Few Americans in the history of our nation have returned home after being defeated at war. And yet, here they were, the sons of the Ag Reserve, returned to their farms on the heels of a resounding defeat. Former members of a defeated and now defunct confederate army, most of these boys had long lives ahead of them. But the future was uncertain, and everything had changed. Reconstruction was beginning, the formerly enslaved were establishing communities for freed blacks, and Lincoln was dead.
As the nation struggled to understand how it might come back together after so much bloodshed, the question running through the heads of returned soldiers, Union and confederate alike, was simpler: now what?
For most returnees to the Ag Reserve, the most obvious thing to do was the same thing they did before the war: get back in the fields. Ed Chiswell was no different. A member of the prominent and prosperous Chiswell Family, Ed returned home following service throughout the duration of the war as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 35th Battalion of the Virginia Calvary, commanded by his cousin Col. Elijah White.
Marrying Evie White Allnutt – a woman with a prominent family background herself – the then 30 year old Ed was in search of his own farm to start a family, make a living off the land, and get on with his life. Purchasing a large tract of land with a small stone farmhouse in 1866, Ed would live on this farm until the end of his life 40 years later in 1906. It was on this farm that Ed would undertake multiple addition projects to grow the size of his home as his family rapidly expanded on account of six children. In addition to farming, Ed was also a member of the Maryland State Legislature.
