Howdy - sorry for the long delay. If I were writing merely about military experiences, the book would be half done, but. . .
I've been doing some reading regarding Southern Unionists and the horrific experiences many of them had. A lot of men crossed the lines to fight for the Union, as did John, but I haven't found any accounts of anyone taking their families with them. The accounts I've read have highlighted what an onerous undertaking this would have been. Men or groups of men were actually hunted by the Confederates, shot, tortured, hanged and otherwise harmed while attempting this. The fact that John took his wife and kids, the youngest merely two years of age, is astonishing, and I have no idea how he pulled it off.
So the book is on the back burner until I can find something that might throw a light on this.
Ancestors should be REQUIRED to keep journals, don't you think?
