Great Thought, Katlaughing! Reading your granny's memoirs reminded me of 2 wonderful things, which are really the same thing - Visiting some incredibly old relatives in New York City evry yar or so throughout my childhood. His parents had gone through the Civil War (hers tried to farm potatoes in Ireland, not nearly as interesting to me as a child, more fool me!). So talking to them was second-hand MEMORIES of the Civil War, which in turn was like the (I think) Theodore Sturgeon short story (the second thing) about a time machine which turned out to be a visit to an old person. Lovely times, lovely story.
In contrast to your history, the memories I would hear about though weren't battle memories, that side of my ancestry is Quaker so it was memories of helping slaves escape, and being conscientious objectors, and generally being a nuisance to the government, I'm sure, though that isn't the way Uncle Will and Aunt Bea would phrase things.

Thanks for reminding me of some of my favorite, now long-gone, relatives. To brag some more about this particular couple, he was killed at 96 by a bus, and she lived to be 100 and a half, including at 97 subduing a would-be purse-snatcher single-umbrella-ly and sitting on him till the cops got there! And going to court to testify and everything! Thanks again, Kat!