One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War, under the leadership of General McClellan.  Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War, under the leadership of General McClellan.  Orvis' uncle , John Charles Closson, volunteered from Michigan and was killed, too. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War, under the leadership of General McClellan.  Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered for the Union Army while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell

Civil War Era Christmas Carol--True Story

A Mournful Christmas Eve 1863--Thomas Nast

The lyrics to the Christmas Carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas 1863. It is more of a mental struggle to continue on than a carol. His circumstances were difficult. His oldest son, Charles aged seventeen, had run off to join the Union Army, and although the family strongly supported the abolitionist cause, the thought his boy in the midst of the chaos and danger created a very melancholy and philosophical poem. His second wife had died in an accident three years before; his first wife in childbirth.

So the imminent prospect of his son entering the gruesome War was not the only stressor oppressing the poet's thoughts. The poem reveals his inner struggle. Longfellow fully realizes the tragic powers at work in his life. But, as with his other poems, despite the darkness, he finds the glow of hope. This poem reaches out to all of us suffering loss and worry for our loved ones, whatever war may be threatening them.

Charley was seriously wounded, but lived to become an excellent soldier. 

Ed Herrman with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Longfellow's Christmas 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sXfzp296zhA#! 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Charles Appleton Longfellow

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Henry Wadsworht Longfellow

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

This version of the carol just came out  on 'Holidays Rule.' Its by the Civl Wars

The Civil Wars -- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g356nWq

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

MzTeachuh's Top Posts of the Week 5/23/14

Ed Tech and STEM Tweets of the Day 5/18/14 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/ed-tech-and-stem-tweets-of-day-51814.html 

Ed Tech and STEM Tweets of the Day 5/21/14 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/ed-tech-and-stem-tweets-of-day-52114.html 

Tofu dog: only in America.

Barbeque or Cookout? 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/barbeque-or-cookout.html 

Bringing Classes to Life Tweets of the Day 5/22/14 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/bringing-classes-to-life-tweets-of-day.html 

Best Articles for Educators 5/18/14 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/best-articles-for-educators-51814.html

We're All From Africa 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/were-all-from-africa.html

Apps for Special Needs Tweets of the Day 5/20/14 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/apps-for-special-needs-tweets-of-day.html?spref=bl 

One Memorial Today 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2014/05/one-memorial-today.html 

1st Lt. Orvis Henry Sweet, Company A 5th Vermont, 1864.

Thanks to our international audience. USA, Germany, UK, France, Ukraine, China, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watchedKen Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.

Civil War Era Christmas Carol--True Story

A Mournful Christmas Eve 1863--Thomas Nast

The lyrics to the Christmas Carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas 1863. It is more of a mental struggle to continue on than a carol. His circumstances were difficult. His oldest son, Charles aged seventeen, had run off to join the Union Army, and although the family strongly supported the abolitionist cause, the thought his boy in the midst of the chaos and danger created a very melancholy and philosophical poem. His second wife had died in an accident three years before; his first wife in childbirth.

So the imminent prospect of his son entering the gruesome War was not the only stressor oppressing the poet's thoughts. The poem reveals his inner struggle. Longfellow fully realizes the tragic powers at work in his life. But, as with his other poems, despite the darkness, he finds the glow of hope. This poem reaches out to all of us suffering loss and worry for our loved ones, whatever war may be threatening them.

Charley was seriously wounded, but lived to become an excellent soldier. 

Ed Herrman with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Longfellow's Christmas 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sXfzp296zhA#! 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Charles Appleton Longfellow

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Henry Wadsworht Longfellow

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

This version of the carol just came out  on 'Holidays Rule.' Its by the Civl Wars

The Civil Wars -- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g356nWq

Teachable Moment: Memorial Day

Lt. Orvis Henry Sweet

One Memorial Today 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/05/one-memorial-today.html 

 Feeling the Melancholy of War

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/05/feeling-melancholy-of-war.html 

Pvt. Haviland John Link

This title was a well-known essay contest prompt from the '60s.  

What America Means to Me 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-america-means-to-me-tweets-of-day.html

 

You really crack me up.

