Memorial Day Reflections
One hundred and sixty years ago, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. The southern states led by South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter, and the bloody Civil War began. Memorial Day began as a day to celebrate and commemorate the Union dead and morphed by the 1960’s into a celebration of all American soldiers who have died in US wars. It is a time to reflect on the civil strife and wars underlying our nation’s heritage. We have lost only one family member, but others were wounded in service to the nation.
Our great, great uncle Eugene Wulsin enlisted as a bugle boy at fifteen years of age in the Union Army. He served in the Fourth Ohio Calvary, was wounded in the battle of Chickamauga, captured and imprisoned at the Andersonville SC prison camp where he and so many Union soldiers died of disease and starvation. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17862288/eugene-wulsin His family namesakes are my uncle Eugene and my cousin Eugene.
Our great grandfather, Lucien, served in the Fourth Calvary with his younger brother and wrote a book commemorating their regimental experiences during the war. https://www.bookdepository.com/Story-Fourth-Regiment-Ohio-Veteran-Volunteer-Cavalry-Lucien-Wulsin/9781277023770 He was wounded in battle in Georgia and returned after the war and went to work as a book keeper for the Baldwin Piano Co. where he rose to become its President. He organized an annual get together for the regiment at the Hermitage, which continued according to my father’s earliest memories into the 1920’s. My cousin and I share his name.
A third and older brother, Drausin Wulsin, served in the Ohio infantry during the Civil War and returned afterwards to practice law in Cincinnati. He was a distinguished attorney and renowned advocate. http://www.genealogybug.net/oh_biographies/wulsin.shtml His namesake survives in my cousin Drausin.
A fourth and younger brother, Clarence, was about 12 at the end of the Civil War; he went to work at the Baldwin Co. as well and lived and married in Indianapolis.
They were French speaking creoles of Haitian heritage; the older three boys were born in New Orleans and moved up the river to Cincinnati in 1851 where Clarence was born. My cousins, who have researched extensively, conclude that their parents took the family out of New Orleans because their mixed race heritage was putting them at ever higher risk in a society becoming ever more racist as it headed into the throes of the Civil War. http://lawsonwulsin.com/blog/the-art-of-passing/ We know too little of the life stories of their four sibling sisters.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 5/24/20