A Little Bit of History

 

          So, I am taking this Civil War history class and one of the assignments was to write a letter to a pretend soldier in the Civil War. I did not have to pretend LOL this is a picture of my great-great grandfather, Hoy Jackson MaHaffey, taken before he fought as a confederate soldier. He fought and survived some famous battles under an infamous general. Anyway, my professor was impressed with my family history, and the documents that I had, so much that he asked if he could use them in future classes. I thought that was pretty cool.

          Before anyone reading this judges me as coming from a Confederate family, back then fighting in the war was not always about beliefs, but the fact of you had no choice. Either enlist or be branded a coward. I know we were not rich, and my family did not own slaves, so I choose to believe he had no choice. My professor pointed out, looking through the records I submitted, that originally he enlisted for three years, but then it was changed to just war. By that time he had no choice but to stay in service until the war was over. In this picture he looks so young and innocent. I wonder what he looked like when it was all over...