Mason's Haven

As a military historian, I have long been interested in my family’s role in America’s wars, and there have been many of them. The most fascinating of these, however, are my Civil War ancestors, for the simple reason that I can visit the battlefields where they fought and, in some cases, retrace their steps. I’ve done this on several occasions, at Manassas, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania. I have also located the graves of three of my ancestors, and am currently in the process, with my brother, of marking one of them. Fortunately, that one unmarked grave lies in Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, whose excellent records allowed us to pinpoint his exact resting place. The ancestor for whom I have the most available information is Captain Milton Hall Harman of Montgomery County, Virginia. Born in 1838, Milton was 22 years old when he enlisted in the Confederate Army on April 17, 1861. He was assigned to Company G, the “Liberty Hall Volunteers,” of the 4th Virginia Infantry Re...

                  “…Then shall the fair fabric of universal Liberty rise upon the durable foundation of social equality, and the long-expected era of human felicity, which has been announced by prophetic inspiration, and described in the most enraptured language of the Muses, shall commence its splendid progress…”             So stated John Quincy Adams in his stirring address to the citizens of Boston on July 4, 1793. The future President of the United States was referring to the spread of the ideals unleashed by the American Revolution throughout Europe and the world, but his Biblical framing of the notion of “universal Liberty” should not be overlooked. “The long-expected era of human felicity” undoubtedly refers to the idea of the second coming of Christ and the thousand years of His benevolent rule. The reference to “prophetic inspiration” is a cl...