Gettysburg's Unknown Soldier

Lying dead in Gettysburg in 1863 a solitary Union soldier lacked any standard means of identification. Only a single clue was clutched in his fingers: an ambrotype of his three young children.With this photograph the single clue to his identity a publicity campaign to locate the soldier''s family swept the North. Within a month his grieving widow and children would be located in Portville New York. The soldier a devoted husband and father was revealed as Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. Using many previously untapped sources noted historian Mark H. Dunkelman recreates the fascinating story of 19th-century war sentiment and popular culture in full detail.The Humiston story touched deep emotions in Civil War America inspiring a wave of prose poetry and song. Amid the outpouring of public sympathy a charitable drive grew to assist the bereft family. At the end of the war the crusade was expanded to establish a home in Gettysburg for orphans of deceased soldiers The Homestead. The first residents of the institution were Amos Humiston''s widow Philinda and her three children: Franklin Alice and Frederick. In this extensive account a full portrait emerges of Amos Humiston the husband and father destined to be remembered for his death tableau and of his family the widow and orphans who struggled for the rest of their lives with celebrity born of tragedy.This paperback reprint edition is updated with a new introduction by the author as well as a foreword by Academy award-winning film director Errol Morris.Table of ContentsForeword by Errol MorrisIntroduction to the Paperback EditionIntroductionChapter 1: AmosChapter 2: A Green Hand Sails from New BedfordChapter 3: Roving the PacificChapter 4: PhilindaChapter 5: To the FrontChapter 6: Camp MiseryChapter 7: A Close Call at ChancellorsvilleChapter 8: GettysburgPhoto EssayChapter 9: Whose Father Was He?Chapter 10: A Widow and Her OrphansChapter 11: CelebrityChapter 12: The HomesteadChapter 13: A Tarnished LegacyChapter 14: The Family''s Later YearsChapter 15: Amos Humiston RememberedAppendix: Songs Inspired by Amos HumistonBibliographical NoteIndex