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I don't understand how the question in the body of the OP's post relates to the question in the title. The personal anecdotes posted by others after don't answer either. I'm sure a historical demographer could do a much better job of providing actual data on them.
most of the elder members of the Hatfield and McCoy clans of feud fame who served in the wat did so as Confederate regulars or as members of a Confederate guerilla group.... Meanwhile Gen. Winfield Scott who commanded the US Army at the start of the war was from Virginia.
Yes, Gen. Winfield Scott and Gen. George Thomas were both Union generals who grew up in southern Virginia. Virginia finally relented and honored Scott's birthplace with a marker, a few years ago. Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson was from Clarksburg, WV quite far north. And assassin John W. Booth was from Bel Air, MD, quite far north. I understand that old man Hatfield from WV was Confederate, while the McCoys from KY were Unionists and this was one reason for the feud (although it was precipitated by one of the members stealing the other's pig, and hostilities were further aggravated by an intra-clan romance/abduction).
Excluding those whose ancestors immigrated since then, of course. Many Yankees with Confederate ancestors or vice versa?
Not sure if I can be classified as a "Yankee" since I'm from the Southwest but yes, I had ancestors in the Civil War. Different lines lived in NC, TN and KY. The ones in NC were mostly Confederates, the ones in TN were on both sides and in KY they were Union. KY was a border state so there were plenty of people who were related and fought on opposite sides as well.
Similarly most of the elder members of the Hatfield and McCoy clans of feud fame who served in the wat did so as Confederate regulars or as members of a Confederate guerilla group (called the Logan Wildcats if I remember correctly) even though they were from the northern states of Kentucky and West Virginia.
Do you have any information on Confederate fighters from the northern states of Ohio and Pennsylvania?
The only members of my family that I have found in the Civil War (from the northern state of West Virginia) were Confederate and in the 16th VA Cavalry. They saved Lynchburg, VA, from being burned by Federal troops, and in retalition also burned Chambersburg, PA, in 1864, under Gen. "Tiger" John McCausland (also from the northern state of West Virginia) and they were also at Gettysburg, where there were 3 times as many West Virginians in gray than blue, though no one is really aware of this. My 3x great-grandfather from Patrick Co, VA, was in the 42nd VA.
I don't know that "most Americans" have tried to find Civil War ancestors. My mothers' grandfather served in the IL Cavalry. Two of my father's great uncles served in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The mother of my g.g grandfather's wife married three CW soldiers,had children by two - one of which was my gg.grandfather's wife. Then she narried her son-in-law's uncle who was one of the OVI soldiers previously mentioned - and became an aunt (by marriage) to her own daughter. .
We have been able to trace my line and my husbands line back to the 1600's. During the Civil War, we both had ancestors that served. All served for the North. My husbands line from AR served in the North, they were in a unit from Missouri. The records we found listed many of his ancestors relatives, which was pretty neat. My line served in units out of NY and a few other Northern states. After the Civil War, all of them moved west.
I understand that old man Hatfield from WV was Confederate, while the McCoys from KY were Unionists and this was one reason for the feud (although it was precipitated by one of the members stealing the other's pig, and hostilities were further aggravated by an intra-clan romance/abduction).
In order to avoid derailing this too much (since apparently that's frowned upon here) I'll only make one other post on this in this topic. The following information comes from the book Feud (by Waller if I remember correctly). There was indeed a member of the extended McCoy family who was executed by the Logan Wildcats for being a Union collaborator (which he almost certainly was), and local legend holds that Devil Anse Hatfield (patriarch of the Hatfields in the feud), his brother, and some other Hatfield were the ones who did it (at this point its interesting to note Devil Anse and some family members had volunteered as regulars in the Confederate Army early in the war but deserted early in the war as well). However, there were also members of the McCoy family who were part of the Logan Wildcats. Fast forward a bit.
