One hundred and fifty years ago today, a great man, Abraham Lincoln, delivered an eloquent speech, honoring those who fought valiantly at the Battle of Gettysburg:
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate⎯we can not consecrate⎯we can not hallow⎯this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us⎯that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion⎯that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain⎯that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom⎯and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Today, I pay homage to my (known) direct ancestors who fought in the Civil War.
William Ferguson Taylor, 3rd great-grandfather, paternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 13th Regiment, Maryland Infantry, Company A), border state
Henry Conrad Trone, 3rd great-grandfather, paternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 12th Regiment, Maryland Infantry, Company B), border state
Mathias Noel, 3rd great-grandfather, paternal mother’s line, (Union, Private, 165th Regiment, Pennsylvania, Company G)
Levi Roark Campbell, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 42nd Regiment, Enrolled Missouri Militia), border state
John K. Watts, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 13th Regiment Missouri State Militia Calvary, Company E and 5th Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry), border state
Rumsey Shuler Watts, 4th great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 13th Regiment Missouri State Militia Calvary, Company E and 5th Regiment, Missouri State Militia Cavalry), border state
Charles E. Stark, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Captain, 5th Regiment, Missouri Infantry, Company G and 1st Lieutenant and Quartermaster, 3rd Missouri Infantry), border state
Josiah Marriner, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal mother’s line, (Union, Private, 3rd West Virginia Calvary, Company K), border state (fought for West Virginia, although he was from New Jersey)
I also pay homage husband’s (known) direct ancestors who fought in the War Between the States:
George J. Spangler, 2nd great-grandfather, paternal mother’s line, (Confederate, 36th Virginia Infantry, 2nd Kanawha Infantry)
Charles D. Spangler, 3rd great-grandfather, paternal mother’s line, (Confederate, Private, 11th Battalion, Virginia Reserves, Company B; 2nd Virginia Calvary, Company C)
Charles T. Kenney, 3rd great-grandfather, paternal mother’s line, (Confederate, Virginia, Averett’s Battalion, Reserves; Burks’ Regiment, Local Defense; Carroll County Militia)
Irwin/Irvin Robinson, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 105th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, Company F)
David Byron Bush, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 11th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, Company E)
Samuel D. Roush, 3rd great-grandfather, maternal father’s line, (Union, Private, 62nd Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry, Company M)
