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Grandfather’s Story of the Civil War Happened Before He Was Born

By Capper's Staff
Published on October 30, 2012

My favorite story of the Civil War took place a few months before my granddad was born, but he’d heard it told so many times and could tell it with so much feeling, it seemed he was there when it happened. His father had gone off to war, as had all able-bodied, brave and honest men, he’d always tell us. His 2-year-old son and his wife, who was expecting another child (my grandfather), were left alone in their small cabin in Cedar County, Missouri, several miles from any neighbor. She did her best to make a living with her garden plot and milk cows. She wouldn’t have thought of leaving her home and going back to live with her parents. She was only one of many who were left behind to keep the home fires burning. The men didn’t plan to be gone but a short time. I wish I had the space and ability to put on paper the horror and agony I felt as Grandfather came to the part when the bushwhackers came and took all the food in the house and told her and her son to get out. Then they burned her house before her eyes with her pleading for mercy.

Mrs. L.G. Minson
Afton, Oklahoma


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.