Veteran's Day

On this Veteran's Day, I thought I would share with you a special document that has been in our family over one hundred years. 

The photos are not the best...I was dealing with a lot of glare.

This is a framed certificate given to my great grandfather, Joseph Knapp, by The Grand Army of the Republic. This was an organization of Civil War veterans in Pennsylvania.

 

It is a large document 16 by 22 inches. In my lifetime, it has hung in my grandfather's office, my parent's family room and, most recently, my husband's office.

  

The colored graphics are beautiful!

But to me, the best part is the hand lettered list of the battles my great grandfather took part in...as well as the dates.

 Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia...he was even in Atlanta at one time and took part in the Battle at Big Shanty.

I wonder how he got that far south from Pennsylvania...troop train or on foot. He would have been around twenty five years old at the time. I wonder how many friends he lost, the horrors he witnessed.

He was discharged in Harrisburg on September 12th, 1865...close of the war.

Here he is decades later in his Grand Army of the Republic regalia. Wish I had that hat and those medals. I do, however, have that nose...and those ears. I see my grandfather, my father and myself when I look at this picture...there's something nice about that.

This document was presented to my great grandmother and their children on August 20, 1901. Alphonso was my grandfather.

I am so happy our family has kept this written history in it's possession all these many years. It is big and heavy all framed up, but it has made our family journey through many states, just as Joseph traveled through many states during his days as a soldier in the Civil War.

And another veteran in the family...my handsome father.

Thank you to my great grandfather. Thank you to my father. Thank you to all veterans!

Enjoy the day,

Robyn