I figured this to be a perfect fit with the new Civil War stamps since I have been writing about them this month.
I even went down to my local post office and got one of the only two sheets of them they had left.
On the back side of the Civil War sheet is the photo (which I have seen many times) of Dolinger's relatives taken later the day of July 3, 1863, after Pickett's Charge. The men are carrying extra bedrolls, but had no weapons. They had already been shuttled around between various prisoner holding areas and then been on burial detail for the Union soldiers.
"Humiliated and knowing they would be transported to a regular POW camp, they collected extra clothing and blankets from the dead to prepare for internment," Gettysburg officials said. I must admit I always thought these Confederate soldiers did not fit the usual bedraggled look of Lee's soldiers.
Dolinger ordered five sets of the stamps at his local post office and when the clerk asked why, he said, "Because that's my kin. They were drafted into the army and they had to go." The Virginia postal official then contacted Washington, D.C. about him and Dolinger was then invited to speak. It gives a real human connection to those long-ago events.
In 1949, his grandmother showed him the family photo album and that picture was in it. He wants the five sheets for his children and grandchildren.
He also took his granddaddy's granddaddy's sword and canteen with him to Gettysburg.
Making It Human. --Old Secesh
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