I remembered coming across this image several years back, while writing one of the unit histories for the Virginia Regimental Histories Series. Seated is George William Koontz (1839-1925) of Shenandoah County, Virginia. Though he had relocated to Highland County in 1854, at the opening of the Civil War, he returned to Shenandoah County and enlisted in the Eighth Star New Market Artillery. When that unit was disbanded in October 1862 (due to consolidation of artillery in the Army of Northern Virginia), he was reassigned to the Danville Artillery. He was present at Appomattox as a captain, commanding what was left of the battery. Standing beside him is his son, Lester Koontz, a member of the 42nd/Rainbow Division during the First World War.
The father, a commander of the Shenandoah Camp, United Confederate Veterans, was described as a “Democrat, with Independent tendencies… a temperance man himself opposed to national prohibition and was not in sympathy with The League of Nations.”
* Regular readers might recall the other image I posted a little while back of another father-son pair (Confederate Veteran John W. Grove and son, Arthur Ashby Grove. Though that photo was likely taken prior to 1914, the son later served as a lieutenant in the 29th Division during WWI).
Dick Stanley
September 6, 2010
Interesting picture. Strange coat the father is wearing. Not a uniform one, I presume, as I thought all office coats had a double row of buttons.
Robert Moore
September 6, 2010
The coat the father is wearing is actually the average UCV coat to wear. It was pretty much standard to have only one row of buttons. In fact, I haven’t seen the double row listed as a requirement for UCV officers and haven’t seen photos of UCV officers in my neck of the woods wearing double rows of buttons.
Mike Simons
September 8, 2010
My Great Grandfathers Dad had already died before he got old enough to go off to WW 1.
Precious picture of the 2 generations.
David S
September 11, 2010
this is a great photo… thanks for posting!
Meg R
May 1, 2012
Hey, this is my grandfather and greatgrandfather. I’ve never seen this before.