Does anyone have any family members that served in the Civil War? Whats your history?

My Great-Great-Great-Grandfather was Lieutenant Colonel James Dunbar Van Valkenburg.

He was born in 1829 in Lexington, NY and moved to Macon, GA in 1850. His father moved the family south to find a better climate for his ailing wife, who ultimately died of illness in 1851. While living in Macon, he volunteered with the Young American Fire Company No. 3. The Young American movement was a pro-small government, pro-states' rights faction of the Democratic Party that endeavored to serve the public. My ancestor contributed by starting that fire company. His father built the first steam-powered mill in Macon and began a modest business in the 1850s. He faced financial hardship because he was "an industrialist in an agricultural society."

In 1852, James married Molly Morgan, daughter of a middle-class family whose father had left for the gold rush and left a $20,000 inheritance to his daughter. Mrs. Morgan didn't take kindly to James, claiming he was after her daughter's money. James went as far as to draw up an official statement at the courthouse proclaiming he didn't care about the money, just Molly's heart. Apparently it got so bad that Mrs. Morgan forged a letter to James claiming to be Molly and told him "she didn't love him anymore." James saw through this and continued to call on her daughter. Mrs. Morgan posted friends of the family on the porch with guns. One night, Molly left to see her cousin across town. Mrs. Morgan fell for the ruse and she rode fifteen miles in the rain at night to meet James on a back road, where he waited with a preacher. They were married and had four children through the 1850s. When Molly inherited the $20,000, the Van Valkenburgs built a quaint home just outside of Macon and freed the nine slaves her father had owned. Both were against the institution and drew fire for their views.

As the 1850s drew towards the 1860s, both James and Molly became avid secessionists. James drilled with the local militia and was one of the first in line to call for Georgia's secession after President Lincoln's election. On 24 September, 1861, James resigned his position as fire chief and moved to enlist in the Army of Georgia. Mayor Tompson of Macon refused and commissioned him as a captain with the task of raising a company from the city. James established the Tompson Guards and recruited some 150 men. His entire fire company followed him into the Army.

The Tompson Guards were formally attached as Company I to the 61st Georgia Infantry Regiment, Lawton's Georgia Brigade, Ewell's Division, Jackson's Corps, in the Army of Northern Virginia. Their baptism by fire was at the Battle of Gaine's Mill on 27 June, 1862. From there on, the 61st Georgia followed the exploits typical of most units. They were on the right flank of Stonewall Jackson's line at Fredericksburg. During that battle, Captain Van Valkenburg was captured while tending to a wounded colonel by the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves. He was later included in a prisoner exchange, perhaps due to the efforts of US Congressman Robert B. Van Valkenburgh (he spelled his surname with an "h"). He made Major on 01 July, 1863 at Gettysburg (filling a vacancy made by a bullet), where the 61st was positioned on the south side of town opposite the top of the Federal line's "fish hook."

My ancestor's most intriguing exploit was at the Battle of the Wilderness. Major Van Valkenburg volunteered to go on a reconnoiter mission to find Federal stragglers sighted nearby and take them prisoner. He took forty men and rode out into the woods to maintain cover. His men sighted Union soldiers, then realized that they were looking at what could be up to a regiment of men. When informed of the undoubtedly larger force's presence, James declared that they had gone to take Federal prisoners, so that's what they were going to do. In a daring move, Major Van Valkenburg rode out of the trees alone and approached the unit with his sword drawn. He introduced himself and declared them prisoners of war, which the Federal Colonel found amusing and rejected. James then bluffed and informed him that if he wanted to fight an entire Brigade waiting in the tree line, he was welcome to send his men to their deaths. The Colonel reconsidered Major Van Valkenburg's declaration and acquiesced. After the Union troops laid down their weapons and turned over their flags, Major Van Valkenburg signaled and his forty men escorted the Federal unit back to camp. In an ironic twist of fate, Major Van Valkenburg had captured the entire 7th Pennsylvania Reserves (who had taken him prisoner at Fredericksburg), a force of over five hundred men. From then on, he was known throughout the 61st Georgia as the "Hero of the Wilderness."

Major Van Valkenburg was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Adjutant of the Regiment on May 12th, 1864. The 61st Georgia marched up the Shenandoah Valley, as General Gordon was moving his brigade north towards Winchester to make a push into Maryland and raid Washington, DC. While en route to the Federal capital, they were found and blocked by Union troops at Monocacy, Maryland on July 9th, 1864. The fighting quickly intensified and the 61st Georgia boldly advanced on the Federal positions, which remained steadfast. At the height of the battle, the opposing sides were only forty yards apart. In a gallant effort, Colonel Van Valkenburg rallied the men for a charge, riding towards the Union line. As the charge unfolded and the Federal soldiers fired a volley, bullets found their mark and killed him instantly.

After the Battle of Monocacy, a group of wounded and captured men from the Thompson Guards buried their beloved commander, the Hero of the Wilderness. They chose to lay him to rest at the foot of a solitary tree next to the farmhouse that had been at the epicenter of the battlefield. In 1866, his body was exhumed by the men of his old fire company and buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia.

The 61st Georgia continued on to the end of the war, comprising part of General Lee's bedraggled army at Appomattox Courthouse. By the war's end, only 150 of the 700 that marched in 1862 had survived. Eighty were wounded and only forty were armed.

I envy all your awesome family history. My last name isn't even Merino. Mom is adopted and dad took the stepdad's name. I come from a long, proud, (handsome), swarthy heritage of...........?

While researching my ancestry, I found a great-great uncle who lost a leg in the battle of Murfreesboro (aka battle of Stones River). He was transferred to a 'convalescent' regiment in Cleveland Ohio and later transferred to Dayton Ohio to the (then) new convalescent home (now the site of the Dayton VA Medical Center and National Cemetery). On a side note, once he was discharged, he returned to Morgan County, Ohio and continued to FARM (with one leg) until his death at the age of 89 (as a result of breaking his remaining leg and gangrene setting in). Talk about resiliency!