Edmund W. King

Edmund W. King was born in 1843 or 1844 in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, Michigan, the son of John (1798-1863) and Joanna (Riorden, 1821-1874).

Edmund’s parents emigrated from Ireland and came to Michigan sometime before 1841. By 1850 they had settled in Grand Rapids, Kent County where John worked as a merchant and Edmund attended school with his older brother John. By 1860 Edmund was working as a shoemaker and living with his family in Grand Rapids’ First Ward where his father worked as the ward tax collector. (His cousin Edmund Riorden also lived in Grand Rapids’ First Ward with his family; Riorden would join Company F in 1861.)

Edmund stood 5’10” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 17 years old when he enlisted with his parents’ consent in Company A on May 13, 1861. Edmund was taken prisoner on June 25, 1862, while on picket duty near Richmond, Virginia, and returned to the Regiment on August 15 at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia.

He was subsequently hospitalized until he was discharged on October 21, 1862, at Fort McHenry, Maryland for “spinal irritation and chronic hepatitis caused by as he says the fall of a tree at Fair Oaks, June 25, 1862.”

It is not known if Edmund survived the war or if he returned to his home in Michigan after his discharge from the army.

No pension seems to be available.

In 1870 Joanna was still living in Grand Rapids’ First Ward.