William Henry Harrison Marlett

William Henry Harrison Marlett was born on June 25, 1841, in Ionia, Ionia County, Michigan, the son of Elijah and Sarah (Goodwin, b. 1810).

In 1840 Elijah was living in Ionia, Ionia County. He was married to New York native Sarah, and by 1850 Sarah was living in Ionia where William was attending school with his two sisters. By 1860 William was working as a sawyer and living with his mother, his sister Harriet, and his brother-in-law Daniel Cuff, a blacksmith in North Plains, Ionia County.

William stood 5’10” with brown eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion, and was 19 years old and probably still living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company D on May 13, 1861. William was wounded in the left arm on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, subsequently hospitalized at Judiciary Square in Washington, DC, and by early July he was reported to be “getting along well.” He remained hospitalized until he was discharged on August 19, 1862, at Judiciary Square hospital in Washington, DC, for a gunshot wound to the left arm “rendering the arm paralyzed and useless.”

William returned to western Michigan where he reentered the service in Company K, Twenty-first Michigan infantry on February 1, 1864. at Grand Rapids for 3 years, and was mustered on February 4, crediting North Plains. He joined the Regiment at Chattanooga, Tennessee, probably in February or March and while the regiment remained at Chattanooga engaged in a variety of engineering duties, building bridges, storehouses, etc., until June 11, 1864. The regiment was also involved in building hospitals near Lookout Mountain, until late September when it was relieved of engineering duties.

The regiment participated in the March to the Sea November 15-December 10, 1864, and the siege of Savannah December 10-21 and in the Campaign in the Carolinas from January to April of 1865. It was also involved in the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina March 19-21, in the occupation of Goldsboro and Raleigh, North Carolina and the surrender of Johnston’s army. It subsequently marched to Washington April 29-May17 and participate d in the Grand Review on May 24. William was reported a Corporal on May 11, 1865, and transferred as a Corporal to Company H, Fourteenth Michigan infantry on June 9, 1865, probably at Washington. The Fourteenth was moved to Louisville, Kentucky on June 12. William was mustered out with that regiment on July 18, 1865, at Louisville.

After the war William returned to Michigan, probably to Ionia County. He was married to New York native Eliza D. (b. 1843), and they had at least two children: Albert W. (b. 1864) and Benjamin W. (b. 1872).

By 1870 William was working as a farmer and living with his wife and one son in Hubbardston, Ionia County. By 1880 he was working as a laborer and living with hsi wife and two sons in Hubbardston; also living with them was his mother Sarah. He eventually settled in St. Louis, Gratiot County, where he worked as a blacksmith, a trade he followed for many years. By 1883 he had returned to Hubbardston.

He was still living in Hubbardton in 1888, 1890, in December of 1891 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, and in 1894. By 1907 he was residing in St. Louis where he lived until he was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 5396) on January 11, 1909.

In 1862 he applied for and received a pension (no. 62,040, dated January of 1867), drawing $4.00 per month for a wounded left arm in 1883, and by 1909 it had increased to $12.00 then to $15.00 in 1911 and in 1912 to $24.00.

William lived at the Home until he died a widower of myocarditis, at 2:55 p.m. on Wednesday May 16, 1917, in the Home hospital. The funeral was held in the Home chapel at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, and he was buried in the Home cemetery: section 7 row 10 grave 11.

Mortimer Markham

Mortimer Markham was born in 1837 in Michigan, the son of Asa (1800-1874) and Orpha (Griswold, 1802-1870).

Connecticut native Asa married New York born Orpha in 1826, probably in New York where they soon settled. Between 1830 and 1833 Asa moved his family to Michigan and by 1840 was residing in Augusta, Washtenaw County. By 1850 Mortimer was attending school with his older siblings and living with his family in Augusta where Asa worked a farm. By 1860 Mortimer was teaching school and living with his family on a farm in Vernon, Shiawassee County.

Mortimer was 24 years old and possibly living in Washtenaw or Shiawassee County, Michigan, when he enlisted in Company B on May 13, 1861.

He was killed in action on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and presumably buried among the unknown soldiers at Seven Pines National Cemetery.

In a letter to his own father, Martin Clapper of Company I wrote on June 6, enclosing “a cedar bough. I wish you would give it to Lottie Adams. Tell her that it was taken from a tree that shades Mortimer Markham’s grave. He was an acquaintance of hers & no doubt she will prize it much. He was shot through the breast in the first part of the [present] engagement and died three quarters of an hour after he was shot as near as I can learn & . . . died like a true patriot for his country’s cause. His loss is mourned by his Co & all that knew him.”

No pension seems to be available.

Asa died in Clarksville, Ionia County and Orpha in Gaines, Kent County.

George H. March

George H. March was born in 1840, in New York, the son of Thomas (b. 1818) and Rebecca R. (b. 1822).

New York natives Thomas and Rebecca were probably married in New York someitme before 1840. They moved to Michigan from New York perhaps as early as 1840 certainly between 1842 and 1844, and may have moved back to New York around 1852. In any case, by 1860 George was a farm laborer living with his family in Lyons, Ionia County.

George was 21 years old and probably still living with his family in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861.

He was either killed in action or mortally wounded and left on the field at Second Bull Run on August 29, 1862, and was presumably buried among the unknown soldiers from Second Bull Run who were reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery.

No pension seems to be available.

George’s father was probably living in Dallas, Clintno County in 1870.

James Mapes

James Mapes was born in 1817 or 1820 in New York City, the son of Samuel and Rebecca (b. 1783).

James’ parents were possibly both born and raised in New York and if so were presumably married there. They resided in New York for some years.

James was married and had at least one child, a son Joseph (b. 1843).

James may have been living in New York City’s Third Ward in 1840. In any case, he moved from New York and settled in Michigan by 1843, and was either divorced or widowed by 1850 when he was working as a farmer in Sparta, Kent County and living with his son and mother Rebecca. (James may have been the older brother of both Jesse Mapes, who was born in New York in about 1825 and would also settle in Sparta, and William Mapes also of New York. Both these men had settled in Michigan by 1840.)

He may have been the same James Mapes who was charged with theft in December of 1859. On December 29, 1859, the Grand Rapids Enquirer wrote that Officer Peter Bogardus (who would enlist in Company F) “returned last evening from the north woods, bringing with him two prisoners whose names are James Mapes and Henry Ansenor. They are charged with stealing lumber sleds and a variety of useful farming implements from J. M. Lane of Solon.” It is unknown whether Mapes was convicted or not.

James remarried to Michigan native Mary J. (b. 1838) and they had at least two children: Charles (b. 1857) and Samuel (b. 1859).

By 1860 James had settled his family on a farm in Sparta.

He stood 6’0” with blue eyes, red hair and a sandy complexion and was 41 years old and probably still living in Sparta when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861. He was reportedly employed as a pioneer, probably detached to the Brigade from July of 1862 through September, and by October absent sick in the hospital. He remained hospitalized until he was discharged on December 8, 1862, at the Patent Office hospital in Washington, DC, for chronic diarrhea.

After his release from the army James returned to Sparta. He and Mary were apparently divorced and by 1880 Mary had remarried one George Cacklin and she and her two sons, Samuel and Charles Mapes were living with George Cacklin in Allegan County.

In January of 1863 James applied for and received a pension (no. 20270).

James died a single man of consumption on September 25, 1882, in Sparta Township, and was buried in Greenwood cemetery, Sparta.

Chester L. Mann - update 5/2/2017

Chester L. Mann was born in 1833 in Madison County, New York, the son of Massachusetts native Calvin (b. 1804) and New York native Olive (b. 1812). In 1830 Calvin was living in Hampden County, Massachusetts and in 1840 in Sullivan, Madison County, New York. By 1850 Calvin had settled his family in South Valley, Cattaraugus County, New York and Chester was working as a lumberman with his father and living with his family. Sometime after 1851 the family left New York and in 1857 Chester probably purchased 40 acres of land through the Ionia, Michigan land office. By 1860 Chester was a shingle maker working with his father and living with his family in Fairplain, Montcalm County.

Chester stood 5’10” with blue eyes, auburn hair and a light complexion and was a 28-year-old farmer who could not read or write possibly living in Ionia County when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. Chester was reported absent sick in August of 1862, but he eventually recovered and was present for duty with the regiment by late May of 1863.

He reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Paris, Kent County. He was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864, probably at his family’s home in Michigan, and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February.

Chester was reportedly wounded in early May and transferred to Company E, 5th Michigan Infantry upon consolidation of the 3rd and 5th Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He was shot through the right arm between the elbow and wrist, fracturing both bones, on June 22, 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia by a gun, “rendering,” he said later, “my arm useless for months to come.” He was eventually admitted to Finley Hospital, Washington, DC, where, on December 1, 1864, he petitioned his physician to be transferred to the general hospital in Troy, New York. Chester said that he had been “actively engaged with the Regiment until December 24th, 1863 when I reenlisted at Brandy Station and was with my Regiment until June 22nd, 1864 when I was wounded.” He reasoned that his “family is residing there and I can be near them while I am obliged to be under treatment in a hospital.” Chester closed by saying “I think I have been a faithful soldier . . . and if you can assist me in any way to accomplish this object you will greatly oblige me.” His request was granted, and he was admitted to the United States General Hospital at Troy on January 16, 1865.

Chester was a Corporal when he was discharged on March 12, 1865, at Troy. Dr. George Hubbard, the examining physician wrote in his discharge report on Mann’s “right arm is entirely useless and he is unfit for any duty.”

After his discharge Chester returned to Michigan, probably to Ionia, Ionia County, which he listed as his mailing address on his discharge paper. By 1877 he may have been living in Muskegon, Muskegon County and was possibly a member of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry Association.

In 1870 his mother Olive was apparently living with her son William F. and his wife Mary A. in Delaware, Delaware County, Iowa (no mention of Calvin however).

Chester married New York native Mary F. (b. 1836).

By 1880 Chester was working as a farmer and living with with his wife in Medicine Lodge, Barber County, Kansas. (That same year Calvin and Olive were working as servants for the family of Eli Burges or Burget in Westfield, Fayette County, Iowa.) Chester and Mary were still living in Medicine Lodge in 1885. He joined GAR Ulysses Post no. 204 in Medicine Lodge in 1889 and was still active in the Post in 1891.

On November 19, 1892, Chester was admitted to the National Military Home at Leavenworth, Kansas; he listed his wife wife Mary, living in Ulysses, Kansas, as his nearest relative. He was discharged at his own request on March 1, 1893 and returned to his home in Ulysses, Kansas. In 1865 he applied for and received a pension (no. 43114)).

Chester died sometime before 1900 (?), quite possibly in Iowa or Kansas.

By 1900 Mary was a widowed inmate of the Women’s Relief Corps Home in San Jose, Santa Clara County, California. She reported that she had been married for 25 years. A woman named Ellen who claimed to be Chester’s widow was living in Texas in 1910 (?) when she applied for a pension (no. 730092), but the certificate was never granted. Mary was listed as a contesting widow and living in California in 1911 (?) when she filed an application for and received a pension (no. 541355).

Henry Manga - update 5/2/2016

Henry Manga was born on June 7, 1835, in New York.

Henry married a woman named Rachel (1836-1861).

In 1860 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife in Lebanon, Clinton County. Rachel died in January of 1861 probably in Ionia County and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Ionia, Ionia County.

Henry was 29 years old and probably living in Lansing, Michigan, when he enlisted in Company D on May 13, 1861. (Company D was made up largely of men from Ionia, Eaton and Clinton Counties.) He was wounded on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia. He was put aboard the Elm City at White House Landing, Virginia, and transferred to the hospital in Washington, DC, where he arrived on June 5 or 6. Henry was reported hospitalized in July and August. He allegedly deserted on September 21 at Upton’s Hill, Virginia, but in fact was missing in action.

Henry officially returned to the Regiment on February 10, 1864, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but was in fact detailed as a guard at the arsenal in Philadelphia, and was on detached service in Philadelphia from March through May. He was mustered out on June 20, 1864, at Detroit.

It is not known if Henry ever returned to Michigan after his discharge from the army.

He married Pennsylvania native Rebecca Peterson (1842-1919, and they had at least six children: George (b. 1861), William (b. 1864), Sarah (1865), Charles (1868), Lillie (b. 1870), infant girl (1872).

Henry was living in Pennsylvania in 1861, 1864 and at no. 3 Federal west of 25th street in Philadelphia in January of 1865 when their 6-day-old baby girl Sarah Celia died and in March of 1868 when his son newborn Charles died (Sarah was buried in M. E. Union cemetery and Charles in Mt. Moriah cemetery). By 1870 he had settled in Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware.

Henry worked as a laborer for most of his life.

In December of 1872 they were probably living in Philadelphia when their one-day-old baby girl died. By 1890 he was working as a laborer and living at 2937 Alter Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1900 he and Rebecca were living in Philadelphia and in 1910 on Armin or Annin Street in the 36th Ward.

In 1883 he applied for and received a pension (no. 830490).

Henry died of apoplexy on July 1, 1915, at 2900 Annin Street in Philadelphia’s 36th Ward, and was buried in Fernwood cemetery, Delaware County: section 23.

In 1915 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 794776).

Delavan Maltby - update 5/2/2017

Delevan Maltby was born December 30, 1843 in Steuben County, New York.

Delevan left New York and moved west, eventually settling in western Michigan by 1862, probably in Ionia County. (In 1850 there one Laura Maltby living in Portland, Ionia County; and in 1860 George Maltby was living in Portland.)

Delevan was apparently living in Naples, New York when he registered for the draft (the record lists no date nor does it list any prior service). He stood 5’9” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was a 19-year-old farmer possibly living in Odessa (now Lake Odessa), Ionia County when he enlisted with his guardian’s consent at the age of 19 in Company E on March 8, 1862, at Saranac for 3 years, crediting Ionia County, and was mustered on April 12. He was absent sick with rheumatism in the hospital at Bottom’s Bridge, Virginia, and taken prisoner on June 30 at Savage Station, Virginia. Delavan was confined at Libby prison in Richmond, was paroled on July 19 at Aiken’s Landing, Virginia, and by late August was at Camp Parole, Annapolis, Maryland.

He was sent to Washington, DC, on September 26, 1862, where he remained absent sick until he was discharged on either December 27, 1862, at Washington, DC, or January 6, 1863, at Camp banks, Virginia, for “organic disease of the heart.”

Delevan listed South Boston, Ionia County as his mailing address on his discharge paper and it is quite likely that he returned to Michigan after his discharge from the army.

In November of 1865 he married Michigan native Antoinette “Nettie” Aldrich (1849-1913), and they had at least one child, a son Wells Ray (1867-1930).

By 1870 Delavan (listed as “Dell”) was working as a farmer and living with his wife and son in Otsego, Allegan County.

Delevan died probably on January 28, 1878, in Alamo, Kalamazoo County and was buried in Alamo Center Cemetery: section 4, row 12, no. 1.

Edwin H. Mallory

Edwin H. Mallory was born on April 13, 1837, in Marengo, Calhoun County, Michigan, the son of Henry (b. 1810 in Connecticut?) and Mary A. (b. 1813 in New York).

Edwin’s parents moved to Michigan sometime before 1837, and in 1844 settled in Barry County. By 1850 Edwin was attending school with his younger sister Jennie (?) and living with his family in Maple Grove, Barry County. By 1860 he was working as a teacher and living with his family in Maple Grove, Barry County, where his father owned a substantial farm.

Edwin was 24 years old and probably still residing in Maple Grove when he enlisted in the Hastings Rifle Company in April of 1861. The company was disbanded shortly after it arrived in Grand Rapids and its members distributed to other companies of the Third Michigan infantry then forming at Cantonment Anderson just south of the city, and Edwin eventually enlisted as Seventh Corporal in Company K on May 13, 1861. He was color Corporal in October of 1862, on duty at Brigade headquarters from March of 1863 through June, and in July was a provost guard. He was reported detached to the Third Corps headquarters from October 10, 1863, through March of 1864, and was slightly wounded in the thigh sometime in early May and subsequently admitted on May 11 to Finley hospital in Washington, DC. He returned to duty on June 7, and was mustered out at Detroit on June 20, 1864.

After the war Edwin returned to Barry County, probably to Maple Grove, where he married Michigan native Mary J. Otis (1839-1902) in May of 1866, possibly in Michigan, and they had at least five and possibly six children: Caroline (b. 1868), Wilkie O. (b. 1869), Edwin D. (b. 1872), Otis (b. 1873), Clyde (b. 1875) and possibly Grace (1872-1906). They settled on the family homestead in Maple Grove.

Edwin was elected sheriff of Barry County in November of 1866, a position he held until the early 1870s. In fact, he was listed as both sheriff of Barry County and keeper of the jail in 1870, and was living with his wife and two children at the jail in Hastings. Next door lived and/or worked a shoemaker named Alonzo Bennett who had also served in the Old Third during the war.

As sheriff of Barry County, Edwin played a small role in one of the state’s most sensational murder trials and one that involved another former member of the Old Third Michigan, George Vanderpool. George had been accused of murdering his banking partner in Manistee in the fall of 1869 and had already been found guilty once, was retried on appeal resulting in a hung jury and was about to tried a third time, in Hastings.

On Friday, August 25, it was reported that Deputy Sheriff E. H. Mallory arrived in Hastings with Eliza Springer, a key witness in the third Vanderpool-Field murder trial then underway in Hastings. He had found Mrs. Springer living in a boarding house in East Saginaw under the name of Stephens.

Edwin also served as a postal clerk on the Michigan Central railroad until 1881, and in 1880 he was listed as a mail carrier and living with his wife and children in Nashville, Barry County; his father Henry lived door. In 1882 he moved to Grand Rapids where he lived through 1885. He moved to Nashville, Barry County in 1886 where he lived the remainder of his life.

In 1889 he applied for and received a pension (no. 526101).

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association and apparently became involved in the spiritualism movement. “The last years of his life,” one obituary noted, “he devoted to his one absorbing creed, that of healing through spiritualistic agencies, and in this department of his life's work he made many warm and lasting friends.”

Edwin died on October 30, 1895, at home in Nashville, and the funeral occurred at the house on Friday afternoon, November 1, 1895, with Elder Holler officiating. Edwin was buried in Nashville cemetery. “He was,” wrote one memorial report, “a true and faithful husband, a kind and indulgent father, and will be sadly missed by his family and friends.”

In 1895 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 421266).

Willard Main - updated 5/2/2017

Willard Main was born about 1821, probably in Pennsylvania.

Willard and Albert Main (brothers or cousins) left Pennsylvania and probably settled for a time in Canada where Albert was married to Mary Atkinson. They both eventually moved on to Michigan, both settling in Castleton Barry County.

By 1860 Willard had moved to Michigan and was working as a day laborer and living with the Asa Ware family in Castleton, Barry County. Nearby lived one Albert Main (b. c. 1818 in Pennsylvania) and his family, quite possibly his brother or cousin.

Willard stood 5’4” with hazel eyes, brown hair and a fair complexion and was 43 or 54 years old and probably a farmer in Yankee Springs, Barry County when he enlisted in Company B on February 19, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, and was mustered the same day. He joined the Regiment on March 1 at Culpeper, Virginia, and was probably absent sick when he was transferred to Company E, 5th Michigan Infantry upon consolidation of the 3rd and 5th Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He remained absent sick through December, and probably until he was discharged on June 9, 1865, at Satterlee hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Willard died on July 16, 1865, at Castelton, Barry County, and was buried in Barryville Cemetery, Barry County (Albert Main and his wife are buried in the same lot).

Henry H. Magoon

Henry H. Magoon was born on August 26, 1841 or 1842 , in Hinckley, Medina County, Ohio, the son of Thomas (1796-1877) and Patty (Connant, b. 1806).

New Hampshire native Thomas married New York-born Patty in 1826 in Hinckley, Ohio and they resided in Ohio for some years. Sometime after 1842 they left Ohio and moved westward, eventually settling in western Michigan by 1860 when Henry was a shingle maker living with his family in Algoma, Kent County. Next door lived the Hamblin brothers, three of whom would serve in the Third Michigan during the war – and who would all die during the war. On the other side of the Hamblins lived Highland Warner and his mother. Highland too would serve in the Third Michigan.

He stood 5’8” with brown hair and a light complexion and was 20 years old and living in or near Rockford, Kent County, or in Plainfield, Kent County when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861. Henry was reported absent on picket duty on October 31, 1861, and again on February 28, 1862. He suffered a rupture on May 30, 1862, near Fair Oaks, Virginia. Job Brewer of Company F recalled many years later that “in an assault we made through the woods, while charging over a rail fence [Magoon] climbed on to the fence and fell down the fence giving way. It breached him in the groin. He suffered from the injury more or less during the service.” Charles Scaddin, also of Company F, confirmed Brewer’s story. “When he [Magoon] jumped onto it [the fence] it gave way and he fell forward and he fell onto a post or broken rail which caused the . . . rupture.”

Henry nevertheless remained with the Regiment, and was shot in the right hand and taken prisoner on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia. He was confined at Richmond, Virginia on May 9, and admitted to prison hospital no. 21 at Richmond on May 10 suffering from vulvus sclopeticum (wounds). He was paroled at Richmond on May 13, admitted to the Division no. 1 hospital in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 17, and was treated for a fracture of the right arm caused by a minie ball. He remained in the hospital until June 26 when he allegedly deserted, presumably from the hospital.

He supposedly returned to the Regiment on October 3, 1863, and was transferred to Company K on December 24, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia. On December 27 Henry was again hospitalized for having reopened his old wound, and at some point he was returned to duty. But his wounds failed to heal properly and on February 1, 1864, he was suffering from “contracted flexor muscles of right hand from old wound.” He was absent in the hospital from March 12 to May 4 (he may have been sent back to Company F on March 20, 1864, at Camp Bullock Virginia). He was mustered out on June 20, 1864, at Detroit at Detroit.

Following his discharge from the army Henry returned to Algoma where on September 24, 1864, he married Elizabeth Ann Botruff (1842-1912), sister of Isaac Botruff who had enlisted in Company C. They had at least seven children: Sarah Catharine (1865-1905), Rhoda Ann (b. 1869), Peter B. (1872-1937), an infant (b. 1873), Francis Henry (b. 1876), Samuel J. (1877-1954) and Willis L. (b. 1880).

By 1870 Henry was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Algoma, next door to his parents. By 1880 Henry was working as a laborer and living with three of his children in Algoma. For many years Henry lived in Cedar Springs where he worked as a farmer, and was reportedly living in Cedar Springs in 1888, 1890 and 1894.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, and in 1863 he applied for and received pension no. 71,856.

Henry was admitted to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 5879) on November 3, 1910, and dropped at his own request on November 18, 1911. By 1915 he was living in Levering, Emmet County. He was readmitted to the Home on July 11, 1916, and dropped on April 16, 1917.

Henry became seriously ill about July 5, 1918, and was a widower when he died of apoplexy at his son Peter’s home at 1350 Broadway Street in Grand Rapids on July 27, 1918. He was buried in Algoma cemetery: 53-11. (His wife is apparently buried in Cedar Springs cemetery.)

Ira W. Lyon - updated 1/18/2016

Ira W. Lyon was born in 1813 in New York.

Ira W. Lyon was born in January of 1819 in New York, the son of Aaron (1781-1858) and Eunice (Stockwell, 1796-1842). Ira married New York native Mary E. Woodbeck (b. 1834) in January of 1849, and they had at least two children: Nelson (b. 1852), Ella (b. 1859), Frank (1862-1919).

Ira and Mary settled in Michigan by 1853 and by 1860 Ira was living with his family and working as a farmer in Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan. Also living with Ira were his younger brother Andrew and two young children named Shoemaker: John (b. 1855) and Christina (b. 1859), both born in Michigan. (They were probably related to the Shoemaker family living near Ira and his family in Pewamo in 1870.) By 1858 his father Aaron was living in Lyons, Ionia County when he died in November of that year.

Ira was a 49-year-old farmer possibly living in Lyons when he enlisted in Company A on September 26, 1862 at Lansing. (There is no service record found in the 3rd Michigan records at the National Archives.) He was discharged on May 8, 1863, at Detroit on account of a disabled right arm.

Ira eventually returned to Michigan and by July of 1863 he was back in Lyons, Ionia County.

By 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his brother Andrew and his family on a farm in Lyons. By 1880 Ira was a widower and living with his brother Andrew and his wife Jane and their family in Pewamo, Ionia County.

There is some confusion between the 1860 and 1870 census records. In 1860 Mary is listed right after Ira's name followed by their "two children," and Andrew, Ira's brother is listed after the children and right before the Shoemaker children. In 1870, however, Andrew is listed as head of the household followed by Mary and the children and Ira is listed last.

No pension seems to be available.

Charles D. Lyon

Charles D. Lyon was born on June 28, 1836 in Parrishville (or Parkersville), St. Lawrence County, New York, son of Truman Hawley Lyon (1801-1872) and Lucinda (Farnam, 1801-1899).

Truman was born in Shelburne, Vermont, married Vermonter Lucinda and moved to Michigan shortly after Charles was born (in 1836 or in June of 1837), and settled the family in Lyons, Ionia County where he kept a hotel and served as postmaster, justice of the peace and judge. “In 1838 he was appointed superintendent of lighthouses on Lake Michigan” and in 1840 moved the family to Grand Rapids where he kept the Bridge Street House until 1842 and afterwards the Rathbun House. He tried running a “temperance” house but it proved unsuccessful and he reapplied for a tavern license in 1844.

Truman was also involved in the cloth business and was an officer in the Grand Rapids Chair company. He served as Postmaster whenever a Democrat held the presidency, and he held that position from 1844-49, and from 1853-58. He also served as a member of the Kent County Board of Supervisor and in the Michigan State Senate from 1853-54, and was also actively involved in the development of education in the city. In 1845 he built a home at 280 (c. 1892) East Fulton Street, and as of 1995 it was still standing as no. 222. By 1860 Truman was a retired hotel-keeper of substantial wealth.

In 1859 Charles joined the Valley City Guard, a prewar Grand Rapids militia company whose members would form the nucleus of Company A, and on December 3, 1860 was elected Second Lieutenant, replacing Fred Schriver who had been promoted. In 1860 Charles was a clerk for the American Express Company and living with his family at 55 Fulton between Jefferson and Lafayette Streets in Grand Rapids Third Ward.

Charles was 25 years old when he enlisted as Second Lieutenant of Company A, although the Grand Rapids Enquirer of May 15, 1861, listed him as commanding the Portland company which would form part of Company E. (Indeed, He is not listed in the regimental descriptive rolls for Company A.)

On May 26, 1861, Rebecca Richmond, teenaged daughter of William Richmond, one of the Grand Rapids’ most influential businessmen, noted in her diary that Lyon was baptized along with Israel Smith (another officer of the Third Michigan infantry) and several others by Rev. Cuming at St. Mark’s. “We were all happy to see,” she wrote, “these two promising young men of our city come forward and enroll themselves under Christ's banner and prepare for the Christian warfare before going for to fight their country's battle. May they never desert either flag.”

One source reported that Charles had replaced the Regimental Adjutant, Edward Earle, who was forced to remain behind in Grand Rapids when the regiment left Michigan on June 13, 1861, for Washington.

It is quite possible that it was Charles who wrote a letter to his parents which was subsequently reprinted in the Grand Rapids Enquirer in late July, in which the writer described the action at Blackburn’s Ford, Virginia, on July 18, just three days before the federal retreat from Bull Run. The Regiment arrived on the heights overlooking the crossing of the Run about noon

and advanced about a mile beyond this spot, when we discovered a battery in the mountain ahead. We immediately fired into them with cannon; but did not hear from them or see anything more. We kept firing deployed as skirmishers. I was in command of the center platoon. As soon as we deployed, the batteries of the enemy opened upon us, killing two of the artillery. The skirmishers advanced, when they opened on us with rifles, with a whole regiment. We had only 150 skirmishers out. I had about 50 under my command. We advanced through small pines, about five feet high, dodging from bush to bush, when we came in sight of the enemy over the Run, on a level with us. We fired and loaded, lying flat on the ground, their balls passing a foot over our heads all around us. We were there some time, when the call came to retreat, the enemy advancing up the hill, whole battalions firing as they came. We retreated, dropping on the ground as the time for volleys came, until we came out of the bushes. The enemy firing all the time, and kept it up for an hour. We rallied behind the Massachusetts regiment, when we were ordered down the ravine, around to the right. We only went a few rods, when the enemy were upon us. We then retreated. We were then ordered down the second time by some fool, and not by the general. We only went to the brink of the hill, where I ordered my boys to not to go any further, and soon ordered a retreat.

There several killed among the skirmishers, but none from my detail of 47 men. Only one wounded (his name is Ed. Morse). He will be as well as ever in a few days. I heard that one of the reporters had it that Peter Weber was wounded. This is not so; he is sick a little from fatigue, with several others. Weber, Littlefield, Cavanaugh, Chas. Sweet, and all the boys were the bravest of the brave. The general said he never saw regulars stand as well as our skirmishers. My men were the last to come out. The whole brigade supposed that there was not a man left of our skirmishers. They greeted us as lost-friends found. Bullets flew around, over, and beside us, and everywhere. i do not know how any of us got out alive; but so it is. Our boys brought down a dozen that we know of; and with the cannonading we hear that the enemy lost 1000 men. We lost about 60, and over 100 wounded. None of the Grand Rapids boys were wounded.

We shall probably not attack them before Sunday, when we shall have 90,000 troops to march. We have 50,000 now, and batteries without number. General Scott is here, and is angry about the attack. He thinks we ought to have fell [sic] back until reinforcements came up. The battle was commenced by Colonel Richardson, of the Michigan 2d, with only one brigade. We fell back at 4 o'clock, about 3 miles, where we stayed till morning, when we advanced again, and were planting batteries. Today we cover and guard the baggage.

The general says we did all the fighting, and we were the only ones that need small arms. The batteries did the work on both sides. Believe no reports until you get the official, as none will be reliable. I wrote this on a cartridge box, in a field, under a cherry tree, with all my platoon around me talking about the fight.

We drove the enemy from Fairfax's Court House -- seven miles, without a shot. Here they made the stand. Ball and shell flew yesterday for miles around. I will write you again -- if I live -- after the battle is over.

On the morning of July 21, 1861, the day of the Union fiasco at Bull Run, Virginia, Sergeant Daniel Littlefield of Company A wrote in his journal, “I feel quite sick & weak this morning. Charlie Lyons looks miserable but he will have to lay out; we are stationed to guard a hospital.”

Charles was commissioned First Lieutenant on August 1, 1861, and, according to the Regimental descriptive rolls was promoted to Captain on October 28, 1861, and assigned to Company K. However, two days later, the men of Company K petitioned Lyon asking him to refuse the command of the company.

“We the undersigned members of Company K,” they wrote, “having learned that you have been appointed to take command of said company, [and] thereby doing gross injustice to those entitled to promotion within our own ranks, therefore, we do hereby earnestly, but respectfully request, that you will decline to take the command of said company. We trust, therefore, that your sense of justice and honor will deter you from assuming the command of this company against the unanimous wishes of every member thereof.” The letter was signed by virtually every member of the company.

