D. Reid Ross, author of Lincoln's Veteran Volunteers Win the War, was interviewed in the PostStar on Sunday. Here's a snippet about Reid's ancestral connections to Washington County, NY (part of the region the PostStar covers):When writer D. Reid Ross began researching his Washington County genealogy, he intended to learn more about his ancestral history. The family facts he uncovered, however, reflected a much bigger story.
Ross soon found himself engulfed in a long-forgotten chapter of Civil War history.
"I ran into my grandfather's background. He was the only one I knew from family stories of the Civil War. I knew he had one brother who had been killed, but I didn't know he had three brothers. I also didn't know his regiment," said Ross.
Through his research, Ross learned that his grandfather was a member of the 123rd New York regiment and was an infantryman in Sherman's march on Atlanta. He was captured 30 miles from the city and sent to Andersonville and four other prisons.
"I started digging into the whole record of Veteran Volunteers. Most of them were committed to anti-slavery. They were honest-to-God Lincoln emancipators," Ross said.
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