Any Living descendents of CW Veterans??

[tompritchett]

Two colleagues and I were talking about Winter/Spring marriages and the subject of last of the CW widows dieing in recent years. These of course were teenager girls who, during the Great Depression, had married old CW veterans in order to qualify for CW veteran pensions. If I remember correctly, the last few of those widows had actually borne children from such unions. Therefore, that led to the question of whether there were still any children from such union still living. Can you imagine at this late date being able to claim that your father fought in the CW.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

I am not up-to-date, but as of September 2007, there were three (3) dependents of CW veterans still drawing "VA benefits" accordiing to the VA.

A friend's grandmother was a spring/winter bride of a CS veteran from KY. They had one child. He died in 1936, willing that she could keep the estate as long as she did not remarry. She died a widower, at age 100 in 1998.

(I lost track whe we lost the fight to keep an art group from evicting the last of the Confederate dependents from the Richmond womens' home in the late 1980's).

CHS

[mladair]

Check with the National SUVCW. I know there are still a few "True Sons" within our ranks. If I recall correctly, we even had one at the National Encampment last summer in Missouri.

Matt Adair

[Spinster]

One of our local UDC groups has two 'True Daughters' in its membership.

A few years back, for one of their programs, I 'got dressed', giving the ladies the opportunity to see all the layers, petticoats, cage hoop and the like.

One of the True Daughters giggled at my 'open drawers' . She related that the largest 'discussion' she had with her father during her teen years was when she and her sister switched from open drawers to more modern 'step-ins' (at the time, a garmet not unlike a man's boxer short, except with no fly, and an elastic waist). Her father was convinced that both girls were destined for Perdition, as they were wearing an immodest garment.

[paul hadley]

Howdy, friend Tom,

This is a fairly complete list of widows and children of federal soldiers and sailors: http://suvcw.org/kids/cwkids.htm

I was at the funeral last spring of one of the last two known Real Daughters of Union Veterans living in Nebraska. My mother (now 82) remembers that as a child she met uncles who had served in Ohio regiments.

Happy Memorial Day.
Paul

[paul hadley]

Originally Posted by mladair

Check with the National SUVCW. I know there are still a few "True Sons" within our ranks. If I recall correctly, we even had one at the National Encampment last summer in Missouri.

Matt Adair

Brother Matt -- you are correct. I have only been to four Encampments, but there have been Real Sons at each of them. Certainly a treat to meet them -- I hope everyone takes the opportunity when it presents itself.

Once they've all passed, we'll be another generation removed from our period of interest.

In FCL,
Paul

[ElijahsGrtGranddaughter]

How does one know if there is a REAL SON or TRUE DAUGHTER at one of the events?

While I am a direct inline(3) descendent, I don't have any realatives alive that would remember the War at all.

Where do I begin looking, I'd love to get a first hand account, especially from a TRUE Daughter.

Kind Regards,

Kerri

[Spinster]

Your best resource would be to write the UDC headquarters and request such accounts.

Realize though, that those gathered in the last century are rarely wartime accounts--those who lived late into the 20th century were young girls with very aged fathers, who may or may not have been an active force in their upbringing.

Here's an example.--while not a True Daughter, the timeline is correct. My grandmother was born in 1898. She was orphaned at age two, and raised by her maternal grandfather,a Confederate veteran. He was past 70 when he took the child to raise. His health was frail, his pension only about 25% of his Unionist neighbor. My grandmother's memory was not of battle, bravery, or adventure, but of grinding poverty as a child and an old man attempted to keep body and soul together in the Southern Highlands. She carried that deep bitterness about who got a pension and how much to her grave--and there was no reasoning with her as to why such an inequity existed.

After his death, at age 12 she went to another household--that of a woman who was not blood kin, but kind and industrious. In a letter of the time, Julia writes "Sarah is more valuable to me than any hired servant. She works like a woman, side by side with me, and takes every step that I take".

That relationship remained strong throughout their lifetimes, and I was good sized before I understood that Julia was not my great grandmother. Shame, too--she had gorgeous red curly hair into her 90's.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

"Shame, too--she had gorgeous red curly hair into her 90's."

Yes, they, we, seem to be getting harder and harder to find.

CHS