What Did You Do in the War Great-Great Grandpa?

After being stuck for a time, I recently located my second great grandfather’s military history records. It was a shocking discovery for this man about whom I know so very little. Suddenly he went from being ordinary shoemaker up near Detroit to having been part of some of the biggest battles of the American Civil War!

Garret Garretson of Brownstown, Wayne, Michigan was part of the 24th Michigan Infantry, organized 15 Aug 1862. They fought with joined the Army of the Potomac at Fredricksburg, Gettysburg (Culps Hill, etching right), Chancellorville, Petersburg... Disease was almost as big a killer among the 2104 men of the 24th Michigan (109) as those killed in battle/died of their wounds (267). In the course of the war, 28 members of the regiment found themselves in Confederate prisons.

The history of the regiment was written by Henry A. Morrow, Col. Twenty-fourth Michigan Volunteers (himself among those who spent time in a Confederate Prison) and Capt. J.D. Wood, Assistant Adjutant-Gen.

I bring this up because I’ve been working on creating richer biographical sketches for my ancestors—something that takes them beyond just being a series of dates and puts them in a temporal and social context that helps me better grasp who they were and how who I am may related to things learned and passed on from some of them.