Soldier Stories

Frank Lloyd Wright, who trained under Dankmar Adler revered his mentor, “The American Engineer,” and “my Big Chief,” whose manner, it seemed to Wright, was shaped by his time serving the Union in the Civil War.

Six brothers who served; two brothers mere yards away from each other on opposite sides during the Battle of Shiloh; a desperate war-time race to their father’s deathbed; and an intervention by close family friend, Abraham Lincoln.

Serving under an alias was not uncommon during the American Civil War. Many have assumed that the use of an alias was in response to anti-Semitism. Our research finds this true in a handful of cases, but the overwhelming majority did so to avoid recriminations by family and friends or simply to keep their families from worrying about their well-being.