Real Sons and Daughters

A most amazing revelation for me at the Alabama Division convention was the attendance of a Real Son who I believe was Mr. Dean.  A Real Son I came to understand is an actual son of a Confederate Veteran. Some number of Confederate Veterans married at advanced ages of 80 and older to younger women of childbearing age who had found security with a veteran receiving a government pension during the stark poverty years of the Great Depression.  Amazing that as we celebrate the Sesquicentennial, 150 years after the start of the War for Independence, that there are first generation progeny of Veterans of this War still alive.  With the attention the Sesquicentennial is receiving, some of these men of living history are making headlines.  Here is one article - http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/05/real_son_of_confederate_vetera.html .  Interesting that this son, Tyus Denney, indicates that his father rarely spoke of the conflict and he is living his life in relative anonymity in small town Tarrant Alabama.  Henry Gober of the Prattville Dragoons residing in Millbrook is another of these fast dwindling numbers of Real Sons.  The recent May/June edition of the Confederate Veteran magazine shows a photo on page 33 of Real Daughter Margaret Elizabeth Lane of NC.  These people are living breathing historical records of the period of the Confederacy that their parents lived and fought thru.  I trust they are being encouraged to document in memoirs stories of their childhood when their Confederate Veteran father was still alive.  Oral histories from them would be priceless recollections only one generation removed from those who lived in the era, providing a glimpse into the Road to War, the War for Southern Independence and the post-war period of Reconstruction.  They and their parent’s lives have spanned over 150 years during the most important periods in our country's history.   Amazing stuff.  It gave me pause to think that my youngest boy will be 50 years old at the Bicentennial with his great great great grandfather having been a veteran of War Between the States.   I didn't know but one of my grand parents and thankfully she did pen her memoirs which I happened to use this very family history as one source of documentation for my qualifications to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans.