Curiosity about my great-grandmothers name, Margaret Henry Hughes, was the force behind the writing of this book. Searching what few records survived, I was surprised to discover her parents were a Volunteer Union Kentucky Cavalry soldier, Henry Hughes, and the daughter of a farmer in Confederate Georgia, Eliza Anne Tucker. Coming from opposite worlds, they met, fell in love, and married during the Civil War.
The Union troops, of which Henry was a part, were occupying Elizas small hometown of LaFayette, Georgia, in the summer of 1864. The circumstances that allowed them to meet, fall in love, and marry are fascinating. This story tells how the war brought them together and also how it made their lives very difficult. Their time together was cut short when the Union forces left LaFayette shortly after they married. For months Henry was involved in military action, facing the dangers of the war. They drew strength from the letters they received from each other.
After my research, my curiosity was satisfied to find out why their daughter was named Margaret Henry Hughes. At the end of the war in 1865, Henry was involved in a dramatic event that most Americans have never heard about. Henry Hughes was among the thousands of soldiers who served our country during the Civil War. Since that time, many of those soldiers have become nameless, faceless, and forgotten. Like my great-great-grandmother Eliza, it is my hope that Henry Hughess service and memory will not be left in the forgotten cobwebs of history.
