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The final journal of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1957 contained this...
In Memoriam "Their spirits live in the hearts of men, Good deeds can never die. the banner fair that they sought to save, Still floats 'neath the evening sky, And the bright North Star o'er their graves shall keep A vigil eternal and sure, A symbol forever of hope that shines, For lives that were brave and pure. " " Taps are sounded, lights are out, The soldiers sleep."
One of my great-grandfathers fought in the 11th Iowa Infantry (Union); a probable great-grandfather fought in the 25th Infantry of North Carolina (Confederate). I recently discovered that the book and its movie Cold Mountain is about a soldier from this infantry. A probable great-great-grandfather may have been in the Thomas Legion of North Carolina or the 29th Regiment of NC; if in the latter, he was fighting on the Confederate side at the battle of Atlanta while my great-grandfather from IA was fighting there on the Union side.
My Iowa great-grandfather went with his family from the Shenandoah Valley to Iowa when he was 7 years old. In the Civil War, family relatives in the Shenandoah Valley fought for the Confederates; some died later of wounds suffered at Gettysburg. The Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley was fought near a farm, one of whose ancestors was also the ancestor of my IA soldier's mother.
All of us whose families (at least part of them)have been in the US since the 1850s probably have ancestors on both sides of the conflict. We had long known of the IA soldier (in my father's family), but we only recently discovered the probable NC soldiers (in my mother's family).
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