Hi everyone, it's Heather from Unearthing Together. If you enjoy stories from the American Civil War, I hope you'll hit that subscribe button and stick around to watch this video.

So, in today's video, I wanted to share what a blessing this summer has been in the world of Civil War image collecting.
That is my main hobby. It's my passion. I love uncovering the stories of all of these guys, and that's actually what inspired the name of this channel. So, over the summer, I made some incredible additions to my collections. I got to go on some wonderful adventures that I will never forget, and I wanted to share some of that with all of you. So the first Civil War friend I would like to share with you all is agitant Samuel George Laser of the 100th Pennsylvania also famously known as the Roundheads Regiment. The regiment was raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And I am not the one to come to about the history of the regiment but I can tell you a little bit about my friend George. So my favorite thing to do in the whole world is to identify Civil War images. and I use Ancestry's search by face feature.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Yeah, right. I have made just unbelievable discoveries there, and I try to tell everybody I can about this. And the way that it has changed the game for some collectors is just remarkable. I've heard all kinds of personal stories of the new discoveries that they've made and it's just been wonderful to hear.
So, I go to Ancestry. I enter his face. The first thing that pops up is his picture and his name and it matched uh the inscription inside the case. So I ended up finding out that he was the son of the colonel of the Roundheads. This is Daniel Leisure. So I ended up uh completely falling in love with these two whenever I read their letters that were published in a Newcastle newspaper in the late 1920s.

The way that Colonel Leisure writes his letters, it just brings the Civil War to life for me. Like I just felt like I knew these people. And the crazy thing is these were just letters they were writing home to their families and writing to each other. So Daniel calls George ***Gordy.*** That is his nickname. And he is just so proud of his son. um he loves seeing everything that he's doing, how he's growing into a young man throughout the war and they just have this really special relationship that I'm not going to go on about right now because I'm working on an article about this and this is going to be its own series because the amount of content between these two is enough that I hope to someday write the book about it.

There is so much about them. It's amazing. So, in my quest to write this article, I ended up finding this book I'm going to show you. So, this is the 100th regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, the Roundhead Regiment. And it was published by Morningside. And in here they have a chapter about the Battle of the Crater. And here's my Gordy. That was him during the war. You can see he started to look a little less like a child. He grew out, you know, some mutton chops. Um, and in it, they talk about George's mysterious disappearance. Um, how the details of his death in the Battle of the Crater just are not clear and it sparked my imagination. So in this book, they site a source for a special collection called the McDall manuscript collection. And I ended up finding out that to see this collection, I needed to go to Penn State. And so I took a day off work and I went to Penn State and I got to go through this manuscript collection in their special collections. And what really caught my attention was that it talked about there being a biography of Samuel George Laser written by his mother. I couldn't find uh this letter from his mother anywhere. I was like, where is this biography? A line of it was quoted in this book, but it was not online anywhere. So, I spent five or six hours digging through these boxes and then I finally found this elusive chapter 16 that was mentioned in this book uh for this manuscript for a regimental history that a descendant of a round head tried to put together in the 1930s, but it just it never came to life. So anyway, um I ended up finding the manuscript and I was over the moon.

I scanned it. I was like, "Yes, I got it." And then a half an hour later, I'm going through some other papers and I end up finding the original biography his mother wrote by hand. And I ended up finding out that she died less than a year after his disappearance and death. Uh we assume following the battle of the crater. And it just gave me chills. So I went on so many different adventures uh with George over this summer. I went to go visit the family plot where George's empty grave sits. I got to meet Colonel Leisure. Um, I got to visit his grave. I took them recently to uh Manasses to visit where they were at the battle of Second Bull Run.

I've tried to take them everywhere. Like I went to the anniversary of the crater uh to see where George had uh disappeared and that was that was tough, you know. Um no one knows for sure if he's buried in the crater or if he is buried in an unknown plot in Popular Grove Cemetery. But anyway, I could just go on a tangent forever. I have so much to share with you about George and Daniel.
I also got to visit Darlington, PA, where George was born and where Daniel went to school and the school is still standing. I got to visit um a special monument uh to Colonel Leisure. And I also got to visit um the big monument in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, where the Roundheads were from and George's name is on the monument uh in memory of him never coming home. It's just it's an incredible story. Uh

I've obviously rambled on for nine minutes, so you can you can imagine how much uh this story has just touched me and I consider George to be a dear friend of mine. I actually have an older copy of Military Images here that has my Georgie in it. So, anything I can find about him, I try to to pick up. It's also pretty cool to have this image of Colonel Leisure. This was a gift from a friend and it means the absolute world to me. I actually need to get this into a better case. So, here is probably my favorite CDV. I love this guy. This was a really lucky Facebook group find. So this is Charlie Marquette of the 93rd Pennsylvania. So his medal of honor was given for his actions at the breakthrough at Petersburg and I got to go to the breakthrough on the anniversary and I got to learn so much about why his medal of honor was so special. And I also learned that it's not exactly quite clear because there were a few other guys from other regiments who kind of thought they did the same thing as him.

