More Confederates in my blood

[Bill in Oregon]

Just this morning while tracing ancestors I ran across a new-to-me great-great uncle, Matt Marshall Hague, sergeant in the 44th Tennessee Infantry, killed on Oct. 8, 1862, in the fierce fight at Perryville, KY. He was just 19. My great uncle Frank Wood with the First Wisconsin under Starkweather was deep in this fight on the Union side.
And Matt's older brother. James Hague, took a bullet in the left eye that came out his right ear, and he apparently recovered from this with vision issues, as one might imagine! This was at Murfreesboro, where Uncle Frank was fighting under Rosecrans.
My heart is sad knowing my own blood kin faced each other on opposite sides in these two horrible battles, but this is the story of so many Americans.
All we can do today is look back on them and not judge them, but just love them. They are in God's arms. No further harbor required.

[JimT]

Each doing what they felt was right.
I pray we never face that sort of situation again.

[Ysabel Kid]

Each doing what they felt was right.
I pray we never face that sort of situation again.

+1

On one branch, One son left to fight for the union while his father and brother fought for the Confederacy. As Jim said, I am sure both sides thought they were right. I know it wasn't about slavery for either set, as they were first and second generation out of Ireland, so dirt poor canal diggers.

[Bill in Oregon]

The interesting thing I am finding, chasing these ghosts through Find-a-Grave links, is reading about the lives my Confederates led after the war.
Here's an example, a sketch of great-great Uncle James, the one shot in the head, written for his grandson who died at 21 and lies in Mt. Olivet in Forth Worth. (Martha and Jim Pitts are my great-grandparents.) He seems to have been a wonderfully good man. I wonder what he would think of me, having been raised a Campbellite (Disciples of Christ).

HAGUE, James C. - Pvt. K Co. 8th Inf.
Source: Tennesseeans in the Civil War, Part 2, published by the Civil War Centennial Commission, Nashville, TN 1965

Baptized in August 1843 at First Presbyterian Church of Fayetteville, Tennessee.
Source: Lincoln Co., Tennessee Pioneers, Vol. 1, No. 8, Page 136

Your Grandfather, James Calvin (Hague), was born on this place at Mulberry Creek (it was destroyed by the Yankees). He was a twin, but the little sister was dropped by a slave girl and died from the injuries. He has sisters named Carrie who married Mr. Beckett; and Sallie who married Monroe Tucker; Martha who married Jim Pitts; and Joe Kincaid, who has a daughter named Mrs. Lillis Moore who still lives in the house in Monroe County, Tennessee where your daddy and your Aunt Maggie lived. Mrs. Moore is, of course, your dad's own cousin. She would receive mail at Belvedere, Tennessee and the wonderful thing is that this family were Christians.
Your grandfather's brothers were Willie and Matt Marshall (Hague). Matt was killed at age 16-17 at Perryville as he fought in the Civil War. Your grandfather also fought and was wounded at Murphreesboro. A rifle ball struck his left eye, came out the right ear and left him with a squint eye and double vision for a time. During the war he carried a medical kit with instruments and was considered a doctor. He wasn't a superstitious person - and he didn't speak of this episode often, but he believed that he literally died with his battle wound and was carried to a supernatural place, only to have his spirit re-enter his body. He was a Presbyterian.
Before the war he could be seen astride his fine horse, with silver trappings, accompanied by a Negro servant, "Bunk". After the war he taught school - being especially concerned for a nearly blind boy whom he helped considerably. Later your uncle married the sister of this boy. He (James Calvin Hague) married Mary Mahalia (Mollie) Wakefield. She had been raised by an uncle, her family having succumbed to Tuberculosis, with the exception of a brother - John Burr Wakefield.
"Grandpa" Hague [(to you) they were called Ma and Pa by their children] continued to teach school at Kelso, Tennessee, 'til your Aunt Maggie was 16. He then came to Texas hoping to establish a college. Unable to finance it, he brought his family to Hood County and then he taught at Veals's Station near Weatherford and various places in Dallas County.
Your grandfather was small and slender, so in a fight, if he couldn't reach the fellow's face with his fist, he'd butt him in the stomach with his head. One evening after a heavy rain storm he found himself separated from his family by the raging Elk river. The men who were with him spent the night away from home, but Grandpa Hague tied his clothes on his back and swam the river. It has been said he was a man living ahead of his time. He wanted his children to have exciting, broadening experiences and would take them and his granchildren to places of interest; the mill, the bank, a city bakery, the meat market, etc.; Carrie and Lance and, of course, Aunt Maggie still remember these trips.
There was prejudice toward the Church of Christ (Cambellites) when your daddy was growing up. Your grandpa allowed Aunt Maggie to play the organ at the meetings of several denominations, but when she mentioned attending our services, he told her she was "too tired" and better not go.
Your Grandpa died in 1901 - and was still studying, taking college courses from Commerce, Texas, at his death.
(Written by LaFaun Lindsay Morgan to William Landon Hague.)
Source: Family of Margaret Agnes Hague by Billie H. Lindsay, 1994