Devil Anse Hatfield was the only one of his father's sons to be left no land, but he had done fairly well for himself with his logging/landowning business. He was fairly wealthy by local standards. Ol Ranel McCoy (McCoy patriarch of the time) had been about average as far as wealth goes but due to his own laziness had ended up fairly poor (this if I remember correctly is taken from his wife's testimony during a court proceeding). He as well as several other members of the community resented Devil Anse who was not only wealthy, but also had no problems bringing civil cases against people to try to take land from them that he wanted. One such person was a boy whose father was killed in the Civil War fighting for the Union and was taken in by former Union officer in the nearest town in Kentucky. Keep in mind that the community the feud took place in crossed the Kentucky and West Virginia state line, but as it was a very rural area no one really paid much attention. In any even Ol' Ranel was continually agitating against Devil Anse and some of his family. At a political rally attended by most of the community three McCoy family members attacked Devil Anse's brother. He was quite a large man, and he probably only lost the fight because they stabbed and shot him while he fighting barehanded. He survived for a few hours or days before dying of his wounds. In this time Devil Anse gathered up an extralegal posse to apprehend the men. This was no problem as pretty much everyone in the community had seen the fight and knew where to look for the men. Ol' Ranel's wife came to Devil Anse to plead for mercy as one or two of them were her sons. He agreed to let them stand trial if his brother lived, but he said if his brother died he'd have to kill them. His brother did die, and so Devil Anse had his group shoot the men to death in Kentucky. They then all went home to West Virginia. For five years nothing more happened in the feud as everyone pretty much agreed justice had been done. However, at this time the orphaned boy mentioned earlier had grown up and become a lawyer. He wanted the land that he felt Devil Anse had stolen from him in court as child back. He managed to contact the governor of Kentucky and point out that men who had openly murdered three people in Kentucky were walking around free as a bird in West Virginia. Law enforcement from Kentucky conducted a raid without West Virginia's consent into West Virginia to apprehend the men. The West Virginia state government took a rather poor view of this, and they began authorizing law enforcement to do the same thing in Kentucky. At this point quite a lot of men in the community were wanted by one state or the other, and big city detectives hoping to claim the bounties on them came in to hunt them down. At the same time the "feuders" began siding up with one side or the other as Ol' Ranel saw it as his chance to finally get Devil Anse while everyone needed protection from the other side and the outside PIs and law enforcement. It's interesting to point out that several people who were McCoys or members of associated families were employed in Devil Anse's logging business at this time and sided with the Hatfields either out of loyalty to their boss or general disgust over Ol' Ranel's behavior.
In any event the media of the day even in Kentucky and West Virginia portrayed the whole thing as a bunch of inbred barefoot hillbillies fighting over the Civil War (tertiarily related) or forbidden love (although there was one marriage between the families it happened several years before the main feud, and no one really seems to have cared at the time), and this is the story that comes down to us today. In reality most of the fighting in the feud only started when people from outside the community came in trying to arrest everyone, and the main issue was that Devil Anse seems to have been a fairly hardnosed businessman who may have acquired a good bit of land in an underhanded fashion making many enemies in the process.
My dad's side of the family fought for the North. (Ohio.) The farm my dad grew up on was a stop on the Underground Railroad. There is a large oral tradition of family stories from that period and I grew up on those stories.
One of my dad's g-grandfathers marched into battle carrying the drummer boy up on his shoulder. In his other hand he held his Bible which he thrust out before him as he walked. It is in German and I have it today. My father, a solder himself, could not tell his story without getting tears in his eyes.
The story that gets the most laughs is of one particular g-uncle who started out the war fighting for the North. As the war ended he switched sides and fought for the Confederacy. He always claimed that he felt sorry for someone who was loosing. But one of my grandmothers, who remembered him, said he was just so ornery and cantankerous that he simply wanted to keep a good fight going.
We have a nice collection of items from family members in that era. My grandmother would talk about the war like it was recent history. She was born less then 40 years after it ended.
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I have an ancestor who arrived in Andover, MA. in 1640. My great-great grandfather served in the 9th Ill. Cavalry Co. I. The record says that he was the youngest man in the troop.
Probably not. I know a lot of people who don't even know the maiden names of their grandmothers or where they came from. Increasingly, many people have never known who their father was.
"Most people" encompasses a pretty intellectually-lethargic mass of humanity.
As for me, I have an ancestor who came to American about 1725, and would almost certainly have been on a first-name basis with his neighbor and social equal, George Washington, although there is no record to that effect.
But two of my grandparents, I'm not even sure of the original spelling of their names.
I have no ancestors who fought in the civil war, however my dad had an "uncle" who did, probably a great uncle. For the North, out of Missouri.
Last edited by jtur88; 07-18-2010 at 04:26 PM..
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