This isn't a query and it's kind of long.
One of the thrills I get out of genealogy is it makes history real.
Sometimes it just reaches out and grabs you. The good people at the
Wayne County (NY) US Gen Web site have put in a site search engine. I
was using it to look for my Ela Cady, 1781 - 1843. I didn't find him.
I found Eben in Evergreen Cemetery:
CADY, Eben J., Co. C, 108 Reg., N.Y.S.V. fell at Fredericksburg, Va.,
Dec.13, 1862, 17y 4m 8d.
That's the 108th regiment, New York State Volunteers. Regiments who
volunteered got to say so; it gave them bragging rights over the
draftees. Fredericksburg was the first place in the Civil war to show
that stupid generals could get a lot of troops killed for no good
reason. It wasn't the last.
Chances are Eben is no one's ancestor; he might be a great (x) uncle.
As I surf my daughter and her 17-year old boyfriend are in the next
room, watching TV and eating micro-waved pizza. The Boyfriend's
biggest worry is saving up enough money to buy a rebuilt clutch.
Eben's biggest worries were getting killed, having to march 20 miles
in mud that pulled your feet down, bad food and muddy drinking water.
He probably wondered what he'd do in his first battle. He ate a lot
of salt pork and hardtack, cold. Then, just 12 days before Christmas,
he picked up his 13-pound musket and went charging uphill to an almost
certain death, because some generals who learned their lessons in the
Mexican-American War hadn't changed their tactics. Some of the
regiments at Fredericksburg suffered 70% casualties.
I've lived three times as long as Eben; as I type I'm warm, safe and
dry, and tomorrow when I go to work no one will to try to put a .54
caliber Mine ball through me. I'm going to sleep indoors on a soft bed
tonight. Count your blessings, folks.
Did Eben have a sweetheart? Did he want to be farmer when the war
ended, or would he have gone on to be a doctor, lawyer, banker? We'll
never know. I hope he's at peace.
If you've read this far I hope you aren't annoyed at my rambling.