Among the many photos in the old family album are quite a few pictures of soldiers from the Civil War. When I first started looking at these pictures, I wasn’t aware that any of them were family, so it was quite a surprise to realize how many of them were folks in my family tree! And, strangely enough, I found some of them totally by accident!

While browsing online for a picture of an old house in the Shippensburg area, I stumbled upon a picture that I recognized as being one of those unidentified  soldiers from my album. In fact, for some unknown reason, I have two different pictures of the man in question, Theodore Horatio Nevin McPherson, though I am only showing one of them here, as they are quite similar.

An interesting entry for him in the Annual of Washington and Jefferson colleges notes that he had the longest name in the class and was , therefore, given the nickname “Mc.” Born in Franklin county in 1836, he was one of the six sons of Reynolds and Elizabeth [Henderson] McPherson. He entered the military in 1861 after the fall of Fort Sumter and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in Company B of the 107th PA Volunteers. In 1862, the 107th was joined with the Army of the Potomac, and he was involved in all of the battles of that army in the Virginia valley, ending with the second battle of Bull Run. He was next attached to the staff of General Howe, ending his service after the battle of Fredericksburg, his health having being damaged by the long exposure to the elements during battle. He became an attorney in Washington, D.C. and enjoyed a great deal of success. He died in 1900 and was buried at Spring Hill cemetery in Shippensburg.

My relationship to “Mc” is pretty distant as he is my 2nd cousin four times removed, but if you want to see more info on his immediate family, you can see his entry in my online database.

The next soldier in my collection is a bit closer as he was David Robert Bruce Nevin,  the brother of my great-great-great-grandmother, Caroline Olivia [Nevin] Rankin. David was born November 18, 1828 and enlisted in 1861 as part of Company A, 7th PA Reserves. In November of that year, he transferred to the 109th PA Infantry and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in Company K. He was captured on August 9, 1862 and held at Libby Prison for 45 days. Upon his return to his regiment, he was promoted to Captain in June 1863 and soon after was honorably discharged.

Among his other accomplishments as a successful businessman, he found time to write a book, “Continental Sketches of Prominent Pennsylvanians”, published in 1875.

David was married to Rebecca Cloyd Parker in 1869 and they had two children, Andrew Parker and Mary Pierce. David died on October 24, 1891 and was buried at Spring Hill in Shippensburg.