Researching for a new story, I’ve been thinking about my 3x great-grandfather. He turned twenty-three years old in Andersonville — the notorious Confederate prison.

23!!! 😔

I don’t know every detail of his service. I just know he seems to have served nearly the entirety of the Civil War in the 1st West Virginia Light Artillery — a unit that saw heavy fighting and had many soldiers captured and sent to Camp Sumter.

And yet… he survived.
When thousands did not.
Through some of the worst conditions ever created in this country.

Then he went on to live a life.
He married.
He had a son.
He kept going… until 1925.

What was that like?
How did he carry it all?

(A little peek inside my head when I’m writing 😅)

And then there’s me…
getting annoyed because I have to drive the old farm truck to Costco. 🛻

Perspective. ❤️

Heidi xoxo

(Image is a PD drawing by John Ransom a former prisoner) 😞