Nabb Research Center General Resources - People & Cultures

Brother Against Brother

King Family Reunion
From the Wicomico News, 3 July 1902, page 7

The following graphic account of the accidental meeting of two brothers, former residents of Princess Anne, after a separation of nearly forty years, is given by the Newport News correspondent of the Baltimore Sun. A notable incident occurred in the streets of Phoebus Thursday when an ex-confederate soldier ignored his brother, a Union veteran, whom he had not seen since the outbreak of the Civil War. The family of Kings, in Princess Anne, Somerset County, MD., were divided.

The father and his son, Albert King, cast their lot with the South and joined the First Maryland Regiment of the Western Shore, Colonel Herbert commanding. John King, sympathizing with the North, joined the First Maryland regiment of the Eastern Shore, commanded by Col. James Wallace. The regiments went to the front, joining the respective armies of the North and South. At the Battle of Gettysburg both were engaged and it is said at one time the one clashed with the other.

In the engagement the father was killed. His son, the Confederate, bore the body from the field. When the war ended the family remained divided. Albert King, having lost all his property, left Maryland for the Pacific Slope. After 41 years' separation he returned East and settled at Old Point. While walking in the streets of old Phoebus Thursday he entered into conversation with some old soldiers. One of the veterans gave a brief account of his career. King, to his astonishment, found it was his brother, still clad in blue and an inmate of the Soldier’s Home. Without disclosing his identity he hurriedly walked away and took the next car for Old Point. Here, when he was interviewed, he broke down and cried like a child. There might have been forgiveness, he said, if he had not found him an inmate in the home. This seemed to strike him as worse than his brother fighting against him.