I visited Pampllin uh historic park which is just a phenomenal place. And I got to actually go to the spot where Charlie um gave it all where his actions led to him uh getting the Medal of Honor. And it was really, really cool to stand in those woods and picture all these guys running across the field. So, this image was actually a discovery from Ancestry Face Search. And I mean, it's just remarkable. So, he did grow a mustache, which is one of the things that made it a little tricky for me, but I actually discovered as definitely him. And on the back, you can see where it says Charlie. And I believe this likely said Marquette. I'm not quite sure what to make of this right here. Here's an old price from an antique shop. And this was actually taken whenever they were being mustered out of Harrisburg. So it has the Harrisburg uh photographers's mark back there. So this is likely how he looked whenever he was at the breakthrough at Petersburg. So it's just really cool.

Um, I visited his grave uh as well, but I I really love the moment of seeing where he fought. That was really cool.
And he really brought history to life for me at that location.
I don't know if I would have appreciated it as much as I did if it wasn't for Charlie.
I did attempt to win the other image of him uh that was up for grabs in the Rick Carile auction, but it had gotten so crazy and I still kind of kicked myself a little bit for not fighting harder for him because that image in my opinion validates my image because they both have Charlie's handwriting on the back of them and they both have this damage as if they were both like sticking in some kind of album somewhere where they had a slight bit of adhesive on them.

So, it was a bummer that that one got away, but who knows? Maybe it'll come back to me one day. Willie Rexford. So, I think possibly the most epic find of the summer is Willie Rexford. So, I had these images and I got them off eBay. I just thought it was a wonderful display and I was like, I really like this guy and I started learning all I could about him. Uh he is Lieutenant Colonel Willie Rexford of the 131st New York and he was also in the 44th New York uh which has one of my most favorite uh Gettysburg monuments, the the castle on Little Round Top. So I thought that was really cool. I was like heck yeah. I'm I'm going to bring this one home. And so I've had this great uh double cased display of uh two CDVs of his and I've always loved this, but I was going to one of the Gettysburg shows and I decided, you know what, I'll take him just in case uh just in case there's some something really good, you know, that I really want for trade. And I had only been at the show for 5 minutes. You know, I have this image wrapped up in my bag. I'm going around and I'm looking at tables and I look down at this just little box and it has some cased images in it. And I'm looking at this tint type and I see Willie staring back at me.

I still can't believe it. Oh my gosh. So on the table I see this just an unknown soldier, but I knew who he was. He was unmistakable.
I was looking at him and my heart started pounding so hard. I felt like I was actually going to have a heart attack. I didn't know what to do. I was panicking. I didn't have any money for that show. I didn't come prepared. And then suddenly an unknown image of my Willie Rexford was on the table. I I was just speechless. So I called Ethan. I'm like, "You got to get over here. You got to get over here. It's Willie Rexford." And he's like, "Yeah, right." And then he walks over and he goes, "Oh, oh, it really is Willie Rexford." And as soon as he saw the jacket, he knew we had Willie. So, this was actually taken whenever he was a private in the 44th New York. And I just think it's so cool. Um, it did have a mat around it that I went ahead and took off because it obscured so many good details like the hand. Um, I do not know if this is his original case. I feel like it's kind of a strange choice.
Um, to me, it looks like maybe the image was out of the case for a while.

I do want to get him a really awesome patriotic case at some point. And the one I would like to get for him, um, if I don't get him a Gucca Percha case is I would like to get him, uh, this leatherrett case with the eagle on it and the shield. but it is on my list to get him a case. So, I ended up sharing the story on uh Civil War Faces and I connected with his prior caretaker. So, the person who had him before me had him for I think over 10 years and he said he just never did figure out who he was. So, he traded him at that last Gettysburg show. And so I guess this image had just gone up for sale and I happened to be walking by and suddenly all of these images were reunited. Isn't that just like that's God? You can only describe it as God did that. I mean it's just it's unreal to have all three of these images together. Um I just I'm over the moon about it. And there's another one of his images in Military Images magazine. Um, I highly recommend you guys subscribe to them if you're not already. But yeah, I he I What do I even say?

