the Sons of Confederate Vets for help and gave them some info. Most sites want money to help you. There a site maintained by the National Parks Service that has records of nearly all the soldiers, Union and Confederate. I found my ancestor on this website as well.

Civil War soldiers

[Newnan]

Ironically enough, Sojourner Truth was born on a plantation in New York state.

[teshadoh]

My mother & sister had done a great deal of geneology - there are federal records for war veterans available, in most cases at any library. I believe it is now online.

My ancestors fought of course for South Carolina, one having died of TB in Virginia & another died in a prison camp in Tennessee.

[monsoon]

Indeed. Most of the famous Confederate people during the Civil War are more famous for being associated with slavery than they are for achievements or their personalities (though slavery should not be trivialized either. It was a terrible dark spot in American and world history).

I agree. George Washington, the man on the dollar bill for you history challenged, was a Southerner who held slaves. The criticism of similar Southerners who lived during Confederate times is a double standard. Slavery ended in the USA 141 years ago and it is folly for anyone today to judge that past based on today's morals. They should instead focus on the problems of today.

[redjeep77]

^ amen to that. People that judge other cultures/time periods on their own beliefs are offensively bigoted.

[Relient J]

I had an ancestor who I believe was one of two brothers who fought for the South. One lived to carry on the family line and the other died in a Yankee prison camp.

[teshadoh]

Now - this is likely more significant for South Carolinians, but who knows their Revolutionary War history? Of course GA was a colony, but the vast majority of Georgians live & have their history in the non-colonial 3/4 of the state.

So it is often more common for SC natives, as well as most of the 11 other colonies to the north to document their Revolutionary War history. After all - the Revolutionary War in SC was in many ways a SC Civil War.

I know of 3 ancestors that fought in the Revolutionary War, one fought in his home state of Virginia & my other two (father & son) fought under Francis Marion as well as Cowpens & Kings Mountain. It is rumoured that a 4th ancestor was a Tory, as he was English & lived in Tory dominated 96 District.

[monsoon]

By definition an armed revolution to topple or keep a government is a civil war.

[teshadoh]

Well sure that is true, but my point was that the revolutionary war in SC as it was in NC was an in-state civil war, not simply a collection of inhabitants rebeling against a government.

[monsoon]

There were loyalists in every state, so I assume this was the case in all the colonies.

[teshadoh]

Most likely - from my understanding though there was more Tory sympathizers in the southern colonies though. The war didn't heat up in the south until the last year or two, so there was limited animosity towards the British. Not to mention, due to most of the area being more remote - less activism occured as they did in the northern colonies, which were overwhelmingly influenced by cities like Boston, NYC & Philadelphia. Lastly, the southern colonies were the homes of the crown estates, home to influential people that supported the king.

Nonetheless - as you suggested it was common through out all the colonies neighbor fought against neighbor. Thus I find the Revolutionary War an interesting collection of in-state civil wars, IMO.

[monsoon]

In parts of the South there was a lot of animosity towards the British. As shown in this plaque below, Mecklenburg county declared independence from the British a year before the Declaration of Independence of 1776. It's often rumored that Thomas Jefferson plagarized part of the Mecklenburg Declaration for the US Delcaration. This is why one of NC's mottos is "First in Freedom".

[teshadoh]

Of course there was animosity towards the British in the south, metro, I never said there wasn't. Really - I'm not sure where this conversation is intended to go, because there hasn't been anything I've said that is really questionable. I'm certainly aware of the significance of Mecklenburg's own decleration of independance just as I'm aware that the southern colonialists essentially saved the war for the Colonies.

If I need to paraphrase anything it would be this:

Southern colonialists during the Revolutionary War fought not only the British but in most cases - neighbors. Native Tory armies made up a large percentage of the British forces in the south.

Not that I don't like discussing the colonial era in the south, it has always been my favorite history subject. But I would like to know what I am arguing about before we go any further... dig?

[monsoon]

You said this which is confusing as I got from it that Southerners did not really care one way or the other until later stages of the war. Of course we know that not to be the case, and the British did surrender in the South.

...., so there was limited animosity towards the British. Not to mention, due to most of the area being more remote - less activism occured as they did in the northern colonies, which were overwhelmingly influenced by cities like Boston, NYC & Philadelphia. Lastly, the southern colonies were the homes of the crown estates, home to influential people that supported the king.

[teshadoh]

Metro, when I wrote, "limited animosity" & "less activism", that does not mean "Southerners did not really care". What it does mean is in the early war period, there were few battles or riots, compared to the northern colonies. The British controlled most of the populated coastal southern colonies. The extent of war involvement was guerilla battles whose attackers were a small number of part time soldiers. They fought for a few months & then returned home to their farms. Whereas warfare & destruction was more widespread in the northern colonies, where most people were directly affected by the British army. This wouldn't be the case until the French arrived to assist training an organized army in the south - then we kicked Great Britain's ass & won the war.

[Relient J]

I think I recall reading that in South Carolina the population was about one third revolutionists, one third torries, and one third fence riders. The British armies that fought at Cowpens and King's Mountain were commanded seasoned British officers, but the vast majority of the infantrymen were colonials loyal to the crown. Please correct me if I'm wrong.