Monthly Archives: October 2011

Charley

The Army of the Potomac Paraded Down Pennsylvania Avenue
at the end of the Civil War. May 23, 1865. Library of Congress

What happened to our fearless Charley Ulmer after the Civil War?

First thing of course was to go back home to Maine and spend time with his family. But Charley did not rest on his laurels and fade into obscurity, he had the big dreams of a man who had cheated death and lived to tell the tale.

Back in 1858 at fifteen, Charley had published the Bunker Hill Grammar School paper which he called “The Charlestown Newsboy”. With money he earned on the farm he bought the best printing equipment he could afford and spent his free time teaching himself printing methods. He most likely learned a lot from his father who may have been a newspaper man himself.

Charley took his newspaper prowess with him to war. He brought part of his printing equipment with him, using it to print orders for his regiment and cards for his fellow soldiers to send home. Now that the War which had consumed his life for 3 years was over, he was free to pursue his passion for printing.

He also pursued a young woman who he had fallen for under unusual circumstances. As his brother George explained in his memoirs:

During the war,our soldiers would often receive little useful articles, such as stockings, shirts, etc., made by the ladies who formed themselves into societies all over the country and furnished these things for distribution among the soldiers at the front. The young ladies had a great craze at that time of marking their names or initials upon whatever they made. One day my brother received a pair of hand-knit stockings with a little tag sewed on each of them, and written on the tags the letters L. A. D., Islesboro, Maine. They were so acceptable at the time that he declared that if he lived to get out of the army, he would be “gorramed” if he didn’t find the girl that built those stockings, and kiss her for them. He began writing to Islesboro, making inquiries, and received several letters signed “Tab.” He was determined not to give it up, however, and when mustered out, the first thing he did, was to go to Islesboro, Maine, to find “Tab.” He found her, she was a schoolma’m, and soon after married her, and they are now living way out in Port Angeles in the State of Washington happy as bugs in a rug, and every meal time you can find several little “Tabs” around the table, some large enough to tell the story of how Pa found Ma, and a great desire to try the same thing themselves. 

The woman was named Laura and she and Charley were married in 1868. By all accounts the marriage was a happy and busy one, they had 5 sons and 2 daughters!

Next Up: What next for George?

Homeward Bound

National Parks service photo of a factory in Lowell,MA.

Unlike the lucky Ulmer brothers, so many other brothers did not return home. The list is extensive however I felt the need to include a few examples of those courageous men who died together on the battlefields:

Confederate soldiers and brothers Moses J. Hoge and A. Whitlock Hoge ages 21 and 29 were killed on the same night at the bloody Battle of Cloyd’s Farm  on May 9,1864.

A private cemetery in Taylor Co, Ga. shows 3 of 4 Carson brothers, all Confederate soldiers who were killed in battle or died of their wounds leaving the 4th brother to return home alone.

Brothers Edwin and Henry Lee from the 11th Connecticut Infantry were both killed in the War, Henry leaving behind a wife and four children.

Also from Connecticut, the three Wadman brothers died in battle in Virginia in the summer of 1864. Brothers Alvin and George Flint and their father Alvin Sr. also perished at this time.

The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865. Civil War experts estimate the loss of lives at between 620,000-700,000. The Eighth Maine Volunteer infantry Regiment lost 381 men, 247 of which died from disease. With a population of 31,443,000 people in 1860, this means that close to 2% of the population was killed in the Civil War. Compare that number with today’s War on Terror where around 5,500 have been killed, with our current population of 294,043,000: this translates to  less than .oo2%. The Civil War was responsible for more deaths per population than ANY OTHER WAR in U.S. history. The sheer number of families who lost their beloved sons, husbands and fathers is mind boggling.

The anguish back home resonated for years as widows struggled to somehow manage life without their men. Poverty became a reality and many women left the farms desperate to provide for their families by working in factories in big cities. It was the rise of the Industrial Revolution. In 1870, only two American cities held populations of more than 500,000 but only 30 years later by 1900, there were six, and  New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia each had over one million inhabitants. Soon, approximately 40% of Americans lived in cities and the number was climbing.

The entire country was shifting and changing. There was excitement and hope. Railroads were expanding travel all the way to California and our unscathed Ulmer boys were ready to take on the world. Please continue to follow this lively family as they traverse the U.S., triumph on the stage, become playwrights and newspaper magnates and live life to it’s fullest.

Next Up: Charley’s Bride