The Boy Soldier
Edwin Jemison and the Story Behind the Most Remarkable Portrait of the Civil War
by Alexandra Filipowski & Hugh T. Harrington
(Westholme Pub., 2016)
person never knows when a certain book will capture the imagination of a young person and change their life in some significant or decisive manner. There are several interesting books that have done that for readers that include novelists, historians, politicians, preachers, etc. The following are four examples for which each deserves a separate review: Books That Changed Our Minds: A Symposium, ed. Malcolm Cowley & Bernard Smith (1938); The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them, ed. Roxanne J. Coady & Joy Johannsessen (2006); Books That Made the Difference: What People Told Us, Gordon & Patricia Sabine (1983); and Books That Shaped Successful People, ed. Kevin H. Kelly (1995). In my case, a book other than the Bible that expedited a growing interest that changed my life and has not abated in more than 65 years was The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War, ed. By Bruce Ketchum, Narration by Bruce Catton (1960). It is inscribed on the front pastedown: “To Billy From Mommy and Daddy.” I received it as a Christmas gift at the age of 9 in 1963 at the height of the Civil War Centennial.
While some of the text was a challenge for a budding nine-year-old bibliomane, the images certainly were not. And one of the photographs captured my attention like no other before or since. It was first published in the Catton book on page 167 and labeled: “A haunting face from a truly lost generation. Georgia private Edwin Jennison, killed at Malvern Hill.” He did not look above nine years old to me, and indeed, it haunted me for years and still does. I became, what in those days was known as a “Civil War Nut,” and began a collection of soldier’s memoirs and biographies that has grown to number close to a thousand volumes today.
It turns out I was not the only person affected by the photograph. In the early 1990s, a woman from New Hampshire set out to discover the back story of “Eddie,” a desire that began about the same time as my interest, when she was a teenager who fell in love with the remarkable image of the dead Confederate soldier. Through her tireless research, Jo-Ann Aiello discovered that Eddie was from Monroe, Louisiana, served in the 2nd Louisiana Infantry, and had been misidentified. He was Edwin F. Jemison, and his story is now revealed in The Boy Soldier. The National Archives, from which the image was copied for the American Heritage, made the necessary identification clarifications. Alexandra Filipowski, while browsing in her father’ American Heritage book, began a search to discover Eddie’s life which took fifteen years to complete. She teamed up with Georgia historian Hugh Harrington and together they pursued Eddie Jemison’s story.
Eddie was born eight miles from Macon, Georgia in 1844. His father Robert sold his estate in 1847 and moved his growing family to northern Louisiana. By 1860 the Jemisons had both expanded their plantation and realized significant profit from Robert’s law practice. In 1859 Eddie and his brother Henry, ages 12 and 14, were sent to live with their maternal grandparents—the Stubbs—in Midway, Georgia to continue their education at the academy in that town. In the fall of 1860, Eddie returned home to Monroe. On January 26, 1861, Louisiana seceded from the Union.
In May, 16-year-old Eddie Jemison enlisted in the Pelican Grays along with two uncles and most of his friends. They assembled in New Orleans and became a company in the 2nd Louisiana Infantry, a unit destined for the Virginia battlefront, serving under Robert E. Lee, and horrendous casualties in the 7 Days Campaign around Richmond. He likely had his picture taken during the training period in New Orleans.
The authors have uncovered the sanguinary story of the Jemison family and especially Eddie’s. They follow the 2nd Louisiana through the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles in defense of Richmond. The regiment was slaughtered at Malvern Hill, blown to pieces by massed Union artillery. Young Eddie Jemison died in the fusillade.
They follow the lives of the Jemison and Stubbs families well into the 20th Century and provide an appendix with biographical sketches of the most important family members related to Eddie’s story. There is little that is atypical about this sixteen-year-old warrior and his short life, for it is similar to a hundred thousand other teenagers who perished in the War for Southern Independence. It is a reminder of the sacrifices men make to defend their homes and families when perils descend upon them. Letters and diaries have launched many a good book. For me, this face launched a thousand books and a passion that others have also understood. There is a lovely monument to the Jemisons, and especially Eddie, in Monument Hill Cemetery in Millidgeville, Georgia.