My 3rd great-granduncle John Varner from Cocolamus, Juniata County Pennsylvania was drafted into the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry in December of 1863 at 26 years old. He was married and had three children, Barbara who was 5, William who was 2 and Levi who was two months old. In Late November he left home draft notice in hand and headed to Camp Curtin Harrisburg to be trained and sent to war.
From Harrisburg he went to Virginia where he and the rest of the conscripts met up with the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry gathered with the rest of the Army the Potomac as they embarked on the Overland Campaign with General Grant trying to put an end to the war. John would fight at some of the toughest and most horrific fights of the conflict. (See the "John Varner" map on the MAP page)
He fought through the fires and confusion of the Wilderness. At Spotsylvania Courthouse he took part in Upton’s Charge and fought in the mud and the blood in terrifying hand to hand combat.
At Petersburg he took part in the WW1 style trench warfare of the Siege.
Many people pass his cemetery at Bunkertown in Juniata County where he and his wife Margeret’s headstones stand on a small rise of a hill overlooking the beautiful farmland around McAlisterville Pennsylvania, but little, if any, know his story. Unfortunately not only his story forgotten but his headstone is fractured and falling in disrepair.
This scene is repeated over and over across this nation. The struggle of these men is forgotten to time and apathy.
I started this project to try to keep the stories of soldiers like John alive and provide a platform for people searching for the history of their relatives.
The main function of this project is to provide information to the public about the soldiers in their local communities.
1. We are creating a database of the soldiers. Their units, and any information we find on them. As anyone doing research on their relatives knows this information is in many different sources, we are combining these sources in one database and then providing them to the organizations that maintain their resting places so that the information is readily available to those who want it. This is the important facet to this project, there are many places that have databases or portions of databases but we strive to put a copy directly in the hands of the people that matter when it comes to taking care of these fallen men.
2. We are using modern day platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Youtube etc) to share pictures and stories that we may find as we do our research to help share their stories.
3. We are publicly telling the stories of these men via presentations to the organizations and Historical societies of the soldiers in their communities to try to keep the names and stories of these men alive in the eyes of the public.
If you have any questions or would like to share any personal stories of your family members or contribute to the project in any way it would be much appreciated!
You can reach me at WITSCivilWar@gmail.com
Ben Varner
Founder
Walking in Their Shoes Project
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