Isidor Straus was born in Germany and immigrated with his family to Talbotton, Ga., in the 1850s. When the war broke out he was 15 or 16, and an ambitious Confederate. He formed a company of young boys and they elected him lieutenant, however, the authorities only had enough arms for men of age and they were told to stay home, and he was told to clerk for his fathers business. After the war his family moved to New York. Isidor would become very wealthy from his business, he founded Macy's Department Store. He and his wife would die together alone in their cabin when their passenger liner, the RMS Titanic, sank.