Charles did not resign, but conflict was temporarily avoided, however, when he was detached in November and sent home to Grand Rapids to recruit for the Regiment. According to one member of Company A, by November 6, Lyon along with orderly Sergeant James Cavanaugh of Company A were in Grand Rapids recruiting for the Regiment. Recruiting duty proved less than burdensome, as Rebecca Richmond noted in her diary on January 3, 1862.

Last evening attended a party at the Rathbun House given [in honor of] Captain Charlie Lyon of the 3rd Mich. Inf. and Capt. Chester Hindsill of the commissary department in Missouri. The former is recruiting here for the “Pet Third,” and the latter is spending a few days furlough. There were about 50 guests present, mostly young gentlemen and ladies of my circle, with some younger and a very few married people. It was a very pleasant, nicely conducted affair, and every one seemed to enjoy the evening exceedingly; so much so, that, when I left, at one o'clock this a.m., a large part of the company was still dancing. I enjoyed it so much the more for having been very quiet and domestic since before Christmas time. Until about 10 o'clock we occupied ourselves in the drawing room with conversation and friendly greetings, some of us not having met before for some time; then we repaired to the dining hall and spent the remainder of the night in dancing after the music of two violins. My gallant partners were as follows: Capt. Charles Lyon, Capt. Chester Hindsill, Messers. Avery, Charley Lyon, Thomas Mitchell, Ed. Will, Backus Bolza, Smith, Cole, and Chipman.

In fact, one man in Company K, Alvah Bonney, wrote home to his father in Newaygo County, on November 23, that their captain had been made major -- and was quite the military man -- but “They have put a mean dirty coward over us by the name of Lyon. He is at the Rapids recruiting for the Co and he had best stay there if he wants to keep out of hot water for the whole Co was mad at him before he was put in as capt. . .” It is unclear what Bonney referred to here about Lyon being in trouble with the men of the company before his appointment, nor did he elaborate on why he thought Lyon a coward.

For the moment, however Lyons stayed out of “hot water” and in Grand Rapids. Still, recruiting posed its own set of problems.

Lyon wrote on March 15, 1862, to Adjutant General John Robertson in Detroit, to complain that Wisconsin recruiters were in Michigan.

I hear from good authority, that a Capt. Grant and Lieutenant are recruiting at Bradley P.O., Allegan co. Mich. for an Independent regt. of Wisconsin Head Quarters at Milwaukee or Racine. The Lieut. and Sergt L. L. Davis are at Bradley now, I believe, and have some 30 recruits ‘according to my informant’ intending to leave a week from Monday 17th Mar. I also hear that they have had a man in this place enlisting. This is from a reliable man residing at Bradley. One of the posters used by the Sergt in this place was sent to Col. Backus some time since. These men should not be allowed to leave the State, going into a regt. of Wisconsin. I report this case it being contrary to your order published some time since.

By June of 1862 Charles had rejoined the Regiment and took actual command of Company K as the Army of the Potomac began it spring campaign by moving up the Virginia “peninsula” towards Richmond. On May 31, 1862, the Regiment suffered significant losses during the battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia. Although Lyon was initially reported as wounded during the engagement, in fact he was unhurt. He was, however, suffering from chronic diarrhea, and soon returned home to recover his health.

Rebecca Richmond wrote in her diary on June 13 that Lyon was expected home soon on a furlough to recover from sickness, and by the middle of the month Lyon had returned home “not wounded but sick -- he is now improving.”

He was absent with leave from June 30, 1862 and on October 8 wrote to Adjutant General Robertson, “I have the honor to tender my resignation as Captain of Compy. ‘K’ 3d Mich Vols. on account of permanent disability -- set forth in the accompanying Surgeon Certificate.” On that same day, Walter Morrison, Assistant Surgeon for the Regiment, wrote in his report accompanying Lyon’s resignation that Lyon was “unfit for the service because of debility, the result of chronic diarrhea since July 1, 1861, being unfit for service the greater part of the time since, at which time said Officer suffered from excessive fatigue while on march to and from Centreville, Virginia, July 16 & 20th, 1861, to which he attributes his disease. I would therefore recommend his resignation as a means of preventing permanent disability. The degree of disability I would place at three-fourths.” Lyon officially resigned on account of chronic diarrhea on October 25, 1862 at Upton’s Hill, Virginia.

Charles returned to Grand Rapids on November 4, 1862, and on that same day Rebecca Richmond wrote in her diary that “I learn today of Charlie Lyon's return from Virginia. Ill health incapacitates him for further active service in the cause of his country.” He was quite possibly residing in Janesville, Rock County, Wisconsin in July of 1863 when he gave an affidavit in the pension application of Alex McIntire, who had also served in Company K.

He eventually reentered the service in the Veteran's Reserve Corps, and on October 29, 1863, the War Department, under Special Order no. 443 directed Lyon to report “in person without delay for duty” to Colonel E. B. Alexander of the Tenth United States infantry, and Assistant Provost Marshal General headquartered St. Louis, Missouri. (The VRC was made up of men who while ambulatory were generally incapable of performing regular military tasks due to having suffered debilitating wounds and/or diseases and were assigned to garrison the many supply depots, draft rendezvous, camps, forts, prisons, etc. scattered throughout the northern cities, thus freeing able-bodied men for regular military duty.)

By mid-1864 Charles was stationed at Fort McClellan in Davenport, Iowa, where Captain George Judd (also formerly of Company A and now in the VRC) was also stationed.
In late July Charles returned to his home in Grand Rapids for a short furlough. “He is now stationed,” wrote the Eagle, “at Camp McClellan, Davenport, Iowa, where Capt. Geo. E. Judd is also located. ‘Charley’ reports the captain in good health, and everything prosperous in that camp.” By February 28, 1865, he was stationed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serving as Captain of Company E, Fourth Regiment VRC., and was still posted to Milwaukee in early June when he returned home on furlough. He quite probably returned to his duty station in Milwaukee until he was discharged from the army.

After he left the army Charles returned to Grand Rapids and opened the grocery and liquor business of Lyon & Cody at 65 Canal Street and was boarding at the Rathbun House. He was a witness at the wedding of Dan Crotty, formerly of Company F, in June of 1867, and by 1868-69 he was living at his family’s home on Fulton Street near Jefferson Avenue in Grand Rapids.

Indeed, he lived his entire postwar life in Grand Rapids, mostly at 33 South Lafayette Street in the Third Ward where he married New York native Emma Sears (1847-1941) on August 10, 1870. (In July he had been reported working as a grocer and living with his parents in the Third Ward; he owned some $5,000 worth of real estate and his father owned $22,000 worth of real estate.)

Charles entered into a partnership with his old friend Chester Hindsill and his brother Henry in the book business at 22 Canal Street, and by 1870 the Hindsills were bought out by Charles W. Eaton and the business became known as the Eaton-Lyon bookstore. By 1880 Charles was operating a bookstore and he and his wife were living with her parents on Lafayette Street in Grand Rapids Third Ward. (That same year his father was operating a hotel in the Third Ward.) His shop was moved to 20-22 Monroe Street in 1881 and they joined with two other men to add a publishing house to their business. He also entered into partnership with his brother Farnham who ran the Rathbun House until about 1874.

Charles retired from business in 1902.

He was a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, the Loyal Legion and Sigma Pi fraternity of the University of Michigan. In 1904 he applied for and received a pension (no. 1100287).

Charles died of myocarditis at his home on Lafayette Street at about midnight on Wednesday January 17, 1917, and the funeral service was held at the residence at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. He was buried in Oak Hill cemetery: section 9 lot 4.

Thomas Lynch

Thomas Lynch was born 1839 in Ireland.

Thomas immigrated to America and eventually settled in western Michigan sometime before 1860 when he was working as a laborer living with another Irish laborer Thomas Burns and a farmer from New York by the name of Charles Taylor, in Clay Banks, Oceana County.

Thomas was 22 years old and still residing in Clay Banks when he enlisted in Company I on May 13, 1861. He was detached working as a pioneer from July of 1862 through October, and he may have been wounded during the action at Fredericksburg, Virginia on December 13, 1862. If so he was eventually returned to duty and was slightly wounded on May 6, 1864, at the Wilderness, Virginia. He was mustered out of service in June of 1864.

It is not known if Thomas returned to Michigan after he was mustered out. He lived in Orange, Texas and worked for some years as an engineer.

In 1876 he applied for a pension (no. 221768).

Thomas returned to Michigan and was admitted as a single man to the Michigan Soldiers’ Home (no. 1476) on February 20, 1891.

He died of consumption in the Home hospital on May 27, 1891, and was buried in the Home cemetery: section 3 row 9 grave 7.

Lyman B. Lull Jr.

Lyman B. Lull Jr. was born in 1842 in Beverly (?), Canada, the son of Lyman B. Sr. (b. 1801) and Harriet (Patrick, b. 1803).

His parents were both born in Vermont and probably married there. They eventually settled in New York sometime before 1833 and by 1836 had moved to Canada where they remained for at least six years before moving to Michigan. By 1850 the family had settled in Vergennes, Kent County, and Lyman was attending school with his siblings. By 1860 Lyman Jr. was a farm laborer working for and/or living with Edwin Will, a wealthy farmer in Cannon, Kent County, while his father and stepmother Amy were living in Lowell, Kent County where Lyman Sr. worked as a farmer.

Lyman Jr. stood 5’5” with blue eyes, dark hair and a fair complexion and was 19 years old and may have been residing in Muskegon County when he enlisted with his parents’ consent in Company H on May 6, 1861. He had been promoted to Corporal by the time he was shot in the left thigh on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia.

On June 8 Lull was hospitalized, and by the first week in July he was a patient in Buttonwood Street hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and as of July 26, he was in the Fifth Street hospital in Philadelphia and reported to be “doing well.” It was noted in his medical records that “The gun-shot ball passed on right hip -- 1 inch above troc. major and directly backwards, was extracted 1 inch from anus.” He remained hospitalized until he was discharged for gunshot wound of the left thigh on December 20, 1862, at Germantown near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It is not known if Lyman ever returned to Michigan.

In fact, it appears that he remained in Philadelphia while he applied for a pension in late 1863. In his pension application statement of November 7, 1863, he claimed that “pieces of bone still continue to come from the wound.” (He was granted pension no. 104,119.) (His father and stepmother Amy were living in Lowell and Vergennes, Kent County in 1870.)

