Discovered that while he was gone, a Confederate troop had come thru town, needing more horses, guns & ammo, clothes & shoes, food and other supplies, but only had Confederate Dollars to pay for it all. The townspeople, who were living a hard life as is, said No Thank You. The commanding officer pulled out his gun and said, "Then we'll just take what we need anyway" - and did so.
The townspeople were furious, and being so near the North-South border, it was an easy choice to just flip sides. So my G-G-Gpa basically said, "if my town & family & friends are now pro-Union, then so am I". He then enlisted in the Union Army and fought out the rest of the war.
No photographs in 1812. Did you mean 1912?