52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2 - Favorite Photo

This is David Greening. I like this photo - David looks confidently at the camera, his hand resting lightly on the chair beside him. David was a farmer - he's wearing a tie and also his boots. I don't know when this photo was taken but possibly late in 1863. At that time, he had volunteered for the Union Army¹, enlisting for a period of 3 years. I imagine that Louisa, his wife, requested this photo before he mustered into Company L of the 8th New York Heavy Artillery, on December 31.

David and Louisa, both from Gloucestershire, England, married in 1848. In about 1850 or 1851 they emigrated to the United States and settled in the little rural town of Stafford, Genesee County, New York. Their sixth child was born in 1862.

So why would a father of six small children volunteer for the army? Unfortunately David left no letters or diaries, but a few clues might provide answers.

In October1855 David attended a Republican convention held in Batavia, Genesee County, New York. This mass meeting was in response to events in Kansas, known today as the start of the "Bleeding Kansas" wars between pro- and anti-slavery factions. The Republican party was founded in 1854 to oppose the expansion of slavery. So it's likely that David was an abolitionist.

In October 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 300,000 volunteers, as some of the army's volunteers' terms of service would be expiring in 1864. The proclamation also decreed that all volunteers would receive advance pay, a premium, and a bounty. It's possible that these conditions may have prompted David to enlist.

David joined up with his unit in February 1864, and served with them until he was taken prisoner on August 25 during the Battle of Reams Station. He was initially held in a prison camp in Richmond Virginia but on October 9, 1864, was transferred to Salisbury prison in North Carolina. On October 15th, 1864, Louisa gave birth to their seventh child, a girl named Priscilla. David died a few months later in Salisbury prison camp.

David is my 3rd great grandfather and was an ancestor I puzzled over when I first started genealogy years ago. Now I feel I better understand his motives.

¹ If you'd like to learn more about the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom, by James McPherson, is widely regarded as the most authoritative one-volume history of the war. Your local library probably has a copy.