If you've been following this blog, you've read about my recent immersion into my Scots-Irish ancestry.  As usual, I've side-tracked myself occasionally while researching, and some of those detours are the subject of this blog. I encountered the name 'A. J. McElveen' while querying possible family connections in South Carolina. After much effort, I've subsequently given up trying to tie my 'Pennsylvania McKlveens' to any 'South Carolina McElveens', but the research reminded me again about the importance of location. "Location, location, location" is a mantra for real estate decisions. Location and maps are also critical in genealogical research. But I now see that WHERE an ancestor settled can change the culture and values of the family line forever. I'm not sure what A. J.'s first name was. It might have been Andrew, or Alexander, or Adam. I don't know for certain who his parents were or if he had children. A. J. 's legacy was a collection of letters which were published over a century after his 1874 death. You see, A. J. McElveen was a slave trader in Sumter, South Carolina. In the 1850s he wrote frequently to his slave-broker boss, Z. B. Oakes, who lived in Charleston. Near the end of the Civil War, a Union journalist discovered Oakes' business papers in a Charleston slave pen. The correspondence was later donated to the Boston Public Library, and in 1991 McElveen's letters were published in a book titled Broke by the War: Letters of a Slave-Trader. The University of South Carolina Press flyer about the book says, in part: Broke by the War is a collection of more than 140 letters written between 1852 and 1857 by South Carolina slave trader A. J. McElveen to his employer, Z. B. Oakes, a prosperous broker. The correspondence provides an intimate look into the world of slave trading, from the economic aspects of prices, shipping, supply sources, and financing to the impact on those involved, including the breakup of slave families, the pursuit of runaways, and the various roles played by doctors, lawyers, bankers, and planters in this abominable business. Edited and introduced by Edmund L. Drago, McElveen's letters give the modern reader an opportunity to view Old South slave trading through the eyes of a representative participant. As Drago recounts, the Civil War decimated McElveen's finances and left him, as described years later by a credit investigator, simply as "Broke by the war--old man." I haven't read the entire book although segments of it can be found online. A. J.'s first-hand reports provide incredible and tragic commentary on the antebellum era. A. J. McElveen likely descended from Scots-Irish immigrants who arrived in South Carolina in the early 1700s. During the U.S. Civil War, the McElveens fought on the side of the Confederacy. My McKlveen ancestors, coming in about 1800 to Donegal Township in Pennsylvani and moving west to Ohio and Iowa by 1860, fought for the Union. Their views were shaped by where they settled. Many notable Civil War soldiers - on both sides - were Scots-Irish (Ulster Scots), including Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, Ulysses S. Grant, George McClellan, and Philip Sheridan. When asked "What race of people do you believe makes the best soldiers?", Robert E. Lee supposedly replied, "The Scots who came to this country by way of Ireland." Although no source has been cited for this quote, it's oft-repeated, along with another also attributed to Robert E. Lee: "The Scotch-Irish made superb soldiers because they had the determination of the Scots with the dash and intrepidity of the Irish." Accurately estimating the numbers of Irish who served in the Civil War is a challenging task. In a posting last month on his "Irish in the American Civil War" website, Irish archaeologist Damian Shiel shares his analysis about Confederate and Union numbers and concludes, "The results suggest that Irish-born numbers were substantially greater than is often assumed and that the figures are a lot more comparable with World War One than we might think."

That's a lot of Irish sacrifice. Shiel's article can be read here:  http://irishamericancivilwar.com/2015/01/18/how-many-irish-fought-in-the-american-civil-war/