My dad fought in the American Civil War.

[Coito ergo sum]

There are two people alive in the US who can actually say that their fathers FOUGHT in the American Civil War in the 1860's, and they are receiving dependent benefits to this day for their fathers' service in the War. http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewar ... |Frontpage

I find that to be rather an amazing fact. Interesting to contemplate. My dad was born in the 1940s. Someone is alive today whose dad was born in the 1840s, a century earlier.

It kind of puts things in sort of a perspective. Sometimes, due to cultural and technological changes, we tend to think of ourselves as so different than the people that were living 150 or so years ago. But it's odd -- if this person's father fought in the Civil War, then his grandfather could very well have fought in the War of 1812, and could have actually met Thomas Jefferson or John Adams, etc. It kind of puts in perspective that if those blokes were born in our day, they would fit right in. We were pretty much the same back then. Not much "evolution" can take place in just that amount of time.

It also reveals that if we were born then, we'd acclimate to 18th and 19th century culture and life, and we'd not be any more "advanced" than they were.

Chances are the same is true of those who were burning witches in the 17th century and those who lived in the Dark Ages.

I just find it weird to think about that. This guy's dad may have stood in a crowd and listened to Abraham Lincoln speak. He could have been in Ford's Theater on the night of the shooting.

Makes me want to smoke a joint and contemplate.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

[cronus]

Still not deep time. Was looking through some Victorian books earlier and except for the technology they could have been made yesterday.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I find that to be rather an amazing fact. Interesting to contemplate. My dad was born in the 1940s. Someone is alive today whose dad was born in the 1840s, a century earlier.

Drummer boys could have been 8-10 years old. Born, say 1851. One hundred years old in 1951. Say he was a father at 80, barely possible and a "okay, let's tell him it really is his" kind of situation I suspect. Child born in 1931, so they'd be 82 years old now.

Adjust by ten years to all those dates for an adult fighter.

[Coito ergo sum]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

Yeah, weird - doing the math, if the guy was, say 17, when he fought in the Civil War, and let's put him at the end, in 1864ish - so he was born in 1847. That would mean he would have been 53 years old in 1900. It is possible for him to have fathered a child around that time and the kid could be alive today. It's conceivable.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

Yeah, weird - doing the math, if the guy was, say 17, when he fought in the Civil War, and let's put him at the end, in 1864ish - so he was born in 1847. That would mean he would have been 53 years old in 1900. It is possible for him to have fathered a child around that time and the kid could be alive today. It's conceivable.

Four year window for entry into the war. And he could have been a REMF, which meant they would allow younger men to fill the billets.

[Tyrannical]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

No, it was much later than the 1960s, late 80's or early 90's.

[Tyrannical]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Martin

Alberta Martin (December 4, 1906 – May 31, 2004) was once believed to be the last living widow of a Confederate soldier. This has been contradicted by Maudie Hopkins, but Mrs. Martin appears to have been the last widow whose marriage to a Confederate soldier produced offspring.

After moving to Opp, Alabama, she met widower William Jasper Martin, born in 1845 and a veteran of the 4th Alabama Infantry, a Confederate unit during the Civil War. On December 10, 1927, the then-21-year-old Stewart married the 81-year-old Martin, primarily to get help raising her son and because his $50 per month Confederate pension check guaranteed her a degree of financial security. She gave birth to a second son, Willie Martin, 10 months after her wedding to William Jasper Martin, who was 82 at the time of the child's birth. William Jasper Martin died in 1931.

Two months after her second husband's death, Alberta Martin married Charlie Martin, William Jasper Martin's grandson from a much earlier marriage. Alberta and Charlie Martin were married for more than fifty years until his death in 1983, after which she moved to Elba, Alabama.

So the last son of a civil war soldier was born in 1928, which would make him 85 if still alive.

[JimC]

My Dad was in his 50's when I was born (mum was in her 40s)

I just made it, really!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

No, it was much later than the 1960s, late 80's or early 90's.

That's when the home closed.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

My Dad was in his 50's when I was born (mum was in her 40s)

I just made it, really!

I'm trying to calculate the odds...

[FBM]

This sort of thing is why I look at the old people around me (Korea) today and want to hear their stories. Some day this war is going to be over.

[mistermack]

Frozen embryos are going to make this stuff look like chickenfeed in the future.

If the technology had been available 2,000 odd years ago, you could have the kids of Julius Caesar being born now.
Some loony would do it.

Or Jesus. Hmmmmmm.

You could have a new religion any day now, that worshipped someone as god, and they could ALL have his kids, from cloned embryos.

[Blind groper]

I am old enough to remember (just) the news items that covered the last American Civil War veteran to finally die of old age.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson

[Tyrannical]

The home for Civil War Veterans and their Spouses closed in the 1960s. A septugenarian married a teen-ager who survived until then.

No, it was much later than the 1960s, late 80's or early 90's.

That's when the home closed.

That's when "a" home closed, I swear their was another that was open at least until the late 1980's.