Posted on 11/13/2014 5:52:24 AM PST by Gamecock
How many people alive today can say that their father was a Civil War soldier who shook hands with Abraham Lincoln in the White House? Fred Upham can.
Despite sounding like a tall tale and a mathematical impossibility, it's documented truth. Fred's father, William, was a private in the Union Army's Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He was severely wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run, in 1861, and later personally appointed by President Lincoln to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
Fred's in exclusive company—the dwindling group of children of soldiers who fought, North against South, 150 years ago.
All are very old "children" (Fred, 93, is not the oldest among them), born mostly in the 1910s and 1920s to Civil War veterans and young brides. The fathers, typically on second marriages, were in their 70s or 80s when these children were born.
Fewer than 35 of these remarkable offspring are now on the rolls of heritage groups that keep track of them. They're referred to as "real" sons and daughters and are given a place of honor at the ongoing events commemorating the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. (See "A Sketch in Time: Bringing the Civil War to Life," in National Geographic magazine.)
"A Treasure"
"They're a true link to another part of this country's history," says Gail Lowman Crosby, president of the real daughter club for the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). "Whether Confederate or Union, they're a treasure. The stories they tell today are the stories they heard as they sat on their daddy's knee."
Iris Lee Gay Jordan is one of only 11 surviving daughters of Southern soldiers documented by the UDC. She was nine when her father, Lewis F. Gay, died, in October 1931. Her eyes still well up with tears as she remembers him.
"Mostly, he told stories on Sundays," she says. "I could sit on the porch and listen to his stories all day." Corporal Gay had been in the Confederate Army's Fourth Florida Volunteer Infantry. He saw combat in numerous bloody battles across the South: in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. He was reportedly one of only 23 soldiers left in the Fourth Florida by war's end.
Iris's and Fred's fathers were lucky. After being captured in separate battles in 1861 and put in prisoner of war camps—William Upham was sent south to Libby Prison, in Richmond, Virginia, and Lewis Gay north to Fort Delaware, near Wilmington—both were released the next year in a prisoner exchange that swapped Union soldiers for Confederates.
Their treatment as prisoners, they both said, was humane at this early stage in the war—in contrast to the horrors that happened later on in notorious places like Andersonville, in southwest Georgia.
"Prisoners were exchanged only sporadically for part of the war," says Derek Mills, educator at the National Civil War Museum, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. "Those who were exchanged early on were very lucky. As the war dragged on, exchanges broke down and didn't happen much again until the war was nearly over."
Iris and Fred say their fathers held no animosity toward their captors. "My father said that the men in the North were just like he was," Iris says. "He told us, 'We were all far away from home, and we all would much rather have been home with our families.' There was no bitterness on his part at all."
Allegiance Lives On
Clifford Hamm—whose father, John, fought for the South, serving in the 71st Regiment, North Carolina Troops—recalls, "My seventh- and eighth-grade teacher, Mrs. Little, taught about the war from the Southern point of view. To her, it was the war of Northern aggression—not the Civil War, because there was nothing civil about it."
Clifford, who followed in his father's warrior footsteps as a U.S. Marine in World War II, says he still thinks of the War Between the States the way Mrs. Little did.
"My father would never acknowledge the South was defeated," he says. "He used the word 'overcome.'"
Extraordinary even among this exclusive group of Civil War children are four surviving siblings from the same family: Charles Parker Pool's sons, John, Garland, and William, and his daughter, Florence Wilson. Their father served in the Union's Sixth West Virginia Infantry.
"My father didn't like to talk much about the war," Garland says. "He did say the main reason he wanted to fight was that he didn't want to see the nation divided, and because he was against slavery."
