Description
Book SynopsisLying dead in Gettysburg in 1863, a solitary Union soldier lacked any standard means of identification. Only a single clue was clutched in his fingers: an ambrotype of his three young children. With this photograph the single clue to his identity, a publicity campaign to locate the soldier's family swept the North. Within a month, his grieving widow and children would be located in Portville, New York. The soldier, a devoted husband and father, was revealed as Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. Using many previously untapped sources, noted historian Mark H. Dunkelman recreates the fascinating story of 19th-century war, sentiment, and popular culture in full detail. The Humiston story touched deep emotions in Civil War America, inspiring a wave of prose, poetry, and song. Amid the outpouring of public sympathy, a charitable drive grew to assist the bereft family. At the end of the war, the crusade was expanded to establish a home in Gettysburg for orphans of deceased soldiers, The Homestead. The first residents of the institution were Amos Humiston's widow Philinda and her three children: Franklin, Alice, and Frederick. In this extensive account, a full portrait emerges of Amos Humiston, the husband and father destined to be remembered for his death tableau, and of his family, the widow and orphans who struggled for the rest of their lives with celebrity born of tragedy. This paperback reprint edition is updated with a new introduction by the author, as well as a foreword by Academy award-winning film director Errol Morris.
Trade Review…a beautiful volume that cannot be missing on the shelves of fans and historians of the American Civil War, a story that will thrill and move even today. * Old Barbed Wire 24/05/2021 *
Table of ContentsForeword by Errol Morris Introduction to the Paperback Edition Introduction Chapter 1: Amos Chapter 2: A Green Hand Sails from New Bedford Chapter 3: Roving the Pacific Chapter 4: Philinda Chapter 5: To the Front Chapter 6: Camp Misery Chapter 7: A Close Call at Chancellorsville Chapter 8: Gettysburg Photo Essay Chapter 9: Whose Father Was He? Chapter 10: A Widow and Her Orphans Chapter 11: Celebrity Chapter 12: The Homestead Chapter 13: A Tarnished Legacy Chapter 14: The Family's Later Years Chapter 15: Amos Humiston Remembered Appendix: Songs Inspired by Amos Humiston Bibliographical Note Index
