Per the epitome to the right, this small corner of the web is being evolved in order to allow for a place for those interested to communicate and remain up to date on the current events regarding a reunion of Silas's many children.
Paul Wade, my father, answered an email to my niece (Kari Brooks) last fall entitled "Silas Wade" to supply her with some information about him for a paper she was doing for college. In part, it read...
Silas was one of four brothers who fought in the Civil War. He and brothers William D. and James P. Wade fought for the Union. The fourth brother Granville fought with the Confederacy. James was killed at Murfreesboro and is buried in Stones River Cemetery.
Silas and William were captured in Alabama and sent to the infamous Cahaba Confederate Prison near Selma Alabama. After spending the winter there they were to became part of a north-south prisoner exchange and were sent to Vicksburg where they, still under guard, boarded the Sultana.
The Sultana exploded and sank just north of Memphis with the greatest loss of lives that has ever been recorded in a maritime disaster as detailed in the below listed web site. Silas and William, though scalded and badly burned survived and eventually were sent home to Tranquility where they are now buried.
Brother Granville as a Confederate Soldier survived "The Siege of Vicksburg" (see also) and moved to Rhea County where he is buried. The three brothers had one sister Malinda who lost her husband in the "Battle of Chickamauga"
I took Gene Salecker, author of the below listed "Disaster on the Mississippi," to Tranquility to see Silas and William's graves.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0501_river5.html
Next year (2009) Silas would have been 175 years old. I am arranging, in memory of Silas and his brothers, for his descendents to attend the Tranquility Church Annual Homecoming May 17, 2009. Want to go?
That is the first recollection of this reunion effort I recall. After that, dad contacted Charles Wade and it was through their various correspondences that things began to come together. Anyway, that's a little bit of history for those of you who are interested. Stay tuned and I'll post more information about both Silas and the upcoming reunion later on. (Note: See comments below)
A.D. Wade
Just a brief overview of what we've got done over the past few weeks...
ReplyDeleteAll the invitations were created & mailed out mainly with the help of Charles, Debbie, and Paul. We even received the first RSVP back in the mail from Jane Jolley, of Chattanooga, TN!
I'm assembling a database of known, living Silas W. Wade descendants that will be available to others here that are interested in such.(i.e. Who are your other relatives via Silas W. Wade?)
I managed to get this BLOG created and setup so we'd all have a common place to stay updated and post comments as well.
Note: You can click on the FOLLOW Link to the right to be informed of additions to this page, or subscribe by email via a Link below if you wish.
Lastly, I have an old sound system and we got it out and fired it up this weekend to see if it still worked. So in case we need it, the good news is it does work alright!
I also managed to test a scanner we hope to have on hand, so we can scan any pictures or documents folks may bring along for others to see. This should allow us to redistribute digital copies onto others who are interested in getting a hold of such artifacts from the past.
Something still in-the-works right now, is setting up a common group area we can all share photos, etc at online.