Wake Wednesday - The Life and Times of Lucius Griffis 1839 - 1918

This Reading Room Review is republished from the Wake Genealogy Watch newsletter, Fall 2023, p.3.

The Life and Times of Lucius Griffis (1839-1918): Including a Detailed Study of His Participation in the American Civil War (1861-1865), written by Brian Craig Griffis.  119 pp.

Brian Griffis shares this glimpse into his Wake County family story with us. He researched for years to discover and round out the context of his ancestor, Lucius Griffis. - CD 

Lucius was a Wake County native born and bred, a fatherless son who was  raised by two women. He was not much of a student and chose to pursue farming as soon as he could get away from the classroom.  He was a soldier, a deserter who paid the consequences and rejoined his unit, a soldier again drilling and marching all over the South without seeing any real battle action until a very pivotal moment. He was a husband and father of a family unit tragically broken by the war and its aftermath, a husband again twice over, a  veteran so crippled and debilitated from his injuries during the war that he spent his later years on the dole in the poorhouses of Raleigh.

That was my elevator speech version of Lucius' life. I am being deliberately brief here because Brian has done so much research on his 2nd Great grandfather over many years. He has done a masterful job of pushing past the easy task of snagging links at Ancestry.com.  You will find he has dug deep to find records that not only document Lucius' presence in the many phases of his life, but jaw dropping accounts of what his ancestor faced as a soldier, deserter,  and veteran.  Brian has also captured the desolation of Lucius and various family members as they struggle to survive in the chaotic place that was the Reconstruction South.  

Brian’s book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers’ interests including:

· Wake County research

· Civil War history in both North Carolina and Virginia especially those interested in the NC 47th’s role in battle and eyewitness accounts of battles and last days of the war

· Raleigh's occupation by Federal troops in the immediate aftermath of the war

· Social support and reform in the postbellum era

· History of the Wake County Home and Cemetery

Those seeking a model of best practices for research and family history writing will want to make time for a nice leisurely read to enjoy not only the story, but Brian’s strategy for “filling in the dash.”  Brian presents us with a richly told story of a Wake County man and his cohorts as they struggle through some  historically tumultuous events in our history.

In pressing beyond the standard data points of Birth, Marriage and Death records, Brian has made use of a great many alternate resources. These notably include:

· Eyewitness accounts of NC47th from published sketches of Captain Thorp, Co. A and Lieutenant Rogers, Co I, (Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War, 1861-1865)

· Eyewitness accounts of Surrender at Appomattox

· Eyewitness accounts of the Federal occupation of Raleigh

· Lucius’ Confederate service file

· NARA Confederate Archives

· Articles and reports from newspapers on various topics throughout the biography

Brian has made careful and helpful use of his footnotes and source bibliography. He includes photos with  illustration credits. At the end, readers will find an Appendix with an eleven generation Griffis pedigree including the author and Lucius.

Click to read or download the PDF. Note that this is a large file and may take a minute or two to open. For printed copies or usage permission, you may contact the author at bcghistory@gmail.com.

 

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