My mother’s great-grandfather, George C. Spiegel, was a German-born seegarmaker who joined the US army in October 1862 as a private in Company E of the 58th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment (XI Corps). He was 23 years old at the time. The 58th was known as the “Polish Legion” and also the “International Regiment.” I sent the following prompt to Gemini and asked it … Continue reading George C. Spiegel – Seegarmaker and Soldier
I have an ancestor who was at the Battle of Stones River. His name was Frank Gaume and he was with Co. I of the 19th Ohio Volunteer Infantry under the command of Major Manderson . With this information is it possible to place his whereabouts during the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee on Dec 31, 1862 to Jan 3, 1863? Yes, it is … Continue reading Frank Gaume & the Battle of Stones River
A few years ago, my brother Patrick, while on a business trip to Atlanta, paid a visit to our great-grandfather’s hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and there he bought me a book titled “A Short History of Cobb County in Georgia” by Sarah Temple. Several chapters of the book are devoted to the details of what occurred in Cobb County in the spring and early summer … Continue reading Marietta July 1864
I have written about my great-grandfather’s family and their experiences at the tail end of the Civil War in a number of blog posts on this site. In the construction of the book, Gathering More Leaves, those blog posts became the foundation of a chapter that detailed the events experienced by my great-great grandparents in the final year of that horrible war. While reviewing the … Continue reading A Problem Timeline
Here is another question for ChatGPT Also in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind there is a scene where Rhett Butler refers to the Georgia State Guards as Joe Brown’s Pets. What was that all about? The reason why I asked this question is because my great great grandfather David Judson Dobbs was in the Georgia State Guards during the time depicted in the novel … Continue reading Joe Brown’s Pets
I sometimes use ChatGPT as a tool to aid my understanding of various topics encountered during my family history research. Below is an illustration of this practice. One item that I came across a few weeks ago intrigued me to the point where I could not get it out of my mind. It is an notice that I came across published on more than one … Continue reading The historical kernel behind the “$300 tax on Tara”
For years, I’ve been trying to unravel the mystery surrounding my mother’s great-grandfather’s civil rights status at the close of the Civil War. I believed I had finally solved it: Was he among the thousands denied property and civil rights due to specific criteria? These categories included former Confederate civil and military officers above a certain rank, individuals who had abandoned U.S. government or military … Continue reading Reconstruction Recall
The Civil War era saw a significant but overlooked resistance against conscription, particularly among fathers determined to protect their sons from battle. This struggle, deeply rooted in love and familial bonds, played out in areas like Holmes County, Ohio, where groups protested the draft, leading to armed conflicts and legal consequences. Continue reading Resistance Runs in the Family
Gathering Leaves 