Brothers in Arms

Explore the lives of two orphaned brothers caught up in the maelstrom of the American Civil War. Thomas and Otho McManus both rose through the ranks and fought in numerous battles and skirmishes. One survived; the other was killed leading a battle charge seven days before the truce at Appomattox. The survivor married his brother’s widow. This study also traces their roots, explores the lives of their siblings and cousins, and follows five generations of their descendants. Otho McManus wrote more than one hundred wartime letters. Excerpts from those letters provide profound insights into family ties and battle experiences. The story of the brothers’ forebears is a window into American families in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The brothers’ parents, aunts, and uncles joined a great westward migration to the new states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Interesting sidelights include the last slave in Pennsylvania and an inheritance interrupted by the battle of Gettysburg. This study draws on forty years of the author’s personal research and more than a century of cumulative research by others. Family Bibles, letters, wills, censuses, obituaries, grave inscriptions, military records, and county histories are some of the sources consulted. Topics include such diverse areas as migration patterns, military experiences, occupations, patterns of child-bearing, and the historical setting of each generation.