He was still living in Philadelphia when he reentered the service in Company B, One hundred ninety-eighth Pennsylvania infantry on August 15, 1864, at Philadelphia for 1 year, listing his occupation as dentist, and crediting Philadelphia, Fourteenth Ward. He was detailed as a provost guard in September of 1864 and was the left general guide of the Regiment with rank of Sergeant on October 18, and was absent sick in Jarvis hospital in Baltimore, Maryland from November through February 1865. In fact he was in the hospital from December 5-6, 1864, no diagnosis given; and was reported as a Sergeant from December 7 to 25, 1864, suffering from acute rheumatism, and again from December 26, 1864 to January 9, 1865, and January 9 to February 23, when he was returned to duty. In January and February of 1865 he reportedly owed the sutler $8.00, and in March and April owed $15.00 to the sutler. He was mustered out on June 3, 1865 in the field, still owing the sutler $15.00.

Lyman returned to Philadelphia where he lived out the rest of his life.

He was married twice, first to Grace Edgar Jones (d. 1879), and second, in October of 1881 to Sarah Amanda Strunk, both in Philadelphia.

In late November of 1892 he was seriously injured in an explosion of illuminating gas at the S. S. Shite dental supply company, Twelfth and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia. In 1900 Lull reported to the Medical Division of the Pension Department that at the time of the explosion he had his “ribs and wrist broken and spine injured [and] was confined to my bed for several months then, and in very poor health for several years after. In 1898 I commenced to grow much worse and in October and for several months after was almost entirely helpless. I finally went to the ‘Howard Hospital’ [in Philadelphia] and was treated for spinal trouble there by Dr. J. Madison Taylor who said he had no doubt it was caused by an injury and the above injury is the only one I ever received, except [for the] gunshot wound while in the army. I am obliged to wear an iron frame now and the Dr. gives me no hope of ever being able to go without it.”

Lyman was living in Philadelphia in 1890 and in June of 1898 he was living at the southeast corner of Twelfth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, the following year he was residing at 853 Perkimonen or Peckromen Street, Philadelphia, and in May of 1912 he was residing at 976 North Sixty-sixth Street in Philadelphia.

Hiram C. and Townsend M. Luce

Hiram C. Luce was born on February 29, 1828, in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, the son of Abijah (1792-1875) and Nancy (Norton, b. 1790).

Abijah was born on Martha’s Vineyard and resided there for many years. He reportedly served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812 (and in fact he claimed to have been captured off Lisbon, Portugal).

He married Massachusetts native Nancy Norton in 1813 and eventually settled his family in Rhode Island around 1835. After Nancy died around the same time, Abijah married Sarah Townsend Foster (1802-1841) in 1836, in Bristol, Rhode Island and she died in 1841 in Bristol. Throughout the second half of the 1830s Abijah owned and operated a steam mill in Bristol. In 1840 he was vice president of the Bristol Seaman’s Friend Society and in 1841 was President of the Bristol Suffrage Association.

In any case, Abijah soon moved his family westward, settling in Michigan along the Grand River in the mid-1840s and in 1846 he married New York native Violette or Violetta Davis (1803-1878) in Kent County, Michigan. By 1850 Abijah and his wife Violette and their children were living in Paris, Kent County, Michigan where Hiram worked as a farmer with his father.

Hiram was reportedly working as a mariner and probably living in Rhode Island when he married Rhode Island native Sarah Abbie Lake (1828-1913), on January 5, 1852, in Bristol, Rhode Island, and they had at least four and possibly five children: Virginia W. (1852-1856), Hattie B. (b. 1859), Mildred, Hiram (b. 1862), and Julia May (b. 1869).

Hiram had moved to Michigan by 1856 when Virginia died, and by 1860 Hiram was working as a grocer and living with his wife and child in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward. (His parents were living in Paris, Kent County.) Sometime in early 1861 Hiram became a member of the Valley City Guards, the prewar Grand Rapids militia company whose members would form the nucleus for Company A.

He stood 5’5” with blue eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 33 years old and probably still living in Grand Rapids when he enlisted in Company A on May 13, 1861. (His younger half-brother Townsend enlisted in Company F.) By November of 1862 Hiram was employed as a clerk in the Third Brigade commissary. The following month he accepted the appointment of Master’s Mate, United States Navy, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia.

Hiram was appointed a Mate on the U.S. Navy on December 11, 1862, and ordered to report to the Navy Yard in New York City. He failed to report, however and his appointment was revoked on January 19, 1863. In 1889 Hiram claimed that in fact he did report to New York but that Admiral Paulding gave him a leave of absence. Upon returning home he found a letter informing him that his appointment had been revoked. “I made no attempt,” he informed the Pension Bureau, “to make it right but came home.”

Hiram returned to his home in Grand Rapids where he reentered the service in Company E, Tenth Michigan cavalry on February 25, 1865, for one year and was mustered on March 8, crediting Paris, Kent County. Hiram joined the Regiment at Sweetwater, Tennessee on March 6, and possibly participated in Stoneman’s expedition into east Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and west North Carolina from March 21-April 25; the regiment was on duty at Lenoir and Sweetwater, Tennessee from about May until August and in west Tennessee until November. Hiram was promoted to hospital steward on September 1, and was mustered out of service with the regiment on November 11, 1865, at Memphis, Tennessee.

Hiram returned to western Michigan after the war and by 1870 he was working as a farmer and living with his wife and children in Cascade, Kent County. (His parents were living in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward in 1870.) Around 1872-74 he and his sister Sarah Vosburg and their families moved to Martinsburg, WV, where they tried farming.

Sometime in the mid-1870s, Hiram moved back to Rhode Island and employed as a rubber worker and boarding on High street near Bourne in Providence, in 1876-77. He appears was probably living in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1879-82, and was a rubber worker living with his wife and three children in Bristol, Rhode Island in 1880. In fact, he might very well be the same Hiram C. Luce who appears as a member of the Hope Lodge of the Masons in Bristol in 1884.

In any case, Hiram and his family eventually returned to Michigan and for some years he worked as a clerk. He was residing in Paris, Kent County when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association in December of 1890.

In 1888 Hiram was living in Grand Rapids when he applied for and received a pension (no. 493974).

Hiram died of consumption at his home at 1028 Fifth Avenue in Grand Rapids on June 14, 1896, and the funeral was held from his residence on the afternoon of June 16. He was buried in Oak Hill cemetery: section 10 lot 35; see photos G-155 and P-54.

In July of 1896 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 432781). She was living at 22 Crawford Street in Grand Rapids where she died in December of 1913.

Townsend M. Luce, alias “Byron Hickle,” was born on March 17, 1838, in Bristol, Bristol County, Rhode Island, the son of Abijah (1792-1875) and Sarah (Townsend Foster, b. 1790).

Abijah was born on Martha’s Vineyard and resided there for many years. He reportedly served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812 (and in fact he claimed to have been captured off Lisbon, Portugal).

He married Massachusetts native Nancy Norton in 1813 and eventually settled his family in Rhode Island around 1835. After Nancy died sometime in the early 1830s, Abijah married Sarah Townsend Foster (1802-1841) in 1836, probably in Rhode Island; she died in 1841 in Bristol, Rhode Island. Throughout the second half of the 1830s Abijah owned and operated a steam mill in Bristol. In 1840 he was vice president of the Bristol Seaman’s Friend Society and in 1841 was President of the Bristol Suffrage Association.

In any case, Abijah soon moved his family westward, settling in Michigan along the Grand River in the mid-1840s and in 1846 he married New York native Violette or Violetta Davis (1803-1878) in Kent County, Michigan. By 1850 Abijah and his wife Violette and their children were living in Paris, Kent County, Michigan, where Townsend attended school with his younger sister Sarah, while his older half-brother Hiram, who would also join the Third Michigan, worked on the family farm.

In 1857 Townsend married New York native Carrie Finch (b. 1838), reportedly in Ottawa County, and they had at least one child: Addie (b. 1859).

By 1860 Townsend was a farmer of some wealth living with his wife and daughter in Cannon, Kent County. (His parents were living in Paris, Kent County.)

Townsend was 23 years old when he enlisted as Second Corporal in Company F on May 13, 1861 (his older half-brother Hiram joined Company A). He was promoted to 5th Sergeant in August of 1861.

Sometime probably in the first half of 1862, Townsend wrote a letter home to his parents, in which he attempted to reflect on his character and his previous life, pointing out that he was “sinful by nature.” He then observed how sorely he wanted to be home and what he wouldn’t give for “what you would have for supper. . . .” He spoke of someone named Davis writing a letter to a woman or girl named Mary and then said, “that lately I have thought much of old Kate. Is she well poor old thing; it is time she was turned out for good. I have wronged her too; who have I not wronged? Well I am paying for it both bodily and mentally.” He then added a note to his father asking about the family livestock. “How do the sheep & lambs look? they must be fine. Please let the Durham calf run with the cows. Father do not be discouraged about this war, tis all right. This is a big wheel & takes a great while to get it started but it will be successful. If you could only see the troops here in our new place of camp you would be astonished. . . .Our camp now is three miles northwest of the city it is not so good a situation as Arlington. This wing of the army is very strong and will come in behind Manassas Junction some fine morning. The men are all in good spirits.”

He closed by thanking his father for some recent financial assistance, saying that he had been unfortunate in some endeavor during the past year but that he was going to try again. “Hoping you are all right I remain your Thankful son, Townsend Luce.”

Townsend was present for duty through much of the first half of 1862 but on May 8, 1862, he was reduced to the rank of Private. He was reported a private and a deserter on August 23, 1862, at Alexandria, Virginia, although in fact he had apparently been hospitalized in Alexandria.

On September 5 he was among a group of sick and wounded soldiers who had been brought to New York City from Alexandria aboard the steamer Daniel Webster, on September 5. He was soon afterwards officially returned to the Regiment from desertion but on September 18 was listed as under arrest, apparently at the hospital, and he deserted from the hospital at David’s Island, New York harbor sometime in November of 1862.

Townsend eventually returned to his home in Cannon, Michigan.

On August 26, 1863, Townsend was arrested for desertion by one of the deputy provost marshals and Grand Rapids City Marshal George Dodge, who, curiously enough had formerly served in Company F, Third Michigan infantry; Dodge must have certainly known Townsend. In any case, the Grand Rapids Eagle reported

Early yesterday morning Provost Marshal Bailey received information that a deserter, by the name of Town. Luce, for whom he and his deputies had long been searching, arrived on the night train, and was probably secreted somewhere in the city. The necessary means were at once taken to spot his hiding place, and during the day it was ascertained that he would probably be found at the house of Mr. Belknap, last night. Deputy Provost Marshal Cady, and City Marshal Dodge, with some assistants, were detailed for the business of arresting him, and on searching the house, the stray soldier was found secreted between the upper and nether ticks of the bed, the whole attempted to be disguised by the presence of his wife, who occupied the upper story of the bed. -- The officers, very ungallantly, perhaps, invited him to come forth from his hiding place, and leave the soft dalliance of woman for a short residence at the boarding house kept by one Vanauken [jailer], whence he will soon be sent to the Regiment from which he deserted. Deserters are beginning to find that ‘Jordan is a hard road to travel.’

