Confederate soldier Julius Howell Interview

[DREDIOCK]

Always fascinating to hear the old timer veterans talk.
Stumbled across this a little while ago.
This is the only audio interview of a civil war vet that I know of

Im putting this up not to start any sort of debate or discussion. But for general interest purposes only.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPiDqUB9k1I&feature=related

Skuzzy,
At the first hint of an argument. Lock it please.

[Delirium]

Very interesting to listen to the man... maybe this sound strange, but I enjoy reading letters from the period as (even the uneducated writers) were filled with flowery substance. So different from the dreary and straight to the point correspondence we see today.

edit: I'm curious if he was reading his memoirs and if so, when he wrote them originally. Having interviewed a lot of veterans, the overall story can get hazy while specific events remain rooted in memory. For example, I had the pleasure of interviewing a Sherman Tank Commander. He told me he went through 3 crews less than 2 weeks; the last crew he had was completely wiped out down to the last man (him) as the shell impact literally ejected him from the Sherman while his crew died in the explosion/fire. He came back to consciousness in a field hospital the next day and learned his crews' fate. For this same action, he was awarded the Bronze Star and (as he put it) his men gave their lives and didn't get any recognition for it.

[MarineUS]

Wow...thank you very much for sharing this....Honestly. Thank you. 

[Rash]

That's great stuff to listen too, and have around for us to listen to now.  My dad was born in 1935, and  he said they would have parades with old civil war vets.  Sound/pictures brings it closer to home.  I was born in 1963, and remember my great grandad born in 1878.  He had a couple uncles fight in the civil war for the Union.  My moms side were rebs!

[bortas1]

Very interesting to listen to the man... maybe this sound strange, but I enjoy reading letters from the period as (even the uneducated writers) were filled with flowery substance. So different from the dreary and straight to the point correspondence we see today.

edit: I'm curious if he was reading his memoirs and if so, when he wrote them originally. Having interviewed a lot of veterans, the overall story can get hazy while specific events remain rooted in memory. For example, I had the pleasure of interviewing a Sherman Tank Commander. He told me he went through 3 crews less than 2 weeks; the last crew he had was completely wiped out down to the last man (him) as the shell impact literally ejected him from the Sherman while his crew died in the explosion/fire. He came back to consciousness in a field hospital the next day and learned his crews' fate. For this same action, he was awarded the Bronze Star and (as he put it) his men gave their lives and didn't get any recognition for it.

im with you always enjoyes reading or litening to the vet storys. big   to all vets. sorry for the spelling still suffering from the effects of the drugs after having a tooth pulled. although i have to admit i cant spell worth a crap anyway.

[Reschke]

I would be willing to bet that he recounted most of that from memory. Most people back then told and retold the same stories so much that they could recount with exact details every part of it. There have been studies done by anthropologists on society's with strong oral history traditions and how stories can be passed down from generation to generation and not ever change in detail or the way they are told. Until those society's are introduced to electronic media for storage and then the stories will die out because no one from that point on knows how to remember the details and retell the stories as they should be retold.

I was told similar stories by my great-grandmother whose father fought at Petersburg and she did when I was 7. She was close to 100 and my grandmother remembers my great-great grandfather telling those same stories. He wasn't an educated man but his letters from what I have been told (all lost now) were amazing. I try to retell the same stories to my children as they were related to me but I know I am always leaving something out that I have forgotten and misplacing details in the wrong spots. I know from my great-great grandfather's service records that he fought at Gettysburg, Petersburg (wounded in the neck by a miniball and survived), The Wilderness and numerous other small battles. It took him almost 3 years to return home after the surrender at Appomattox Court House (where he surrendered with General Lee) and finally he was run over by a horse drawn buggy in the town square in Marion, AL and died some years after that due to complications from that accident.

[Mustaine]

I'd Love to see maps overlayed with what he is discussing.

[oakranger]

I can almost vision where he was at.  Used to live in Richmond, Va and took great interest of the war in that state.  Thanks for posting.

[Fud]

Great find! I'm a recent transplant to Virginia and The Battle of Big Bethel is a mile or so from where I live...
Thanks for sharing 

[MrGeezer]

I can almost vision where he was at.  Used to live in Richmond, Va and took great interest of the war in that state.  Thanks for posting.

My family and I livein in Midlothan in the Swift Creek area.  The only sign I ever saw was on my way to and from work, a small whte sign with hand made black letters pointing West (as I drove home South) that plainly read "Bermuda Hundred" and then I knew I was almost home.  There were NO signs or historical markers anywhere in the neighborhood, none.