William remembers the story of his father's company capturing a Confederate soldier who had a slave as his personal attendant throughout the war. The slave, freed when his master was taken prisoner, had asked Pool's company commander for his gun. "The slave clubbed the Rebel with it and stood over him saying, 'The bottom rail is now on top.' "
Whether Northern or Southern, these Civil War sons and daughters shared a collective experience as they grew up: In school, when they proudly told how their fathers had fought in the Civil War, teachers and classmates scoffed, saying it couldn't be true. "There's been a lot of sideways glances over the years," Fred says with a chuckle.
"They told me," says Hazel Jeter, daughter of Silas D. Mason of the First Maine Cavalry, " 'It must have been your grandfather or your great-grandfather.' They thought I was lying and looked at me like I was crazy."
Probably nothing could compare to the incredulous looks young Fred Upham received when he said his father shook hands with Abraham Lincoln.
Then way the Dollar is going, that Confederate Money COULD came in handy soon......
Conditions were rough for the average Civil War soldier. For example, I'm reading about the siege of Chattanooga right now (which happened just after Chickamaugua). Those soldiers were very hungry. Food and supplies was down to a trickle. Many soldiers had to resort to picking corn kernels out of animal feces and mud on the road.
As many or more soldiers died from disease, starvation and filth than fighting in the war itself. Just incredible to imagine what they had gone through - both North and South.
Take it easy. I haven’t had breakfast yet.
“William remembers the story of his father’s company capturing a Confederate soldier who had a slave as his personal attendant throughout the war. The slave, freed when his master was taken prisoner, had asked Pool’s company commander for his gun. “The slave clubbed the Rebel with it and stood over him saying, ‘The bottom rail is now on top.’ “
My great-grandfather took two slaves with him to Virginia in 1863 as personal and equine attendants. (He was in the cavalry.) After Johnston’s surrender near Durham, NC in 1865, he and the two (now free) slaves walked back to South Carolina. The slaves lived and worked with him on a rice farm for 40 years after the war.
“I don’t remember eating corn”
My great grandfather served. I have his Springfield hanging over the fireplace next to a framed key of Libby prison. (which he hand framed) My mother said he used to tell tall tales of the war to her and her sisters and my great uncle took the time to write them all down. They are quite a hoot to read today, obviously embellished but based in truth.
Thanks Gamecock.
A living history: Grandson of 10th US president John Tyler speaks to DAR
Saturday, November 9, 2013
http://www.stategazette.com/story/2022587.html
(Photo)
Lyon Tyler Jr. and his daughter, Susan Tyler, speak to members of the Key Corner Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at McIver’s Grant Public Library on Monday, Oct. 28. Tyler is the grandson of the late John Tyler, the 10th president of the United States. He shared a presentation on his grandfather - and the unusual circumstances that allow three generations of the Tyler family to span over 223 years.
[Click to enlarge]
Members of the Key Corner Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution offered Dyer County residents a peek at living history on Monday, Oct. 28.
The grandson of the 10th president of the United States provided a personal link to the early history of America that, often, can only be read about in textbooks and century-old biographies.
The 89-year-old Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. is the grandson of President John Tyler. Tyler served as president from 1841-1845. Both President Tyler and his son, Lyon Gardiner Sr., were widowers who remarried and fathered children late in life. As a result, three generations of the Tyler family now span 223 years — and counting.
President Tyler, born in 1790, fathered Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853, at the age of 63. Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. was born in 1924, when his father was 71 years old. His younger brother, Ruffin Tyler, was born four years later. Both sons are still alive today.
Lyon Tyler Jr. and his daughter, Susan, met with members of the DAR and local residents in the community room at McIver’s Grant Public Library at the regular October meeting of the local DAR chapter. Tyler gave a presentation on the life and presidency of his grandfather — and the unique family history that has landed the family in both the history books and in Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
In addition to Tyler’s presentation, Susan Tyler offered her own memories of growing up in the Tyler family, including beloved family stories and anecdotes of her father’s unique experiences.
The president’s father and early America
(Photo)
Dyer County Mayor Richard Hill and Dyersburg Mayor John Holden present Lyon Tyler Jr. with a proclamation and a Key to the City as his daughter, Susan Tyler looks on.
