Are you a gentleman?
My sister, Lynne E. Kelley, was doing some research about our great grandfather during the Civil War. One of the sites provided this definition of a gentleman.
 "A gentleman is not merely a person acquainted with certain forms or conventionalities of life, easy and self-possessed in society, able to speak, and act, and move in the world without awkwardness, free from habits which are vulgar and in bad taste. A gentleman is something beyond this. At the base of all his ease and refinement, and tact and power of pleasing, is the same spirit which lies at the root of every Christian virtue. It is the thoughtful desire of doing in every instance to others as he would that others should do unto him. He is constantly thinking, not indeed how he may give pleasure to others for the mere sense of pleasing, but how he can show them respect, how he may avoid hurting their feelings. When he is in society he scrupulously ascertains the position of every one with whom he is brought into contact, that he may give to each his due honor. He studies how he may avoid touching upon any subject which may call up a disagreeable or offensive association. A gentleman never alludes to, ever appears conscious of any personal defect, bodily deformity, inferiority of talent, of rank or reputation, in the persons in whose society he is placed. He never assumes any superiority- never ridicules, never boasts, never makes a display of his own powers, or rank, or advantages; never indulges in habits which may be offensive to others." |
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Lynne also discovered some documentation on our great grandfather.
Corp George H. T. MacRae
Birth: 1832
Virginia, USA
Death: 1917
Centreville (Fairfax County)
Fairfax County
Virginia, USA
Company F,6th Va.Cav., Lomax Brigade, Fitz. Lee's Division, Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia,-CSA
Residence Fairfax County VA.
Enlisted on 4/20/1861 as a Corporal, he mustered into "F" Co. VA 6th
Cavalry.
Absent, leave 9/9/1861; Returned 10/28/1861.
Wounded in lung 4/26/1863 at Rowlesburg, WV, and left there; POW
5/23/1863 Rowlesburg, WV; Paroled 3/9/1864 Point Lookout, MD.
Detailed 6/10/1864 Medical Director's Office, Richmond, VA.
Disabled 3/22/1865; Certification of Medical Disability granted.
Oath Allegiance 5/6/1865 Winchester, VA.
Postwar: Resident of Centreville, VA. May 21, 1888.
Burial:
Manassas City Confederate Cemetery
Manassas
Manassas City
Virginia, USA
Created by: Scott Hutchison
Record added: Nov 11, 2004
Find A Grave Memorial# 9792609
He was a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland
Please share your stories if you had relatives that served in Company F, 6th Va.Cav., Lomax Brigade, Fitz. Lee's Division, Cavalry, Army of Northern Virginia,-CSA.This is interesting for us. My mother was born in 1914, in Portsmouth, Virginia. Her name was Madge Macrae Roberts.
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Hi Roy, that was a very interesting read. I love History and it reminded me of that show "Who Do You Think You Are" where they take a celebrity and track their ancestry back. They did one recently about the actress Ashley Judd where they tracked one of her great, great (not sure how many greats) grandfather back to the civil war.
I hope based on that definition i possess most of those attributes of a gentleman.
Hi Roy - Wouldn't the world be a better place if we could all live up to the definition of a gentleman? My own ancestors served in Connecticut Divisions . . .
Roy - thanks for sharing the definition of a gentleman with us. Sadly, what the world needs are more true gentlemen. BTW - from seeing you here in ActiveRain I know you are one of those gentlemen and it is a pleasure to know you.
Wow, interesting family history, Roy - thank you for sharing that with us. Wouldn't it be nice if we all reflected on what being a gentleman (or a lady, for that matter) really means...?
Good evening. Thanks for your comments. I thought this was an interesting bit of American history. It also appears that I was named after my grandfather who was named after an uncle that served in the Civil War and was also a prisoner of war at Point Lookout, Maryland.
Roy- when my husband and I lived in Leesburg, we became fascinated with the Civil War. I do believe we visited every Civil War battlefield within a 100 mile radius, and then some. How lucky you are that you have been able to find information on you Great Grandfather.
Roy, if anybody responds with knowledge of Civil War history, please refer them to me. I'm still learning and putting information together.
Our Great-grandfather George H. T. Macrae, whose headstone is pictured above, was apparently a native of either Fairfax County or Prince William County, Virginia. After the war he married Margaretta "Maggie" Jamesson, a daughter of Malcolm Jamesson of Mount Gilead in Centreville, Virginia. Their wedding was at Mount Gilead, a historic home that still stands in Centreville. Our great-grandfather was a farmer in or near Centreville for the rest of his life. He and our great-grandmother had eight children, one of whom, Penelope "Nellie" Eliza Macrae, married Calvin Archer Roberts and lived and raised their family in Portsmouth, Virginia. After our great-grandfather died, our great-grandmother went to live with our grandparents Nellie and Calvin Roberts in Portsmouth (long before Roy and I were on the scene).
I would love to hear from anybody who has information about the Macrae family of Fairfax County or the Roberts family of Isle of Wight County (and later Portsmouth).