Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Civil War Heritage















I grew up listening to a lot of arguing over the Civil War. I'm still not sure who won. My parents were direct descendants of soldiers on both sides. My mother, the Yankee, was born in Mystic Connecticut. My Rebel dad was raised in Richmond Virginia.

The gentleman on the the left is my Great Grandfather, Major Thomas Brander. Major Brander served with the Virginia Volunteers. He took part in nearly all of the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was Commander of the Letcher Artillery Battery during Pickets Charge at Gettysburg.

He died at age 60 in 1900 and held the honorary rank of Major-General, commanding the Virginia Division, United Confederate Veterans.

The soldier on the right is Sgt. Herbert Maxson, the son of my Great Grandfather on my mothers side. He was a member of Company K, 26th Regiment of the Connecticut volunteers. He survived the war but died at the age of 22 of a disease he contracted during the siege of Port Hudson.

His father, William Ellery Maxson owned a shipyard in Mystic. He built Clipper ships and also the second Ironclad, a ship called the Galena.

I have much memorabilia that I will share in future entries.

( Nothing symbolic about position of pictures--can't line them up)

3 comments:

kenju said...

Such fancy names! Why isn't your nickname 'Max?'

Ginnie said...

Fine looking men, Bud. I think it is fascinating to look into our pasts. Thanks for sharing this and I look forward to more of your "pedigree".

OldLady Of The Hills said...

How fascinating that you had relatives who fought on both sides...! That is probably more common than we know, but you are the first person that I have ever met who shared this amazing fact....! (An aside: My brother use to keep his little Runabout Boat in Mystic....! And isn't that where the movie "Mystic Pizza" takes place?)

I look forward to seeing all the Memorabelia, Bud....I have always been very moved by the Civil War and all the Human Interest stories that went along with it---LIKE your relatives being on opposite sides....! And how sad that that one young man died at 22...! How old was he when he fought in the war? And what disease did he pick up...? What a terrible terriblt thing....So very sad. I often try to imagine the battles of the Civil War...right here on our soil....It had to be avery horrific time, in every way.