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...

After the Civil War and for several years to come, Confederate veterans returned home where readjustments to daily life were many. Many soldiers suffered debilitating injuries, returning home without limbs or losing them later due to complications of old injuries. Did you know that North Carolina was the first state to provide artificial limbs to its Confederate amputees after the Civil War? This was in response to a similar Federal program. The state provided limbs at no charge and also offered a $70 allowance to those who wanted to choose their own leg or go without one. Arms were priced at $50. Jewett's Patent Leg Company set up manufacturing at the site of the Raleigh bayonet factory near the R&G railroad on Salisbury Street, between North and Johnson Streets, in 1866-7. A more extensive description of this early social program can be found at the website for the historical marker that was placed near the former bayonet factory/leg company. View here . See information about...