We had almost weekly "odd"events.  Dark figures that out of the corner of our eyes walked from the dining room to the kitchen.  Dishes in teh kitchen that would break with no one around.  Snow globes that cracked and broke on the shelves.  The children complained of a ball of light that would appear at the bottom of the stairs and climb the creaking stairs to the second floor and vanish (many, many, many times).  A friend's deaf Dalmatian came for a visit wit her owner and upon entering the house furiously barked at some spectre unseen and chased it into our bedroom...barking at the Northwest corner of the room where nothing was.  I will not even tell you some of the more disturbing things seen and heard.  After the battle fierce Spring rains left many temporary graves of men from both sides unrecognizable and many temporary graves were never officially reinterred elsewhere to military grave sites in the area.


Not until after 18 years later was I doing research on the area and I find out that one of the 4 days Battles of "Bermuda Hundred" the land between the James and Appamattox Rivers and right in the middle of our neighborhood--we lived on just the South side of the creek to our back yard, that battle had once raged.  It was also in the area of General Henry Heth and the manor near where their family coalmines (closed after an explosion left many dead)...not to mention numerous "SouthSide" (as the area South of the James is called) Reveloutionary War skirmishes--not to mention slave cemeteries where markers or posts were never erected and to top things off where Pocahantas' tribe had hunted and skirmished with other less friendly tribes throughout history.

I can understand why the develpers of such an upscale subdivision would want to keep those historic events under wraps....but if I had known of it in advance I would have lived elsewhere.

[ALFAMEGA51]

I would be willing to bet that he recounted most of that from memory. Most people back then told and retold the same stories so much that they could recount with exact details every part of it. There have been studies done by anthropologists on society's with strong oral history traditions and how stories can be passed down from generation to generation and not ever change in detail or the way they are told. Until those society's are introduced to electronic media for storage and then the stories will die out because no one from that point on knows how to remember the details and retell the stories as they should be retold.

I was told similar stories by my great-grandmother whose father fought at Petersburg and she did when I was 7. She was close to 100 and my grandmother remembers my great-great grandfather telling those same stories. He wasn't an educated man but his letters from what I have been told (all lost now) were amazing. I try to retell the same stories to my children as they were related to me but I know I am always leaving something out that I have forgotten and misplacing details in the wrong spots. I know from my great-great grandfather's service records that he fought at Gettysburg, Petersburg (wounded in the neck by a miniball and survived), The Wilderness and numerous other small battles. It took him almost 3 years to return home after the surrender at Appomattox Court House (where he surrendered with General Lee) and finally he was run over by a horse drawn buggy in the town square in Marion, AL and died some years after that due to complications from that accident.

Wow thats incredible stuff, im from the Fredericksburg Area in VA, and the civil war has been a factor in my life growing up as a boy, hearing stories, reading diaries, metal detecting for facts and so forth, crazy to hear that

[Dace]

I am related to Julius Howell somewhere down the line. 

[oakranger]

My family and I livein in Midlothan in the Swift Creek area.  The only sign I ever saw was on my way to and from work, a small whte sign with hand made black letters pointing West (as I drove home South) that plainly read "Bermuda Hundred" and then I knew I was almost home.  There were NO signs or historical markers anywhere in the neighborhood, none.

We had almost weekly "odd"events.  Dark figures that out of the corner of our eyes walked from the dining room to the kitchen.  Dishes in teh kitchen that would break with no one around.  Snow globes that cracked and broke on the shelves.  The children complained of a ball of light that would appear at the bottom of the stairs and climb the creaking stairs to the second floor and vanish (many, many, many times).  A friend's deaf Dalmatian came for a visit wit her owner and upon entering the house furiously barked at some spectre unseen and chased it into our bedroom...barking at the Northwest corner of the room where nothing was.  I will not even tell you some of the more disturbing things seen and heard.  After the battle fierce Spring rains left many temporary graves of men from both sides unrecognizable and many temporary graves were never officially reinterred elsewhere to military grave sites in the area.


Not until after 18 years later was I doing research on the area and I find out that one of the 4 days Battles of "Bermuda Hundred" the land between the James and Appamattox Rivers and right in the middle of our neighborhood--we lived on just the South side of the creek to our back yard, that battle had once raged.  It was also in the area of General Henry Heth and the manor near where their family coalmines (closed after an explosion left many dead)...not to mention numerous "SouthSide" (as the area South of the James is called) Reveloutionary War skirmishes--not to mention slave cemeteries where markers or posts were never erected and to top things off where Pocahantas' tribe had hunted and skirmished with other less friendly tribes throughout history.

I can understand why the develpers of such an upscale subdivision would want to keep those historic events under wraps....but if I had known of it in advance I would have lived elsewhere.

No toejam.  I used to live in Branermill.   Whispering Oak Pl was my street.