Just An American 

http://melanielinktaylor.blogspot.com/2013/05/just-american.html

All American Cheesy Jokes and Serious Thoughts 

http://mzteachuh.blogspot.com/2012/06/cheesy-jokes-and-serious-thoughts-about.html 

Famous poem: "In Flanders' Fields"

 

 

 

Civil War Era Christmas Carol--True Story

A Mournful Christmas Eve 1863--Thomas Nast

The lyrics to the Christmas Carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day' were written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Christmas 1863. It is more of a mental struggle to continue on than a carol. His circumstances were difficult. His oldest son, Charles aged seventeen, had run off to join the Union Army, and although the family strongly supported the abolitionist cause, the thought his boy in the midst of the chaos and danger created a very melancholy and philosophical poem. His second wife had died in an accident three years before; his first wife in childbirth.

So the imminent prospect of his son entering the gruesome War was not the only stressor oppressing the poet's thoughts. The poem reveals his inner struggle. Longfellow fully realizes the tragic powers at work in his life. But, as with his other poems, despite the darkness, he finds the glow of hope. This poem reaches out to all of us suffering loss and worry for our loved ones, whatever war may be threatening them.

Charley was seriously wounded, but lived to become an excellent soldier. 

Ed Herrman with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Longfellow's Christmas 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sXfzp296zhA#! 

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,

and wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Charles Appleton Longfellow

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Henry Wadsworht Longfellow

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

This version of the carol just came out  on 'Holidays Rule.' Its by the Civl Wars

The Civil Wars -- I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g356nWqiikI 

Feeling the Melancholy of War

Ohio troops after four years of the Civil War.

Poets and artists and musicians translate human experiences. The new art of photography caught a moment in time, much like the painters of the Impressionist movement wanted to.

The American Civil War still fascinates, probably because it never ended. It is still a human struggle where everyone sacrifices.

This is bluegrass style waltz-timed music, written in the 1980s, Pashokan Farewell.  Ken Burns used it in his documentary, "The Civil War.' 
  
'Sullivan Ballou Letter, from Ken Burns' Civil War.'   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxDP6q6C5mE&feature=related

War is just so sad. People, usually young, demolished and left in pieces; families heartbroken permanently. Homes razed. Nothing is settled because human nature doesn't change.

In the US, folks reenact the battles of the Civil War every year. The following link is profoundly insightful--almost ghostly as the reenactors pose in 2012 America.

A Civil War In The Olive Garden Parking Lot

 http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2012/05/24/153608877/a-civil-war-in-the-olive-garden-parking-lot

The Colonists were mostly interested in finance, right?

I've decided not to include gruesome photos of the dead, or the trenches, or videos of American teenagers losing a leg to an improvised roadside device. 

But here is a well-known poem from WWI.

The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place, and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amid the guns below.    We are the dead; short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.    Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.   McCrae was a doctor in the trenches; he died, too. Many Canadian soldiers volunteered for WWI after reading this. The poem was found in their pockets after they died.

One Memorial Today

Orvis Henry Sweet, Union Army, Vermont

Orvis, age 21, will be shot in the lung one week after this picture was taken by Matthew Brady in Washington, DC. His younger siblings on the family farm in upstate New York (he volunteered from St. Alban's, Fifth Vermont) grew up and after the Civil War moved West to Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California to become lawyers, Congressmen, ambassadors, journalists and teachers. His father, Haviland Livingston Sweet, died earlier in the War. Their sacrifice was not in vain.

He volunteered while working at a Print Shop in Vermont, where his family had lived on Grand Isle for generations since the Revolutionary War. His ancestors were Pilgrims and Wampanoags.

He was a regular kid who lived and died for great things.

He fought with his unit through all the major battles of the Civil War, being mortally wounded in the Second Battle of the Wilderness. If you ever watched Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, you know how that one was particularly hellish.

http://www.pbs.org/civilwar/

One of Orvis' younger sisters was Alice Eliza Sweet Link, my great grandmother; she went West after the Civil War and became a teacher.

Trip to the Wilderness Battlefields 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ege_iMAo5w 

With that haunting music that always brings tears to my eyes, Ashokan Farewell.