Tag Archives: appomattox

The Challenge

Finding all the pieces of this jigsaw puzzle to create the picture of a woman who lived so long ago can be a challenging and yes, frustrating venture.

Lizzie May Ulmer lived over 150 years ago. Based on reviews of her work, she was a very good actress however she was never to make such a mark on the stage as to be recognizable to today’s theatre buff. Perhaps that is why I write about her. Lizzie May lived a life that we can only imagine. She lived through the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution and the advance of the railroad. She lived through a change in this country the likes of which we will most likely never see again. Strong-willed, she chose an  unusual path for a woman of the time. By choosing a career on the stage she took control of her life in the only way that a woman of the late 1800’s could. Actresses traveled, handled their accounts and lived with more freedoms than most women of the Age. That alone speaks volumes about the type of woman that Lizzie May was.

When we last left Lizzie May and her husband  George they had survived one of the worst fires in Canadian history , literally escaping with the clothes on their backs. They headed back to Boston to recover and decide on their future.

Please join me as I continue on my quest to remember a woman who lived a life well lived.

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

War is Over

There was no decisive battle, no grand gesture that suddenly ended the Civil War. The beginning of the end began in late 1864 when Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman created a strategy of War intended to destroy the spirit of the South. Called the March to the Sea, union battalions swept through the south, destroying Atlanta and Columbia, terrorizing innocent civilians in their wake. Public buildings were looted and burnt. Private homes were not exempt from  the destruction. Think Tara in Gone With the Wind, which the author Margaret Mitchell based on local plantations in Jonesborough,Ga.

After the South’s huge losses during Grant’s Overland Campaign through Virginia, the Confederate Army barely had enough men left to fight. Food and money were in scarce supply and starving and disgusted Confederate soldiers tired of being marched to their deaths soon began deserting in massive numbers.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army  to General Ulysses S. Grant at the McLean House in Appomattox Court House, Virginia. 

On June 30,1865 after more than 660 days as a Union soldier and just 16, a young but world weary George T. Ulmer  was honorably discharged from the Union Army. Happily, his brother Charley now 21, was discharged after being promoted to Full 2nd Lieutenant. Both brothers served their country bravely, with honor and even humor. There are so many heart breaking Civil War stories of brothers dying side by side on the battlefield. It is with a sigh of relief that I can report that George and Charley were able to finally go home to their quiet corner in Maine.

Next Up: Going Home