The following narrative is taken from the book "Shocking Secrets of American History" by Bill Coate, pages 53 & 54. All credit given.
When the hostilities at Fort Sumter launched the nation's gruesome Civil War, the young man from Canton, Massachusetts, decided to answer Lincoln's desperate call for volunteers. He joined the Union Army, and in a short time he was helping to guard Washington D.C., a job he took seriously; after all, he had quite a family name to uphold.
On October 21, 1861, his regiment was ordered to Ball's Bluff, just a short way up the Potomac. His job was to rid the area of the concentration of Rebel soldiers that were threatening the capital. He shouldered his rifle with joy; after all, he had quite a family name to uphold.
He engaged the enemy that day and along with 700 other infantrymen, was captured. They marched him to Libby Prison in Richmond, and there they kept him as a prisoner of war. He bore the indignity with honor; after all, he had his family name to uphold.
Then came the order from President Jefferson Davis that some of the prisoners at Libby Prison were to be executed in retaliation for the proposed hanging of a crew of privateers caught in an attempt to run the Yankee blockade. The young soldier drew one of the short straws and prepared to meet his maker, but he did so stoically. After all, he had quite a family name to uphold. Just as he was on the verge of mounting the scaffold, the soldier received a reprieve. President Lincoln had canceled the hanging of the privateers, so President Davis followed suit with a pardon of his own. Within weeks, the soldier was exchanged and returned to his regiment. His war was a long way from being over, though. After all, there was that family name he had to uphold.
The young soldier fought valiantly during the Peninsula Campaign, at the Second Bull Run, and Antietam. Then they marched him to Gettysburg. He was helping the wounded after the first bloody day on that battlefield when he was shot in the head and died instantly. Now he wouldn't have to worry about upholding that family name any longer. He had performed after a manner that would have pleased his grandfather. Paul Joseph Revere, Jr., the grandson of that other Paul Revere of the Midnight Ride from fame, had acquitted himself admirably. Now he could rest in peace, with his family honor intact.
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