Townsend was sent back to the Regiment and placed under arrest at Alexandria, Virginia. He was quite possibly forwarded on to the regiment while it was in Troy, New York, in September.

In any case, he was on duty with the regiment after it returned from New York to Virginia and was bivouacked in Alexandria, Virginia in early October of 1863. According to Charles Wright of Company A, Luce feared for his life. Writing to his sister on October 2, 1863 Wright stated that “Townsend Luce, of the Third Michigan is here; he was catched [sic] at Detroit [and] he thinks he will be shot.” Townsend reportedly deserted for on December 9, 1863, at Alexandria, Virginia. He was still on the List of Deserters in late February of 1864.

According to his Third Michigan infantry service record Townsend apparently went to New York where he reentered the service under the name of Byron Hickle. Claiming he was from London (England or Ontario is unclear) a “Byron Hicks” enlists in Unassigned, One hundred and ninety-fourth New York infantry on March 23, 1865, in Rochester, New York. He was mustered out of the service on May 1 or 10, 1865 at Elmira, New York. Apparently on his way back home to Western Michigan, Townsend was again arrested as a deserter on May 22, 1865, in Detroit by one J. Rodman of Company E, Second Veterans’ Reserve Corps.

There is no further record. There is no pension record for either Townsend Luce or a Byron Hickle or Byron Hicks.

It is fairly clear that Townsend was probably court martialed and sent to the penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa. It is unknown what became of his wife Carrie. Interestingly, in 1870 one Ada Luce, age 11 (probably Townsend’s daughter Addie) was living with Townsend’s parents, Abijah and his wife Violette in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward. In fact, when Abijah died in 1875 he left his entire estate to his wife Violette; after her death everything was to go to Addie. No mention of any of his other children, and certainly not Hiram or Townsend.

Townsend is reported as a “physician-convict” in the Fort Madison prison census for 1870; he listed his place of birth as Massachusetts. Townsend was eventually released from prison but did not return to Michigan.

He eventually married Ohio native Mary Elizabeth Stevens Reed (b. 1843) on May 27, 1873 in Montgomery County, Missouri and they have at least two children: an adopted daughter Fannie Amelia Hensley (b. 1873) and Gertrude (b. 1876).

By 1880 Townsend is working as a physician and living with his wife and two daughters in Prairie Township, Montgomery County, Missouri. (He reportedly received his medical license in Missouri in 1887.) Townsend is reported living in LaGrange, Adams County, Illinois in 1892, but in 1900 is listed in Prairie township, Montgomery County, Missouri. By 1910 he is living in St. Louis.

Townsend died of heart failure on January 12, 1917, in St. Louis, Missouri and was buried in Providence Cemetery, near Wellsville in Audrain County, Missouri. Mary was living her daughter Gertrude Werly and family in Taney County, Missouri, when she died on January 10,1930.

Benjamin Luce, sutler

Benjamin Luce was born in 1815 in New York.

Benjamin left New York and moved westward, eventually settling in Grand Rapids in 1837, just four years after the first permanent settlement had been established along the banks of the Grand River. He probably served in a Michigan Regiment during the Mexican-American War.

He was probably married twice, but his first wife’s name is unknown. He married his second wife, Celeste Marion Brundige (1833-1876), on March 5, 1857.

Luce was actively involved in the organization and development of the Valley City Guard, one of three prewar Grand Rapids militia companies and whose members would serve as the nucleus for Company A, Third Michigan infantry in 1861. In fact, Luce was probably one of the charter members of the company in 1855, and by February 12, 1858, he was elected to replace Third Lieutenant Milton Littlefield. Luce continued to serve as Third Lieutenant until he resigned (reasons unknown) on December 3, 1860. That same year he was working as a United States mail agent and living with his wife and children in Grand Rapids, First Ward.

On April 26, 1861, the Grand Rapids Enquirer reported that Captain Lucius Patterson and Ben Luce, among others, were “engaged in getting up a new military company, to take its place in the second Regiment,” then forming in Grand Rapids and soon to be renumbered the third Regiment. The name of this particular unit, according to the Enquirer on April 30, was to be the “Michigan Union Guards” and it already had “the name[s] of 61 privates on its roll, with recruiting officers around the County, who have not yet reported. Captain Lucius Patterson, First Lieutenant Benj. Luce, Second Lieutenant Frederick W. Worden, First Sergeant A. C. McKenzie.”

For whatever reason, however, this unit never materialized and its privates were amalgamated into other companies then forming in Grand Rapids, notably Company A which grew out of the former Valley City Guard and Company B which began as the old Grand Rapids Artillery militia company. Fred Worden joined Company B, and at the age of 46 Luce was appointed Sutler of the Third Michigan infantry.

Benjamin was with the Regiment when it departed Grand Rapids for Washington on June 13, 1861, and after the war Dan Crotty of Company F told the story that on June 15-16, 1861, on the train from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Baltimore, the rumor went around the Regiment that the engineer was a rebel and had plans to tip the train into a ditch. “We have,” Crotty wrote, “an engineer too, and our gallant Sutler, Ben Luce, mounts the engine and tells the rebel that if he plays us false he will be the first to suffer with his life. No accidents happen, however.”

In addition to providing the soldiers with various amenities unavailable through their own Quartermaster Departments, Luce made frequent loans of cash and goods on credit to the men and officers of the Third Michigan. For example, Captain Stephen Lowing of Company I wrote home in October of 1862 asking his brother-in-law to pay Luce’s wife $30.00, which he had borrowed from the sutler.

Benjamin apparently returned to Michigan in the summer of 1862, and was reported on July 24 to be staying at the Michigan Exchange Hotel in Detroit. Luce eventually returned to Virginia, but, for whatever reason, by the fall of 1863 he had apparently left the Regiment as sutler and returned home to western Michigan.

On September 14, 1863, the Grand Rapids Eagle reported that Luce had recently returned to Grand Rapids and accepted the appointment as Sutler of the Eleventh Michigan cavalry, then being organized at Kalamazoo. After working as a Sutler in the Army of the Cumberland, he returned home to Grand Rapids in mid-December of 1864. It is not known if he ever rejoined the Army of the Cumberland.

After the war Benjamin resumed his various businesses such as real estate and loans in Grand Rapids.

In 1865-68 he was residing at 29 Greenwich Street in Grand Rapids, and by 1880-81 he was engaged in real estate and loans with an office at 41 Monroe Street, and his residence was at 11 (old) Clinton Street. In 1870 he was still working as a real estate agent (he owned some $10,000 worth of real estate) and was living with his wife, Rhode Island native Marion C. (b. 1833), and two sons in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward.

Benjamin was a member of the Old Settlers’ Association, a member of the Mexican War Veterans’ association of the State of Michigan, a Democrat and a Freemason.

Benjamin died from a “lingering illness” on Sunday October 10, 1880, at his home, 11 Clinton Street, and the funeral service was held at the residence at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday October 12. He was buried in Fulton cemetery: block 10, lot 25 grave 4.

John R. Lucas

John R. Lucas was born in 1842 in Lenawee County, Michigan, probably the son of Reuben (b. 1808) and Melinda (b. 1805).

New York natives Reuben and Melinda were married sometime before 1832, probably in New York where they resided for some years. Between 1836 and 1838 Reuben moved his family to Michigan, eventually settling in Hudson, Lenawee County by 1840. By 1850 John was attending school with several of his siblings and living with his family in Hudson or Median, Lenawee County, where his father worked as a cooper. By 1860 John was working as a farm laborer and living with his family in Hudson village, Lenawee County.

John stood 6’2” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 19 years and possibly living in Detroit with his guardian, one E. Robinson, when he enlisted at the age of 19 in Unassigned on August 30, 1862, at Detroit for 3 years, crediting Bennington, Shiawassee County. (He is not found in the 1905 Third Michigan Regimental history, although he is in the Tenth Michigan cavalry Regimental history.)

In fact, he apparently never joined the Third Michigan but was instead transferred to or enlisted in Company H, Tenth Michigan cavalry on August 31, 1863, at Bennington for 3 years, and was mustered on September 2 probably at Grand Rapids where the regiment was organized between September 18 and November 18, 1863, when it was mustered into service. It left Michigan for Lexington, Kentucky on December 1, 1863, and participated in numerous operations, mostly in Kentucky and Tennessee throughout the winter of 1863-64. Most of its primary area of operations would eventually be in the vicinity of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee.

He was on detached service in Kentucky in November of 1864, still on detached duty in Athens, Tennessee in January of 1865, and on furlough from sometime in July through August. He was reported as a bugler, and mustered out with the regiment on November 11, 1865, at Memphis, Tennessee.

John returned to Michigan after the war.

He married New York Mary Eliza (b. 1853), and they had at least two children: Lena (b. 1875) and David (b. 1877).

By 1880 John was working as a cooper and living in Butler, Branch County with his wife and two children; he was still living in Butler in 1890. He was living in Coldwater, Branch County around 1900.

In 1876 he applied for and received a pension (no. 243629?).

He probably died in 1916, and probably in Michigan.

His widow was residing in Michigan in October of 1916 when she applied for and received a pension (no. 823345).

Frederick Lubenheimer - update 8/20/2016

Frederick Lubenheimer was born on May 6, 1834, in Deixheim, Germany.

Frederick’s parents came to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Germany in 1840. His mother died the following year and his father died in 1871.

Frederick stood 5’7” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 27 years old and possibly working as a farmer in Byron, Kent County or in Ottawa County just across the line from Tyrone, Kent County when he enlisted in Company B on June 4, 1861. Frederick was wounded in the hand on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville, Virginia, and absent sick in the hospital in June. He soon rejoined the Regiment and was wounded a second time, on July 2 or 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and was hospitalized on July 6, probably in Philadelphia where he was soon employed as a nurse.

Frederick remained hospitalized through January of 1864, but had rejoined the Regiment by the time he reenlisted on February 29, 1864, near Culpeper, Virginia, crediting Lyons, Ionia County. He was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in March of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of April. He was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864, and in October was reported on detached service. In November he was detached in the Quartermaster’s department where he was employed through March of 1865, and he was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

After the war Frederick returned to Michigan after the war and lived for a time in Manistee and possibly Lake County, working as a laborer.

He was quite possibly the same “Frederick Lubinhammer” who was arrested in September of 1867 for stealing cattle in Kent County.