[Click to enlarge]
“I heard too much about presidents growing up,” said Tyler, who said even as a young boy he shunned the idea of following in his grandfather’s footsteps. “In college, a buddy of mine brought me down to earth by saying, ‘Tyler, the best part of your family is underground.’ I had to agree.”
Tyler provided a detailed history on his grandfather’s political career and personal life. Also descendants of Pocahontas, names and events brought up in Tyler family anecdotes include the famous Indian girl, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy Jr., FDR, the American Revolution, the annexation of Texas and the Civil War.
Tyler began his presentation with a little information on his great-grandfather, the father of the president.
“John Tyler’s father, also named John, was Thomas Jefferson’s roommate at the College of William and Mary,” said Tyler. “Jefferson and John Tyler Sr. shared the same political views, played their fiddles together in college and remained lifelong friends. John Tyler Sr. was speaker of the House of Burgesses and he and Patrick Henry organized a militia company just prior to the American Revolution. (Tyler) Sr. served in the Virginia legislature, where he made the motion that eventually led to the United States Constitutional Convention.”
The president’s father also served as judge of the Admiralty Court, the General Court, the Supreme Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court.
The president’s early years
When Tyler’s presentation turned to President John Tyler, the list was just as impressive.
“John Tyler entered the College of William and Mary at age 13 and graduated soon after his 17th birthday,” said Tyler. “He gave the valedictory address, remarkably, about the importance of women’s rights — especially in the field of education. ... Before I attempt to discuss Tyler’s presidency, let me say a few words about his previous career and some things that can show us the kind of man he was.”
Tyler said, above all, his grandfather was an honest man who cared for his family.
“It was always his children who were his primary concern,” said Tyler. “In his letters to his many sons and daughters, the need for honesty is a regular refrain. For example, this letter to his son, John Jr., back in 1832: ‘Truth should always be uttered no matter what the consequences. Nothing so degrades a man as equivocation and deceit. When I am in company with a double-dealing man — one who has one language on his tongue and another in his heart — I am involuntarily made to avoid him as I would a poisonous reptile.’”
Tyler said President Tyler was known as “Honest John” and commended for this trait in John F. Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning book published in 1957.
“The Whig campaign of 1840 was the first modern campaign with all the trimmings: buttons and banners, songs and slogans,” said Tyler.
President Tyler and his running mate, President William Henry Harrison, grew up just 10 miles apart in the same Virginia county. The two were related through Tyler’s mother. Harrison was former governor of the Indiana Territory and victor over the Indians in the Battle of Tippecanoe and the British in Canada in the War of 1812. The Harrison/Tyler campaign slogan was “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too!”
A salute to granddad
Susan Tyler reported that in his college days at William and Mary, her father partnered with a distant cousin and descendant of Harrison to run as president and vice president of their class. The duo ran under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Two.”
Susan Tyler shared a much-loved family story about her father’s first experience with public speaking during that college campaign.
“He was standing in front of the student body and he couldn’t find his speech,” said Susan Tyler. “He was terrified. He finally said, ‘To hell with this!’ and ran off the stage.”
In spite of his faux pas, Susan Tyler said her father’s ‘vice-presidential’ campaign went well.
An ‘accidental president’
Lyon Tyler Jr. said his grandfather’s presidential campaign was also a success, appealing to residents on both sides of issues facing the nation at that time.
“The Whig slogan ‘Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too’ really meant ‘We’ll give you Harrison, a war hero,’” said Tyler. “’He’s for a strong national government, roads and canals, a national bank and a high tariff, but if you don’t like that; we’ll give you Tyler. He’s for states’ rights and against all that other stuff.’ The Whigs won easily and Harrison became president. But Harrison had already given away the store. He had agreed to be a one-term president and to have just one vote in the Cabinet, which was to be hand-picked by Henry Clay.”
