This sure is fun, seems we can still fight a war that was fought 1860-1865. That is what has always made that time so interesting to me. I have always wondered why each one of my ancestors chose the side he did, what his thoughts and feelings might have been. Why would a small farmer born in North Carolina, living in Carroll/Benton County Tennessee, chose to wear blue. About all I know about him is his height, hair color, where he is buried, who he married. And I think he was a Methodist. That is all, how I wish I had a letter or journal written by him telling me what his thoughts were. He was not a young, single man at the beginning of the war; but a mature, married man. He had a newborn son in early 1864 when captured, and died on march to prison. Who told his widow about his death? In the 1900 Arkansas census she is living with a daughter from a second marriage, and listed as a nurse. Did she work as a nurse during the war? Most southern women did, no matter which side their husbands were on. So many questions. And the ancestor who was a simple farmer in Arkansas with a wife and three children, how can I call him a coward because he spent the last months of the war hiding out in a cave on his property? He had joined the CSA army and been badly wounded. While he was gone, bushwackers had come by his house, taken everything including the cow. His wife could not feed her children, no food. So after he recovered from his wounds, he never went back to the army. Maybe he was a coward. Maybe he felt his obligation to his wife and children was more important. What was he thinking? It was such a dangerous time for the women and children in that area during the last part of the war. I guess I am most proud of the fact that they were all southerners, regardless of which side they were on. The ones who survived, they rebuilt and went on. And their children married the children of their enemy. That I guess is the thing I am most proud of, that they could put their guns down and end the war. That they did not leave me a legacy of hate but one of love and understanding. Mary