Chancellorsville and Home

This is our last day of vacation and on the way home, we stopped at Chancellorsville, VA, home of the Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville. Dad said that Stonewall Jackson was accidentally killed by his own men in this battle. My great, great grandfather fought in this battle so it was very interesting to be here. We were able to pull his name up on a muster role (sounds like mustard roll) and he was listed as “Emmerson Crawford of the 18th infantry regiment of N.C.” There was a professor there who was answering questions about the battle so we asked him if he knew which regiment shot Stonewall Jackson. He said, “It was the 18th infantry regiment of North Carolina”. We snuck out the back door.

We got home at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 16 after traveling 2308 miles. I learned a lot about my country and it was fun to find out that my family was part of the history. We have now seen 33 states and one district. 17 to go. Woohoo!

[David] My great grandfather, Grandaddy Emerson Crawford, was a Confederate solider in the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville and did belonged to the 18th regiment of North Carolina under the command of General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. One night, when returning from a scouting mission, General Jackson was mistakenly shot by the 18th infantry regiment of North Carolina. Grandaddy Emerson was subsequently shot in the Battle of Chancellorsville. After recovering at a nearby home, he would have been expected to get back to fighting. Instead, Emerson said goodbye to war and walked home to Franklin, N.C. Who can blame him? He survived a gunshot. He survived Chancellorsville, one of the deadliest battles of the Civil War with 30,000 men missing, killed or wounded (Gettysburg, the most deadly battle of the Civil War was the next stop). And I’m guessing men of the 18th weren’t winning any popularity contests.