It is hard to remember all the experiences I faced during the war years. After fifty-some years, I have now sat back and taken the time to recall my lost memories of the Korean War. It all started in counseling with my VA counterparts. When retelling my experiences to these men who had lived through the same types of tribulations as I had, who now were suffering from shell shock and post-traumatic stress disorder, I found it surprising when they related to me that I was an inspiration. They were impressed I had been promoted to sergeant while still a boy of fifteen. I guess I hadnt realized the magnitude of my accomplishments until a group of my peers, my equals, pointed out to me how amazing my life really was. So now Id like to share my memories of the war through the eyes of a child. In compiling this story I was brought back to my early years when life was both hard and joyful. So if you have the time, I have the story of a fifteen-year-old soldier boy to spin for you.

He was found dead on the battlefield at Gettysburg, an unknown soldier with nothing to identify him but an ambrotype of his three children, clutched in his fingers. With the photograph as the single, sad clue to his identity, a publicity campaign to locate his family swept the North. Within a month, the bereaved widow and children were located in Portville, New York, and the devoted father was revealed to be Sergeant Amos Humiston of the 154th New York Volunteers. Using many previously untapped sources, this book tells the tale of 19th-century war, sentiment, and popular culture in greater detail than ever before. The Humiston story touched deep emotions in Civil War America, and inspired a flood of heartfelt prose, poetry, and song. Amid a vast outpouring of public sympathy, a charitable drive evolved to assist the bereft family. At the end of the war, the crusade was expanded to establish a home at Gettysburg for orphans of deceased soldiers. 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 loving husband and father destined to be remembered for his death tableau, and his family, the widow and orphans who struggled for the rest of their lives with celebrity born of tragedy.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1955.