It it was one of the coolest experiences and I will never forget that Gettysburg collector's show. So here we have a New Hampshire soldier that has a keppy marked for the 11th New Hampshire. So on his keppy, his lettering says cook. So what's really fun about this image is that here's another one I was thinking about selling and I'm so glad that I didn't. So, I actually took this image um in whenever I went to go visit Ron Palm's museum in Gettysburg and I had showed him this and he said, "Oh, I have a soldier with a cook hat as well." I said, "Really? That's so cool." So, I don't know where it is, but I actually have a 1980s copy of Military Images that has an interview with Ron. And there's actually that image he found of his cook soldier because he had sent me it so I could compare. Um, and that image is in the magazine and the question under it said, "Is he a cook or a cook?" Because the original idea I had was like, "Man, that guy must be really proud of his last name." But it turns out um I was able to check the 11th New Hampshire's regimenal history on archive.com and I did a keyword search for cook and I discovered that the 11th New Hampshire had one man from each company that they detailed to be the cook. So this soldier was in charge of preparing all the rations, keeping the inventory, you know, cooking the meals for the men. And these guys like really looked for their cook and there's all these stories of these like little misadventures with these cooks like accidents they caused.

I ended up finding out that he is in company E and if they had one guy, he's likely Roffus Baker who actually ended up taking a terrible wound through the face. it went out the back of his head and he survived the war. Um, he did end up leaving, but it's just so cool that I was able to hopefully identify him as Rufus Baker. Um, I I think there's a very good chance it is. So, it was cool that I was able to find that in the regimental history. So, he is now a permanent addition of my collection. So, the final thing I have to share is that one of my holy grail items came home. And I'm I'm sorry for all the shine and the lighting. I'm going to work on my whole filming setup.

But this is the regimental history of the 140th Pennsylvania. You guys may know if you followed me for a long time that I'm originally from Washington, Pennsylvania. And these were my hometown boys. I fell in love with the story of Captain David Aesen of Company C and the story of his death and burial at Gettysburg are what encouraged me to come out here and he's the reason I'm doing everything I do today. Um he actually has a special battlefield grave site um known as the Aes Rock where his men actually carved his initials into a boulder so that his family would later be able to come and successfully recover his body for his mother. I'm going to do a video just about that at some point. So stay tuned for that. But the reason I'm starting with the 140th regimental history, which I still can't believe I'm holding this book because it is so so good, is because I finally got my first 140th image.

I was able to get Dr. Weissart. So, he was actually Captain Aerson's uncle and he is the surgeon of the regiment. So, I'm really excited to have him. Um, I was a little bit worried because the image has literally like a thumbnail print like in it going through it, but I don't even notice it. I love him so much and it is such an honor to finally have him in my collection. I never thought in a million years I would ever be able to obtain anybody from the 140th. They have been my favorite regiment forever. I have a couple letters, but the images are really hard to get because those of us that love these guys, like we love them. You know what I mean? Like it's really hard to get a regiment that you really like that much. So, the last thing I wanted to share with you all is just an incredibly exciting find. So, this was a lucky score from the ephemerra page on Facebook. I had put out there what I was specifically looking for and this person realized they had it.

This is a gem tint type of Dr. John Weissheart Aes. So he was actually the brother of Captain David Aerson and he himself was a captain in the 85th Pennsylvania. So John Weissheart Aes was actually the firstborn son of Judge Alexander Wilson Aerson and his wife and he was named for his grandfather which is why he shares the name of with his uncle. Uh so it's easy to confuse the two. Um, so in the wonderful book, Inscription at Gettysburg, this is my bible of the Aerson legend. Uh, they go into a bit of detail about Weiss Heart's death. Um, so he actually got wounded in the face in a battle. Um he was shot through the cheek and he dealt with a lot of pain from that and it led him to become addicted to morphine and alcohol after the war and he's just one of those sad casualties of PTSD and you know he was just trying to deal with this terrible injury and it caused his family so much pain and ultimately He did die uh from his addiction and it's it's just a tragedy really. Um there's a drawing of him where he's just this bright happy young man and then in this tint type image it just looks like the life has left his eyes. It it truly is so sad. A couple of places where you can read a bit more about him. Um, one of them is in the 85th uh, Pennsylvania regimental history book. There are some interesting accounts of his service in here and you can read some of his letters and more personal stories about him in inscription at Gettysburg, which is a book I highly recommend you read.

And I really hope it inspires you to go off on your own Gettysburg adventure.
Well, that's all for my stories of this summer in Civil War image collecting. If you've made any really wonderful finds in your own research, it can be about anything related to history. Please let me know in the comment section down below. And I hope that you'll hit that subscribe button if you're not already, and stay tuned for Ethan to do his own video about his Civil War image collection. Thank you all for watching and I hope to see you guys in our next video. Bye for now.