Interesting find concerning my Confederate ancestor [View all]

My brother sent me a link to a request for pardon and amnesty submitted to Andrew Johnson for participation in the "recent rebellion" dated 1865. It was my Great Grandfather and I believe that he was an officer in the local militia. He would have probably been exempt from front line service because of his position as a plantation owner. (with all of its evil implications) His father had apparently gathered in a heck of a lot of land, rumored to be about 100 sq. miles in Northern Alabama, by swindling the Native Americans out of it...But that is another story.

My GGF had done the paperwork and sworn the oath for the pardon , but he was denied amnesty under the 13th exception. The 13th exception was for participants whos net worth was over $20,000 dollars. Great Granddad apparently had to wait until 1868 for the universal pardon and amnesty. In the years following the war, the family lost its ill-gotten wealth to the point that my Grandfather (born in 1862) left Alabama in about 1900 with just a wagon, horse and new wife to start over in Florida. The family continued to decline to my father, who never owned a house and died, rent three months overdue, penniless, in debt, and left us, without insurance of course, to pay for his funeral on time....

When I first became interested in family history, I was warned by an elderly relative, in no uncertain terms, that it best be left unexplored. I find the history is fascinating. We don't get to pick our ancestors.