On September 13 the Grand Rapids Eagle reported that on the Wednesday evening previous “Frederick Lubenhammer and Henry Edding, broke jail by prying out two of the bars in an upper window, and made their escape. Lubenhammer was awaiting trial for stealing cattle, and Edding on the charge of attempting to make off with a team, which he hired of Rathbun & Moore. The jail is very insecure, and requires ceaseless vigilance on the part of those in charge to prevent successful attempts to force a passage out, which can be easily effected, as this instance proves. The people of the County refused to vote money to build a new one, and unless something is done to render the present building more secure, we shall soon be in the condition of our northern counties, where, if a prisoner refused to give bail, they are obliged to let him go without, having no place to keep him.”

On October 1 the Eagle reported that Lubenhamer was convicted on two charges of larceny and sentenced to one and a half to three years in prison.

Frederick worked as a laborer most of his life.

He was married to Ella Hummel (d. 1879) by a justice of the peace on May 6, 1878, in Manistee County, and they had at least one child, Jenny Lind (b. 1879).

By 1900 he was living at 39 Union block, in Seattle, King County, Washington, and in 1909 at R.R. no. 4, Tacoma, Pierce County, Washington.

By the end of 1910 he was living in the Soldiers’ Home in Orting, Pierce County, Washington. By 1914 he was residing in Los Angeles, California, and in 1915 at 426 Ruth Avenue; two years later he was paralyzed in the left arm and left leg by a stroke.

In 1920 Frederick was reported to be residing at 1030 Maple Avenue in Los Angeles, suffering from chronic bronchitis and a double hernia, chronic retinitis of both eyes, and to be totally helpless, and was in the constant care of one John A. Wilson.

In 1900 he applied for and received pension no. 1,045,328 (dated March 15, 1915).

Frederick was reported to be a widower when he died of arteriosclerosis on June 14, 1922, at the Pacific branch National Military Home, and was buried in Los Angeles National Cemetery: plot 4012/F.

Stephen Lampman Lowing

Stephen Lampman Lowing was born January 15, 1817 in East Gainesville (probably Wyoming County), New York, the son of Isaac (1794-1876?) and Lavina (Lampman, b. 1796?).

Isaac and Lavina were married around 1814, possibly in New York. According to family history he was poor most of his life, and, at the age of 13 Stephen, the second oldest, went to live with his uncle James, who was childless and had a made a fortune lumbering in Canada.

James was a very devout Presbyterian and decided that Stephen would someday become a minister, and he set the boy to memorizing passages from the Bible every night. Stephen rebelled at his uncle’s arbitrary manner and at the age of 17 he moved back home. Due to his family’s impoverished circumstances and a desire to make his own way in the world, in 1836 he left his boyhood home in Genesee County, New York and headed west for Michigan, “for the purpose,” he wrote in 1886,.”of seeking my fortune; and like many others of that day supposed it was to be found in the far West, and with that purpose in view I found my way to [the] Grand River, by the way known as the Shiawassee trail.”

According to a family historian, Stephen left New York in the summer of 1836 and walked to Michigan, arriving first in Chicago the walking up the lakeshore to Grand Haven. Stephen himself said that he “arrived in Grandville, Kent County about the first of October of that year, where I engaged as a laborer, in a saw mill then owned by Brown & Britten, but operated by Hiram Jenison as their foreman.”

Hearing that the Indians’ titles to the land on the Grand River further up from Grand Haven had been extinguished, Stephen staked out a claim for some 80 acres on the south side of the river from Sand Creek, and built a cabin for himself. He returned to Grand Haven where he worked in the winter of 1837-38 at the William Hathaway’s mill, and on December 31, 1837, Lowing wrote, Ottawa County was organized. “And owing to the fact that the lands on the south side of the river had been purchased and were held by speculators, the immigration was largely turned to the north side of the river, and settlements were formed rapidly along the river.”

In the spring of 1838 he returned to New York where he attended Bethany Academy for two terms, and preached in East Gainesville and Bethany for two years.

In January of 1840 Stephen married Ruth Madison, and their daughter Martha was born in March of 1841.

In late summer Stephen and his family and his brother Holden headed westward for Michigan via Buffalo and a long boat trip around the lakes to Grand Haven where they boarded a Grand River steamer, the Hummingbird, for the last leg of the journey to Sand Creek. His wife found the Michigan climate quite disagreeable and was reportedly ill most of the time with “the ague” (possibly malaria).

Stephen’s father joined them in 1842, and by late 1843 virtually all of the Lowing family had moved to the Sand Creek area. Stephen and Ruth’s third child was born in December of 1847, and sometime in 1848, Ruth, chronically ill, returned to her family’s home in New York. Soon afterwards she and Stephen were divorced.

Lowing married his second wife, Rhoda Brooks, in 1851. She turned out to be a drug addict and reportedly abused his children, and he divorced her; she died in the poorhouse in 1870.

Stephen turned his attention to the lumber business and spent most of the first winter cutting and drawing logs to the river. But the 1840s saw very little money in raw timber so Stephen shifted his emphasis to sawmilling and in 1843 built his first mill hoping to sell boards to settlers for their cabins. He was admitted to the bar as a lawyer in 1843 by examination, but his main efforts continued to be focused on logging and he built a larger mill in 1846 and in 1850 he built a third mill. By this time he had some 30 to 40 men working for him. He thus built a lumber camp near the river, consisting of a boarding house, a store in which he put a post office and he became the first postmaster of Georgetown, serving from 1850 to 1854. He also built a jail, several cabins and other large buildings.

One observer described Lowing as “Large, tall and angular in form, awkward in motion, melancholy in looks, intellectually a possessor of the humor of the frontier Yankee, and the logic of a profound scholar, he bore a striking resemblance to the lamented Abraham Lincoln.” And that “When he arrived upon the river, he was a radical temperance man from principle, with a robust constitution and an excellent mind, consequently he found little difficulty in establishing a business reputation with the lumbermen operating at that time.” In the early history of life and lumbering on the Grand River, “the law was seldom appealed to except as an excuse for using force. As a rule the man with the most energy and muscle gathered in the persimmons. In short, legal points were not infrequently decided with fists and clubs.”

While perhaps apocryphal, a local newspaper repeated a story told by Andrew J. Emlaw of Grand Haven, which gives some insight into the character if not the reputation of Stephen Lowing and the times in which he lived. It was a story of how Lowing “won a big case according to the code of that day.”

In 1852 [said Emlaw] Lowing entered into a contract with two brothers, at Spring Lake, to deliver them a raft of logs cut from his own land; they to advance money from time to time to defray the expenses of cutting. The brothers failed to advance the money, and when the raft reached Spring Lake, instead of delivering it to them, Lowing sold it to T. W. & N. H. White, also Spring Lake saw-mill men. Before Lowing had delivered the raft, the brothers put a writ of attachment in the hands of a constable name[d] Samuel Stevens. Lowing heard of it, and secured a writ of replevin and placed it in the hands of another constable named Ward Boyce. A gang of men came with Stevens, armed with his writ of attachment, to take possession of the raft, and as they boarded it were met by the Lowing men and Boyce with the writ of replevin. Boyce commenced to read it to Stevens, but he would not listen. Hy Tripp, one of Lowing's big lieutenant's, took Stevens by the throat and compelled him to listen. This secured legal possession of the raft to Lowing again. The brothers then reprieved the raft from Boyce through the County sheriff. Lowing then secured a writ against the sheriff and put it in the hands of the coroner. The sheriff reprieved from Boyce and the brothers' men undertook to take possession of the raft. Lowing was on hand with the coroner and his writ and reprieved from the sheriff. While the coroner was proceeding according to law, with all the dignity becoming his high and important officer, Lowing soundly thrashed both of the brothers and kicked one or two of their backers into the river. For a week the crew at White's mill was under instructions to turn out day or night at three blasts of the whistle, while Lowing did picket duty at the raft. Early one morning the brothers and two men named Green quietly boarded the raft. Lowing discovered them, and ran out upon the logs, kicked one of the Greens, who was untying a line, into the river, took a brother in each hand and started for shore, only stopping occasionally long enough to bump their heads together. Green crawled out and struck at Lowing with a pike-pole. The pole broke in the air and he went into the river again. Lowing won a complete victory and the four beaten men started for home, promising they would never molest the raft again. However, a few nights later the two determined brothers, one of the Greens and John Shields boarded the raft with a yawl. They had just made their line fast when Lowing put in an appearance with an ox gad about 8 feet in length. They all jumped into the yawl, but the rope held it just a convenient distance to allow Lowing's gad full swing, and he thrashed them until they dropped under the seats and begged for mercy. They promised that they would never return, and they never did.

The Grand Rapids Democrat also told of how a “few years later, Mr. Lowing bought a mill located opposite Sand Creek, built by a firm that had failed -- and put some additional boilers in it. A Chicago man who had not received his pay for the original boilers came along and demanded them. Lowing told him that if the boilers were his he could take them, but as he was running night and day, it would be impossible for him to blow off the ones he had put in and as they were all connected the Chicago man would have to take out his boilers with a full head of steam on. The Chicago man did not take them.”

Stephen was not confined to the use of force, real or implied, but could use his wits as well. The Democrat told the story of how “ when 50 years of age he was admitted to practice as an attorney on account of an eloquent plea in a case of his own, and for more than ten years stood at the head of the Ottawa County bar. He often turned the shortcomings for which his lack of early education was responsible to good account before a jury. His language in court was once criticized by J. C. FitzGerald, and not without good reason. He made no answer at the time, but when he commenced addressing the jury, with great solemnity and apparent candor informed them that he could not be held responsible for the neglect of Mr. FitzGerald's early education, and thus lack of knowledge to comprehend his language. This statement had the desired effect.”

Lowing served as sheriff of Ottawa County for four years prior to the war, and by 1860 he was working aas a “petitfoger” and living in Georgetown, Ottawa County with two of his sons and his daughter Martha and her husband George Hubbard (who would also enlist in Company I). He owned some $10,000 worth of real estate.

“An exceptionally strong and vigorous man” when the war broke out, Stephen was 43 years old and living in Georgetown when he enlisted as First Lieutenant in Company I, commissioned May 13, 1861. (His nephew Clarence Lowing would enlist in Company E in 1864.)

