Wild Times in “The Wilderness” of Spotsylvania

My paternal great grandfather was Edward "Bud" Vincent Bowling/Boling (1872-1946). He was born in Parker, Spotsylvania County, Virginia. According to the 1880 Census, "Vincent," as he was called at eight years old, lived on a tenant farm with his father Lawrence T. Boling (42), and his mother Sara Elizabeth Bettie Tapp (45), and his sisters …

The Battle of Wilderness Farm – May 5-7, 1864

Many of my paternal ancestors lived in Spotsylvania County and, in fact, on the Wilderness Farm (my 2nd great-grandmother "Bettie Tapp [1834-1900] who married Lawrence T. Boling [1838-1910]). The following video is tailer from the new 3-part mini series on the History Channel about the Civil War Battle of Wilderness Farm [May 5-7, 1864], then …

“Tapp-ing” Into Lives in 19th Century Spotsylvania County

Local author, Pat Sullivan, penned and published the post that follows on Saturday, September 2014.  It is a far more intimate story of Phenie Tapp's (my second great aunt) family than my post "Bi-racial Relationships of the 60’s–the 1860’s!", penned May 14, 2014. My post tells about my second great-grandmother Catharine Elizabeth "Widow Tapp" Dempsey (descendent …

Walt Whitman’s Battles of Chancellorsville: Horrific Wounds, Night Fighting, and Other “Strange and Fearful Pictures”

Mysteries and Conundrums blogs about Civil War Battles in Virginia stir deep emotions in me as I try to imagine the fear. horrors, and impact of families during these times. The Bolling family, my grandfather, 3 great grandfathers and their families (descendants from the Bolling family originally from England) and descendants of John Rolfe and Pocahontas, lived for decades (1802-1946) on Elys Ford Road immediately adjacent to major Civil War Battles at Chancellorsville, Five Forks, and the Wilderness Farms. In fact the now infamous “Widow Tapp” was my 3rd great grandmother. The bulk of the Bolling descendants also lived in Stafford and Spotsylvania Counties, and in Petersburg. Where Widow Tapp lived a simple and poor life in Spotsylvania County, Robert Bolling IV in 1823 built the Bollingbrook Mansion, known today as Centre Hill Mansion Museum. Thank you again for these wonderful posts.

Mysteries & Conundrums

from: Harrison

This year’s sesquicentennial commemorations of the Battle of Chancellorsville will build upon long traditions of eyewitness, published narrative and non-eyewitness scholarship.  Yet I’ve been fascinated lately to realize that Chancellorsville inspired Walt Whitman to make, forcefully, one of his earliest contrarian forecasts for writing about the Civil War, a view that he later expressed in the now-famous sentence, “The real war will never get in the books.”

Whitman’s longest-known rumination on Chancellorsville, dated May 12, 1863, asked

Of scenes like these, I say, who writes—who e’er can write, the story?  Of many a score—aye, thousands, North and South, of unwritten heroes, unknown heroisms, incredible, impromptu, first-class desperations—who tells?  No history, ever—No poem sings, no music sounds, those bravest men of all—those deeds.  Nor formal General’s report, nor print, nor book in the library, nor column in the paper, embalms the bravest, North or South, East or West.

(If…

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