Harrison died from pneumonia just one month after the election, making Tyler the first vice president to rise to the position of president.
“Nobody, including John Tyler, expected that he’d become president,” said Tyler. “The Whigs in Congress were shocked. They refused to recognize Tyler as the real president since this was the first time a president had died in office. But Tyler believed that according to the Constitution, he was the president and he was determined to be president. He would make the decisions. He would not promise to let Henry Clay run the show. As a matter of fact, when Henry Clay showed up to tell the Accidental President whom to appoint and how to conduct his office, Tyler thundered, ‘You go, Mr. Clay, to your end of the Avenue, where stands the Capitol and there, do your duty as you see fit. And, so help me God, I will do mine at this end of the Avenue as I see fit.’ From then on, Clay had the votes, but Tyler had the vetoes.”
A spiritual heritage
Tyler’s first act as president was to proclaim a national day of fasting and prayer to mourn the death of President Harrison.
These strong Christian values were not only a characteristic of politicians in the early days of America, but a trait Susan Tyler said is strong in the Tyler family, as well.
“(We have a) godly heritage,” said Susan Tyler, turning to her father. “I love to brag on your mom, that she was quite a godly woman. (She) accomplished as much in the spiritual world as (our ancestors) accomplished in this one.”
Susan Tyler recounted several events, where her father’s ‘good luck’ was credited to his mother’s prayers, including several adventures in World War II and a particularly serious car accident here in the United States.
Presidency to slavery
Lyons Tyler Jr. credited his grandfather for following his beliefs and taking the hard road in his presidency.
“If Tyler had gone along with Clay and the Whig majority in Congress, he could have had an easy road and many would have deemed his presidency successful,” said Tyler. “But he refused to take the easy road. He vetoed the bill to re-charter the Bank of the United States and the Whigs read him out of the party. The veto caused his Cabinet to resign, except for Daniel Webster, his secretary of state. Instead, Tyler proposed a banking system with a board in Washington and branches in various parts of the country, a system almost identical to the Federal Reserve System which was subsequently adopted in 1913.”
Lyons Tyler Jr. said his grandfather was unable to do much domestically in his term as president, but his administration has been recognized for his accomplishments in foreign affairs.
Successes in Tyler’s presidency noted in his grandson’s presentation included settling the boundary line between the United States and Canada over halfway across the continent; invoking the Monroe Doctrine to prevent the British and French from taking over the Hawaiian Islands; and sending the first American mission to China, which resulted in an 1814 treaty, profitable trade and granting American citizens in China rights. Tyler also applied the novel use of a joint resolution by both houses of Congress to push through the annexation of Texas at the very end of his administration.
“Tyler’s first major biographer called him a champion of the Old South,” said Tyler. “But I believe that is incorrect. Tyler had troubling doubts about slavery and never saw it as a positive good, though he was a slave owner.”
Tyler introduced a bill to end slave trade in the District of Columbia and served as president of the Virginia Colonization Society, aimed to resettle freed slaves in Liberia. After his presidency, he pleaded with the Virginia legislature to call a meeting of the border states when the Deep South states seceded. He wished to form a bridge between the two sections of the country. But it was too late. On the same date, the ‘Peace Convention’ was held in the Willard Hotel in Washington, representatives of the seven Deep South states met in Montgomery, Ala. to establish the Confederate States of America.
When Virginia seceded, Tyler saw no other course than to continue to serve his state. He was elected to the Confederate Congress, but died suddenly before he could take his seat.
A historical family
Lyon Tyler Jr.’s unique role as the grandson of a president who led the country over 160 years ago comes, first, from President Tyler’s love of children. A widower, Tyler remarried and fathered children late in his life.
Tyler’s first wife, the beautiful Letitia Christian, was an invalid when Tyler became president. She died during his second year in office. His daughter-in-law, Priscilla Cooper Tyler, served as White House hostess with the help of former First Lady Dolley Madison.
