Tag: Gettysburg field hospitals
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The Legacy of George Bushman: Gettysburg’s Forgotten Farmer
If you search online for George Bushman of Gettysburg, you’d be forgiven for believing that he was, more or less, a farm . . . or better said, a guy who had a farm that became famous. You’ll find next to nothing on who he was and what he was like as a man. Since…
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Reverend Michael Bushman: A Gettysburg Legacy
Perhaps the most prominent manmade structure associated with July 2, 1863, is the home of Reverend Michael Bushman. The brother of Emanuel Paul Bushman and the uncle of Sadie Bushman, Michael Bushman (1812–1893) was a prominent figure in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, known for his leadership in the German Baptist Brethren Church and his ownership of a…
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The Life of Private Samuel N. Cox: A Confederate Story
Private Samuel N. Cox was no ordinary Confederate private. Nearly everyone around him was single, but Private Cox was well into his second marriage. The few married men usually had young families—no kids or one kid, maybe two or three at most. Samuel Cox had three boys and two girls by his first wife and…
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The Price Twins: Brothers in the Civil War
The Price twins, James and John, were just nine years old in January 1852 when their father, a modestly well-off plantation owner named William C. Price, attended the Alabama Democratic Convention. He came from deeply patriotic stock. His grandfather Anjer Price was a sergeant in the 8th Virginia in the Revolution. His father, William Vines…
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The Tragic Legacy of Augustus L. Short’s Family
Corporal Augustus L. Short came from a house divided—his father, Augustus D. Short, was from Bristol County, Massachusetts, while his mother, Jane G. Smith, was from Clarke County, Georgia. The older Augustus and Jane married in 1842 in Clarke County. The oldest boy in their family, James, may have come from a previous marriage: he…
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The Life of Abraham Brian: A Forgotten Legacy
Today, the name Abraham Brian will be memorialized for as long as the United States exists. Brian’s former house sits near the apex of the Union line that bore the brunt of Pickett’s Charge—explanatory signs from the National Park Service tell you that Brian was a free black man living with his family in this…
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Captain Mark Kerns and Benjamin Franklin Carter at Second Manassas
You may now be familiar with Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin Carter and his former body servant Henry Johnson. Of course, Captain Mark Kerns of the US First Artillery figures prominently in the story without having been given the same historical attention. So who was this man that Lt. Col. Carter respected so much as to…
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Remembering Sarah Plank: A Civil War Nurse
When Sarah Plank finally passed away in 1926, she was eighty-five and had outlived her husband, John Edward Plank, and three of her twelve children. With that in mind, take some time to consider her obituary. Consider what takes up the most real estate on the page and what is absent. At the time of…
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The Tragic Fate of John J. Walthall in the Civil War
Where men, guns, horses, and gunpowder are we are bound to see instances of tragic luck. John J. Walthall appears to be just such an instance. How rare was his end? In 1837 a little-read article by S.D. Poisson articulated a distribution pattern for highly unlikely but still occasional events. This application was later used…
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Jesse Ricks Pittman: A Victim of the Odds Buried on the John Edward Plank Farm
Another of the men buried on the John Edward Plank farm, Jesse Ricks Pittman’s story is particularly tragic. As men began to enlist in 1861 and as photography improved, photographers reminded the public to have their men sit for photos “before it’s too late,” as one heavy ad intoned. The photo here is a pre-war…