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.
