The Man Who Grew Up in His Great-Grandfather's Civil War Shadow with Bill Eshenbaugh

Bill Eshenbaugh shares how researching his Pennsylvania farm’s 1800s origins led him to his Civil War ancestors—great-grandfather Andrew and grandfather William Dixon Eschenbach—who served in Pennsylvania cavalry units in the Shenandoah Valley. He reflects on the toughness of soldiers and families who kept farms running with little communication, scarce rations, disease, and battlefield injuries, and explores uncertain motivations for enlistment. Bill describes growing up in the same house his grandfather built, the relentless manual labor of farm life, and how decades of genealogy work, a family Bible, and cemetery research inspired his novel Up to Shenandoah to preserve identity for future generations still living on the farm. He explains his move to Tampa after trucking deregulation, discusses Moravian influences on equality and moral character, connects war trauma to his brother’s Vietnam letters, and urges listeners to learn their history, think critically, and “do the right thing."Bill Eshenbaugh is the author of Up the Shenandoah, a Civil War novel based on his great-grandfather Andrew Eshenbaugh's service in the 14th Pennsylvania Cavalry, written by someone who grew up on the very farmland his ancestors homesteaded in the early 1800s. With three generations of his family having fought in the Civil War, Bill has personally traced their paths through battlefields from Gettysburg to the Shenandoah Valley, bringing both scholarly research and deeply personal family legacy to his storytelling. A Penn State graduate who spent his career in real estate while nurturing a lifelong passion for Civil War history, Bill now lives in Florida but maintains strong connections to the Pennsylvania land that shaped his family's story.