In researching one side of my family (see my previous post) I came across this story of my great great great great uncle Charles Preston. He was a soldier in the Civil War who died in 1862. I originally assumed based on him being a veteran and the year he died that he died in a battle. I could not be more wrong. The story of the last year of his life seems like something out of a Hollywood mini-series. It is strange, chaotic, and so odd that it seems stranger than fiction (Hollywood hit me up! I’ll even throw in a plot twist).
The first record I found mentioning him was a newspaper clipping from the Eastern Mail in January 1862. He was released in a prisoner exchange with the Confederacy. He had been assumed dead from being hit by a cannonball during the first Battle of Bull Run (which took place in July 1861 – he was a prisoner for six months).
The next record I have for him is him filing a marriage license to marry his stepsister Sarah (Sally) McKenney on February 19, 1862. He would have been back in Maine for less than a month. He was around 21. She was around 15. I like to think that maybe she wrote to him while he was away at the war, and her letters were the ones she liked best. 
Someone apparently talked him out of this engagement, or he was a bit fickle, because in March 1862 he married Frances Cobb. Frances was the younger sister of Rhoda Cobb, the wife of Charles’ brother William Preston. William had only married Rhoda on February 16, 1862 (Charles’ most have been stricken by the benefits of marriage – and decided to get married to someone/anyone).
Life seems to give Charles’ a quiet few months until October 1862. He takes a trip out on a boat with his wife, her younger brother and sister, her niece, and his younger brother Benjamin (my 3rd great grandfather). Charles’ accidentally crashed the boat, killing himself and all his passengers save for Benjamin. The accident and inquest was featured in all the newspapers in Maine, where Benjamin at 12 years old had to testify what happen. 
Charles’ short life was one of many traumatic incidents visited on the Preston family. His brother Alphonso died the following year. One of his other brothers, my ancestor Benjamin, only lived to be 27. Sometimes there is so much trauma visited on a family, it creates a block in family research. It is too painful to talk or write about the family which leads to information and stories not being passed on. Charles’ life, by all account should be memorable. Soldier. Prisoner of War. Twice-engaged in a month. For one year his life was something out a novel, and the only thing remaining is a few documents placed together to show a glimpse of it.
Maiden Name Unknown 