Parallel Lives

Bernie Siler, was a prosecutor in the District of Columbia from 1988 to 2009 and practiced law in general since 1980. His background includes a BA in anthropology from the University of Dayton, JD from the University of Cincinnati and an MA in International Services from American University. He is a member of the bar in Ohio and the District of Columbia. His interests include history with an emphasis on nineteenth-century America and the Civil War. He has been published in the Washington Post and Washington Times. The articles have covered aspects of the US Navy as related to its role in the Civil War and the assassination of President Garfield. The latter publication was a direct theme from this publication. Since he grew up in Washington in the twentieth century, he was exposed to many remnants of nineteenth-century Washington. In that article, he discussed having been born in Garfield Hospital, how his maternal grandfather was born twelve days after the assassination, and how his office at the prosecutor's office was directly above the courtroom in which the assassin was tried. He also grew up one block from Fort Stevens, the site of the only Civil War battle fought in the District of Columbia. His house was situated squarely on the Union line of battle. Had he been living there in 1861 instead of 1961, his first summer there, it is likely the Lincoln administration would have offered his parents a paltry sum in its exercise of eminent domain to confiscate their house to expand the fort. This actually happened to an African American woman named Betty Thomas, whose house was confiscated and the cellar used as the magazine for the fort. Turning back to 1961, June specifically, by the strangest irony, his piano teacher randomly chose a song to play for his recital. Unbeknownst to him and definitely unbeknownst to the teacher, the song he chose would have been actually sung on the location of his house exactly one hundred years earlier. The song was the "Battle Cry of Freedom," which turned out to be one of the inspirational ballads sung by Union soldiers while engaged in their mission, whether it be while marching into battle or while laboring on fortifications. This song was probably sung many times on the very spot where he feverishly practiced for his recital a century later.