My Family History

April 2nd – 3rd The Fall of Petersburg After the success at the Five Forks intersection and the capture of thousands of prisoners, the Union troops struck a final blow on Petersburg. At 4:30 a.m. the VI, IX, and XXIV Corps all struck the thinned Rebel lines from directly south and east of Petersburg. After … Read more

The Appomattox Campaign had begun slowly, with both Union and Confederate forces moving west and getting into position for a fight. Then, on March 31, 1865, the two forces met along two main roads for two bloody fights. The Confederates attacked first at White Oak Road, under the direction of General Robert E. Lee. However, … Read more

The morale of General Samuel Crawford’s 3rd Division must have been very high in the last week of March 1865. The division had just been reviewed by their Commander-in-Chief Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, and their commander of The Army of the Potomac, General George Meade. But their opponent, the Army of Northern … Read more

By the time my great grandfather Nelson arrived on the front line south of Petersburg, Virginia in 1865, over 600,000 people had died in the Civil War. Fifteen percent of all Union troops who entered the war would die, mostly from disease. One in thirteen men would lose an arm or a leg. What would … Read more

In January 1865, 19-year-old Nelson Hughes gave up his work on a farm in Williamsburg, Canada, crossed the St. Lawrence River, and joined the New York Volunteers. Little did he know that in the next 4 months he would cross paths with American icons, take part in decisive victories, and celebrate the war’s end with … Read more

My father loved telling stories about our family whenever visitors came for dinner or a card game. Typically, visitors would sit facing two photos of men on the wall, one young and one old. Both lives faced great upheavals, one whose life was fortunate while the other’s was tragic. The portraits of these two are … Read more