So, a little background. I've always been fascinated with my family history. Started in the 70's when "Roots" came out. My Dad was a student of our family history, and he drug us around that summer visiting old family gravesite where I did "grave rubbings" (putting a large sheet of paper over a grave stone and rubbing it with a crayon to get the relief - I still have some of them!). I loved that summer. He had gone back maybe 4 generations. Remember, this was well before the internet.
Fast forward to 2018 or 2019. My wife and kids asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and I asked for the Ancestry.com DNA kit. They got me it, and it roughly confirmed what I already knew. Plus it gave me the basic membership, so I built out the family tree I knew of. You get "hints" for people on your tree, but 19 out of every 20 hints were behind their premium membership firewall.
Then, in 2020 when we were all stuck at home due to the pandemic, I asked for the premium membership. They got me it and the floodgates opened. Each night I try to go through one person's hints. I have traced some lines back 14 generations to the late 1400's!
So tonight I got a hint, a military record, for my 2nd great-grandfather, a veteran of the American Civil War, on the Union side (his father and brother fought for the Confederacy). Looking over the document, it says he "lost a personal horse and equipment" at the battle at "New Market, VA, May 15 1864.
So I looked it up and there is a good amount of information on the battle (won by the Confederates). And then this line caught my attention. It is the only battle in US History where a military school's cadets entered and fought in the battle.
Where have I seen that before? "The Horse Soliders" starring John Wayne and William Holden! I just rewatched this a few months ago!!!
And sure enough, that scene was indeed loosely based on the events at the battle of New Market.
Well, very cool to me!
