RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: GrahamSimons on Monday 08 June 20 10:34 BST (UK)
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See
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/04/she-was-last-american-collect-civil-war-pension-7313-month-she-just-died/
Irene Triplett, who lived in a North Carolina nursing home, rarely talked about the source of the money. She was the last American to receive a pension from the Civil War — $877.56 a year from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The jaw-dropping fact that someone in the year 2020 was still earning a Civil War pension was the result of two factors: First, Triplett suffered cognitive impairments, qualifying her for the lifelong pension as a helpless adult child of a veteran. Second, her father, Mose Triplett, who’d served as a private in the Confederate Army before defecting to the Union, was on his second marriage when she was born in 1930. He was just a few weeks away from turning 84.
On Sunday, Irene Triplett died at Accordius Health, a long-term-care facility in Wilkesboro, N.C., at the age of 90. A relative said she’d broken her hip a few days earlier and died of complications. She never married, and her only brother had died in 1996.
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Interesting, thanks for posting it.
I can remember American Civil War veterans dying when I was much younger.
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Yes, and a very few venerable gentlemen tried to reproduce the rebel yell,
seemingly a bloodcurdling sound that unsettled the Northern troops.
There was a TV item about it.
A flag ,from the Civil war was flown,with the few stars and cross of The Southern states.
Robert E Lee was undecided which side to command , he chose The South.
Arlington his home was requisitioned after the war as a cemetery and graves were placed right up to the house so no one would ever really want to live there again.
Lee had slaves.
His horse Traveller was with him throughout the war, he rode it to the farmhouse where war was declared and then to surrender .
The Southern troops lined up to pat Traveller, a grey.
We spoke to a representative of The American War Graves Commission at an
American cemetery in Belgium, along theGent- Kortrijk Road.
He offered my husband a job, but it was nothing like the pay we needed to live there with three children etc. and me not working.
At that time if both of a couple were foreign only one was allowed to work.
There was a very good series on a TV ,quite a few years ago,very informative.
My son has visited Gettysburg battlefield, much stuff still lying about in the area and the peach orchard.Small balls, cases etc.
All very sad.
If a man served at 18, many were much -younger, drummer boys etc, those who said they were older etc it was 1861-65 ,then if any lived to100 , 1961, born as early as 1851 so 14 or so when the war ended,it is possible a few lived to be televised .
A fascinating subject.
Viktoria.
The South seemed more romantic-Gone With The Wind - and all that but it was so for only its white population !
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I can recall my own grandparents discussing whose family had sacrificed more in the Civil War. They were both born long after the war [1874 and 1881] but their parents' generation had been involved - not my great grandfathers themselves [one was too young and the other was designated to remain at home and look out for the women and children in the community] but they had uncles who served in the Union Army. On the one hand, my grandfather had two uncles who served and one died; on the other hand, Granny had four uncles who served but, although their health was never the same, they all survived and one was a sutler who actually made a good profit out of the war.
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You must be proud of that connection.
There was a song , so poignant ,Lorena, it was banned eventually I believe
because it was so upsetting to the homesick soldiers.
Just think, you have spoken to people who were the children of people who may have seenLincoln,Davies Sherman , Grant,Hood etc.
Which army did your relative sutle?
My son was in America for a conference, there was free time and he got to Gettysburg , lots of souvenirs ,.
Amazing that photography was so good in those early days.
There was a submarine of sorts, The Merrimack, off Charleston I think.
I have a book about it,bought for my son ,all parcelled up to post when they let me out!
Thanks for that.
Just looked up The Rebel Yell ,some very old veterans recorded it in the 1930’s ,a strange sound but really shook the Yankees.
Cheerio.Viktoria.
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The rebel yell wasn't really a new concept. The British army used a version of it in 1775 [and it probably started long before that]. They would yell, "Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!" as they charged forward with their bayonets. The huzzahs were so loud at the Battle of Lexington that the troops could not hear their own officers telling them not to fire; they went berserk and a war was started.
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Look up The Rebel yell, it is strange , high pitched.
Mind you the veterans reproducing it were very old with tremulous voices .
I think many troops yell ,it seems to give them impetus and an “ all in this together “ feeling.
An ordinary man, must have to do something to charge at another with sword or bayonet.
I would be a dithering wreck , just shut my eyes and hope it would all go away!
Cheerio. Viktoria.
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Researching one of my families I discovered that of my great-grandparent and his siblings. There were 10 children of which 9 were boys. Two died before 1860 and one was too young to serve. Of the remaining 6 (including my great-grandfather) each served in a separate Union regiment. Only two came out unscathed; my ggf was one of the lucky ones. One brother was wounded, one was killed in action and two others died from sickness due to the horrible sanitary conditions.
It took the South almost 100 years to fully recover from the American Civil War.
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I watched a documentary today ,about Sherman’s march to Georgia.
Then the burning of Atlanta.
The prison camps were horrendous ,those in the South particularly so.
Many men died from conditions there ,some looked like our men liberated
from Japanese Prisoner of War camps, starvation.
There was an excellent series of eight programmes on TV ,I got the boxed set .
Amazing photographs and accounts handed down.
A fascinating subject , and a few veterans were filmed in the 1930’s,and that famous yell was repeated ,as far as very elderly men could reproduce that sound .
Both you and Erato have something of which to be very proud.
Do you have any artefacts?
Thanks for the information.
Viktoria.
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My GGF served in Company A, 17th Volunteer Illinois Regiment.
The only artifacts I have are papers. One looks like a certificate or evidence of his service. The other is a Pay and Clothing Allowance page which proves he was at the Battle of Shiloh. That's the one where General Grant was surprised and retreated on April 6, 1862 but obtained reinforcements the next day and won a great victory.
:)
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I had two gg-uncles in Company G of the 32nd Wisconsin Infantry, two in Company K of the 17th Wisconsin Infantry and two in Company D of the 21st Wisconsin Infantry. Numerous other more distant relatives and in-laws also served in the Union Army mostly in units from Wisconsin, Maine or New York. I have photos of some of them but no physical artifacts.
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Wasn’t Grant supposedly drunk at Shiloh?
Whatever a great victory.Somewhat back and forth over the same ground.
It is a long time since I saw the programmes ,I must watch them again, they are videos, and our player will do that but instructions lost and so will have to wait until son can come in to set it up for me.
Beauregard ,I seem to remember was rather ineffectual, but my memory may be amiss there.
I ought not to say that until I am sure .
The names are so biblical, Shiloh,Manasseh .
How poignant it must have been that the surrender was in the same farmhouse as the declaration of war, can’t remember the name offhand.
Grant on Traveller ,all the Confederate troops patting the horse .
I had a wonderful book ,don’t know what happened to it, written from the
horse’s viewpoint, really informative and a really good read ,probably lent it !
Well thank you both , what an honour to have those connections , thanks for sharing.
Look up the song Lorena, it was much loved by both sides and indeed was banned by one as it really depressed the troops .
Longing for home and wives and sweethearts.
Cheerio, thanks again .
Viktoria.