Adam Schaeffer

Adam Schaeffer was my grandmother’s grandfather. He is the only person in my family to die while wearing the military uniform of the United States.

This, of course, is what Memorial Day is for: to remember those who died while wearing the uniform.

I can and do remember in the abstract the aggregate “those who died” with respect. And I appreciate the day off. We’ll barbecue, hang at the pool, go to a concert in the park. Celebrate the opening of summer. Enjoy the family.

But this old tintype makes the day’s meaning tangible.

I grew up with those eyes and that nose and mouth on the faces of people all around me. That’s my mouth and chin! This photo always fascinated me because those familiar features seem pasted onto the surrounding silly haircut and ill-fitting, wrinkled outfit. From the expression on his face, he also seems uncomfortable with the situation. And who’s he looking at to the right? What’s going on off camera? Is he confused? Disgusted? Bored? I know this guy!

What I know of Adam Schaeffer comes from family stories. He was a farmer in western Pennsylvania with a wife and several young children. One of his daughters, Isabella Lee, would grow up to be my grandmother’s mother. She would be my mother’s mother. The stories say that he was illiterate but it may only have been that he did not speak English. The stories do not say who first came to America from Germany but they do say that it was my grandmother who insisted that the family speak “the English”. Anyway, the stories say that Adam Schaeffer went off to war and never came home. No one knew what happened. His widow was illiterate and couldn’t read the paper the government gave her after the war. The government also paid her $5 a month until she died in the late 1800’s.

My mother found that government paper in an old family Bible owned by her apparently incurious aunt. It said that Adam Schaeffer died on December 31, 1862 near the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia. He died of dysentery.

I learned American history through my family’s stories. The battle of Fredericksburg was a disaster for the United States Army. Not only were hundreds of lives wasted through stupid command decisions, hundreds more perished from the logistical nightmare that followed the battle. Tons of medicine and food rotted at distant staging areas for lack of organized transportation. Adam Schaeffer died from red tape.

When my mother would tell the story of Adam Schaeffer, she’d shake her head and say, “Poor thing…” This wasn’t ancient history. This was family.