Hey there, happy 2021! Like me, most of you were no doubt delighted to say goodbye to 2020 and welcome a fresh new year with hopes of normalcy returning on the heels of the covid vaccine release. While we were in our hopeful socially distant bubbles however, we witnessed the first six days of this new year bring added uneasiness in our lives with tension in Congress over the electoral college certification and culminating on January 6th with the storming of our nation’s Capitol by rioters/domestic terrorists.
As these above events unfolded, my genealogist mind wandered back to the struggles of my ancestors. My grandparents and great-grandparents would have surely been aware of the 1918 Pandemic which until last year was the most severe in recent history killing roughly 675,000 Americans.(1) As I write this today, the United States stands at 416,000 covid-19 deaths.(2) Their way of life altered as well by quarantine, mask wearing, social distancing and perhaps death of a loved one. Current journalists call our covid-19 pandemic “unprecedented”. It isn’t, it’s just unprecedented in our lifetime. The very word unprecedented is dangerous, it can leave us all with the thought - “oh, this can’t happen again” and that speculation leaves us vulerable. The recent violence at the Capitol is nothing new either. During the War of 1812, in 1814 British troops burned portions of the Capitol and White House in retaliation for an equally vicious act by American troops on Canadian soil and all this happened during the lifetime of my 4th great-grandparents.(3) And then of course, the War of Rebellion better known as the Civil War from 1861-1865 damaging the United States in ways which we still haven’t healed. Two of my 2nd great-grandfathers served as Union soldiers, both German immigrants and both sustaining injuries that would affect their lives forever, Christian Hiller and Johann Thielen.
Below are Christian Hiller’s complete Veteran’s Pension file. It’s quite extensive, however the file deserves to be in a location that is accessible. My expectation isn’t that you will read this entire file, rather to know it exists. Highlights regarding these papers are discussed here in a previous post. Also, understand that the application process began by Christian himself and completed after his death by his wife, Isabelle was very lengthy. The file contains interesting affidavits from his fellow soldiers confirming his injuries and identity, medical records as well as Christian’s account of his injuries. Now, a simple Google search should locate this historical record to anyone interested rather than just tucked away at home. (Note: right click on pages to open and enlarge in a separate window.
People often remark that history repeats itself and it seems our country will continue to have pandemics and violence that could threaten our democracy. Time truly does march on. I’m left to consider how historians, professors and journalists will frame these events for my great-grandchildren. Will they still be calling the next pandemic “unprecedented”?
References
1. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
2. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days
3. https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/blog/most-magnificent-ruin-burning-capitol-during-war-1812.