The president’s second wife was Julia Gardiner, a 24-year-old debutante who married the president when he was 54. Known as the Rose of Long Island, she returned with Tyler to Virginia after his presidency, adding seven more children to the eight the ex-president had with his first wife. Julia Gardiner Tyler was Lyon Tyler Jr.’s grandmother.
“The ex-president loved children,” said Tyler. “He never tired of them, took them hunting, fishing, riding and boating. On summer evenings he would play the fiddle and sing with (them).”
Being the grandson of a president provided opportunities for several unique experiences, experiences young boys who had endured too many conversations about presidents might find hard to appreciate.
“Dad was able to meet FDR,” said Susan Tyler. “He was about 13 or 14 and his little brother was about 9 or 10. While the boys were waiting with their mother in the chamber, (my uncle said), ‘I don’t want to meet any old president. I want to go to the zoo!’”
After his presentation, Lyons Tyler Jr. was presented a joint proclamation and Key to the City by Dyer County Mayor Richard Hill and Dyersburg Mayor John Holden. The proclamation declared Monday, Oct. 28 as Lyons Tyler Jr. Day in Dyer County.
“We want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” said Susan Tyler at the conclusion of the event. “We have had a wonderful afternoon.”
I knew Bill Upham Jr, and used to have lunch with him at the Milwaukee Yacht club. He was a great guy and his father was also a former Governor of Wisconsin.
I was amazed when he told us his father was a civil war soldier and met Abraham Lincoln.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/53518132.html
Lots of Tony Randalls fighting the Civil War apparently...
My Mom’s Great Uncle Bob served in the Civil War. We have a framed photo of her about age 6 standing next to him. He had a long white beard.
Smith's first wife had died many years before, and they had no children. He married again later in life, and had two daughters. The oldest girl was my friend's mother, and the other girl was his aunt. I never met his mother before she died, but did speak with her on the phone. I did however meet, and correspond with his aunt for several years. She passed away at the age of 104 in November of 2012. Andrew J. Smith received the Medal of Honor for saving the Regimental Colors at the Battle of Honey Hill (S.C.), November 30, 1864. The color bearer had been killed, and Smith rescued the flags and underfire, carried them through the rest of the charge on the Confederate earthwork fort. The Medal was awarded to the remaining daughter by Clinton at a White House ceremony in January of 2001. Teddy Roosevelt received the Medal of Honor during the same ceremony. I've always felt very fortunate to have met and known these people. They are a wonderful family who are extremely proud of their heritage.
You beat me to it. The Tyler’s are one of my favorite parts of US history. Their grandfather could have conceivably met George Washington. Our nation is so young.
Roughly twice as many soldiers died from these causes as from battle deaths and wounds.
The appalling fact is that this proportion was probably the lowest in history to that point.
Medicine was just beginning to get a grip on such things, but it still made enough of a difference to considerably reduce the ratio.
For instance, in the Mexican War the ratio between all deaths and battle deaths wasn't 2:1 or 3:1, it was around 10:1. In the Revolutionary War it was about 3:1.
As of 2011, there were 50 Spanish-American War veterans' widows still alive, and 2,734 WWI veterans' surviving spouses.
FWIW: We hear about young women married off to old men for their Civil War pensions. Did it ever happen the other way around? Young layabouts marrying war widows for their pensions?
I know a woman in her early 40s now who is collecting a pension from a career military guy (officer rank) who was in the service even before WWII started.
It will likely be way beyond 100 years when that pension (plus health care), finally ends.
As to these 80+ year old Civil War vets marrying young girls in the 1910s and and 20s and having kids with them. I know they were "real men" but still... I have to wonder if someone had it in for them. ;~))
Good find. I like to surprise people with the fact that President John Tyler’s grandsons are alive today. Of course that only works when they know something of American history which isn’t much the case anymore.
I thought there was a grandson named Harrison, that’s likely part of Ruffin Tyler’s name.
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