Stephen was promoted to Captain on October 28, 1861, replacing Captain George Weatherwax who had resigned on October 19. During his term of service he wrote regularly to his brother-in-law, Franklin Bosworth, who was apparently charged with looking after Stephen’s business and personal interests in Georgetown. On June 30, 1861, Lowing wrote home from Georgetown Heights that his

hopes are greater of gaining my health than it would be had I not been affected by the change. I have been too poor to leave the camp ground and have seen little to write about. I have learned some things. At the beat of the boiler, at daylight, get up, call the roll, and see that you are all here. who are not away. In about ten minutes, at the beat of the drum, out and drill. Shoulder arms, counter march, file left. March, halt. Right. Drop. Present arms, shoulder arms, order arms, shoulder arms, right shoulder, shift arms, arms at will, shoulder arms, right face, file left, march, halt, front, right address, charge bayonet, shoulder arms, guard against cavalry, shoulder arms, rear rank, open, order march, rear rank, close order, march left, four double quick time - march - halt front - right address, two ranks right face, march, halt, break rank, march. This, and the like is our amusement before breakfast. At 7 mount guard. At 8 attend to the sick. At 9 drill and go through the same and like amusements as before breakfast. Our breakfast though, each man gets 6 oz. bread, 6 oz. meat, a pint cup of coffee. For dinner the same, for supper the same. Our lodging a little blanket which about half covers us and on the ground. This is the romance of martial life. . . . In regard to the War. I am rather of the opinion that some compromise will take place. I do not think General Scott wishes to push it to the extremity. We are near ready, and as able to march forward as we are to remain stationary. They say we are not drilled yet, but neither are the rebels. We might have taken our full number of prisoners before this time by attacking parties as well as harassing ourselves to death with so much guard mounting and parading. These big officers keep caged in Washington week after week at government expense and 50,000 men to watch them. The whole pile of them are a curse to the country. This was is not got up for fighting but for the purpose of making officers of old favorites. If we do come to war, many a poor fellow will be sacrificed to the folly and ignorance of the mushroom generals. It is said these generals fight well, so can our whole company fight. They can fight, but could not command at all. All the hopes I have is in the men, when the generals have left the field. Everything goes by the blunders as yet.

On August 6, 1861, he wrote from the Third Michigan camp at Hunter’s Farm, which was located

two miles down the Potomac, opposite the Navy Yard. Have a fair view of the Capitol. Good weather. Everything pleasant and we are ready to start back to Bull's Run. In regard to the last defeat, I am satisfied that drunkenness was the whole cause of the disaster. The weather was extremely hot. Men and officers had eaten nothing form a very early hour. And at one or two o'clock in the afternoon is about the time men generally get drunk. Many offices had a basket of liquor and a waiter to carry it around. If they would have a Court of Inquiry you would find the men had no officers and none was there to give orders. Nobody gave them the order, and yet everybody heard the order. To hear the officers talk today shows that they have no clear idea of what took place. Old Leffingwell had command of our train of baggage and provisions wagons. Now his command retreated before night taking with them our dinner which we had not eaten, and every mouthful of provisions. We saw at a glance that our next meal was in Washington. Now Leffingwell is so drunk half his time that he does not know himself from a hole in the ground.

He was still at Hunter’s Farm when he wrote on August 20, 1861, that it was reported the Regiment would

remove our quarters tomorrow morning. No one knows where, but I suspect about one mile to the point from here and think preparations to defending a fortification of Earth Works. We do not really believe we will be attacked here, owing to the expiration of the month's enlistments. We are short of men. The South are making a tremendous effort in traveling 35 miles to Bull Run. We did not see a man or negro able to bear arms, all being in the Southern army. They keep a host of negroes entrenching and some of them have run away and come to us, say, their masters put them in the front of the fight. At least they made some use of them. But if they attack us here it will be a long siege. The South will entrench himself every foot of the way and they are doing it now and are within about five miles of us. They can bring two men in the field against our one, owing to peculiar advantage of roads, but when they get here the tables turn, but the fact is, and we need not deny it, our officers are the damndest set of fools and drunkards ever God let get together. If God intended to defeat the Northern army he could not employ better means than the putting such a body of men at the head of the army. If the men could get away, there is not one that would even go into another battle under these officers. I expect nothing but defeat to follow. The first time the officers ran and left their men, the next time the men will start first and not let the officers fool them again. Good officers might have led them to Richmond and they would not have mistrusted they were defeated. But I am tired of Bull Run, and suppose you are too, and will write no more about it.

From Fort Richardson on September 17, 1861, he wrote that “We have just gotten orders to advance on the enemy.

We have waited for them until we have our own companies complete and now we are ready and will give them battle, if they do not give us one. All parties are ready and a bloody day is at hand unless it all fizzles out as it did at Bull Run. But I do not think it will be so. The enemy is flushed at victory at Bull Run, and as they will not run we are in a bend of the river and have no way of retreat except one narrow bridge, over a mile long, and that would break down with half of the form that would get on it in a panic. It is clear to us that the whole force of the enemy is here and unless they can defeat us, we will defeat them with a tremendous effect. If they do succeed in defeating us the great section will be captured. As to the results, I have great fears. The fact is our officers being many of them Democrats and are as hostile to the Administration as ever the enemy were, and see to aiding them of intensive plans, and then lay the disgrace to the Administration and claim to have defended the South hereafter. My opinion is that the Democrats near here need watching more than at present. I believe poaching is rampant in every department. It is easy for a lukewarm general to misunderstand the commands given him and thus open a large gap in our ranks. Besides our officers will be drunk by 2 P.M. This one thing will provoke retreats and everything will be lukewarm. I don't believe the army is sufficiently purged yet, but that we shall soon know.

On November 9, 1861, he wrote from Fort Lyon that “Our matters here are all going right with our Regiment and company. Stephen G. Champlin is colonel and makes a good one but our camp is disagreeable enough. Our tents are poor, but we will get new ones on Monday when I hope we will be more comfortable.” And on November 27, he wrote that

besides my usual task of a company commander, I am detailed on special duty every afternoon on the fort we are building. Add to that the duties of a Judge Advocate of the Regiment to which I am appointed and you have some idea that I am busy. It is useless for me to attempt to give you any idea of the amount of my labors. Enough for me to say I am falling away to a 190 pounds, about 50 more than when I left there. . . . I think we will not remain here much longer, but where we will go is more than I know. Our company are all well and doing well. Lieutenant Brennan is a first rate officer and so is Benjamin Tate. Company I is all right. I am informed that Capt. Weatherwax has conveyed the impression that it was my fault he resigned. Now I can hardly think that he has done so, but if he has, I would like to know it, that I may disprove it now in the time of it. He knows better and knows that I can assign the reason and prove them.

We are all getting the hang of the soldier's life and are better satisfied. Colonel Champlin was a friend of mine at home, and is no less so here. There is a number of lawyers in the Regiment and in selecting me is a mark of distinction that I am proud of. In the meantime, I am not ambitious to be a warrior. To command Co. I through the war and bring them home again, is the height of my ambition. Great changes have taken place, six months ago, I entered the Regiment a perfect greenhorn, and now I believe I stand at the head of the Regiment on tactics. If you were not my friend you would say I was egotistical but not so. I know that at the time of getting up this company, my friends as well as myself were anxious to the result. And because I could not take my place at once, my ill-wishers declaimed it a failure. I am anxious therefore to remove all doubts on the minds of my friends.

It is not every good fellow that can make a military man, and yet no fault of his, and that was the difficulty with Captain Weatherwax. As good a fellow as I ever wish to mess with, and as poor a captain. He was as good a captain as McConnell was colonel. They fought each other, and killed each other's chances; and both left the Regiment together, and for the same reason, leaving many friends behind them. Both are brave to a fault, but neither could learn the tactics.

Stephen was apparently an strong supporter of the Abolition movement. According to William Drake of Company A, although Drake disliked Abolitionists as cowardly and unwilling to fight for their beliefs, he considered Lowing “an exception to the general rule. It is refreshing to find one of them that will fight. He is a brave officer, and wide-awake to his business.”

On January 5, 1862 he wrote from Camp Michigan that “I am getting on the best terms with General Richardson and am building him a house, and also Colonel Champlin one.” On February 5, 1862, General Richardson commended Lowing for his conduct in a reconnaissance he commanded along the Occoquan River. Under the heading of “Brigade Order No. 6,”

The general commanding the Brigade considers it his duty, and takes this opportunity to convey to the troops under his command his good opinion of their conduct as soldiers in the late affairs in which the two detachments, one of the 3rd Mich volunteers commanded by Captain Lowing of Co. I of that Regiment and the other of the 37th New York Volunteers commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Burke, were engaged with superior forces on the ‘Occoquan River’. The daring attacks and fearless reconnaissance of Captain Lowing and his detachment of the 3rd Mich. Volunteers in front of superior forces of the enemy, deserve, and the general commanding this Brigade hopes will obtain the just commendation of all those who take any interest in the patriotism and discipline of the American Soldier. The general would again remind the same 3rd Michigan Company that he has not forgotten that company together with the Second Michigan performed gallant service last summer in the most considerable campaign which has yet taken place against the enemy, and from being the first troops actually engaged against the enemy, not only showed the highest discipline and skill in the attack of the 18th of July at Blackburn's Ford but also exhibited a coolness and orderliness in covering the retreat to Washington on the 21st of July which has rendered these Regiments an honor to the country.

Charles Church of Company G wrote home in February of 1862 of the recent reconnaissance to Occoquan village led by Lowing. “Our Regiment started on the 1st of Feb. Stayed out 3 days. It was very stormy, rain and snow. Captain [Lowing] of company [I] went out and made a reconnaissance. He went to the Occoquan River where he saw a squad of Secesh drilling, in the village of Occoquan about 40 rods over on the other side of the river. He watched three movements a few minutes when they looked up and saw our men and run Bull Run style and that drew the attention of a lot of the devils that were quartered in the houses and they come out as bold as lions.”

On March 27, 1862, Lowing wrote to a friend from Old Point Comfort, Virginia, near Fortress Monroe.

A commander of a company, being well posted in tactics and military discipline has much to do in caring for his company. He has neither Sunday, day, night or hour that he can call his own. And many have been obliged to leave the service, as unequal to the task. Our company has labored under far greater difficulties than companies in general, and much more than any other Co. in the Regiment with whom we have kept pace. It is well known that our company was the only one in the Regiment that had not some form of military organization previous to enrolling in this Regiment. Except the Muskegon Rangers and they were organized under the command of three old military officers who had seen service in other wars and under the fostering care of Muskegon citizens and drilled three weeks before our company commenced its organization of entire raw material of both officers and men without one pennies' aid from any one. We came in at the eleventh hour, the butt of the Regiment; the Regimental and a large part of the line officers opposed to us in politics and jealous of us while the administration both state and general were so anxious to conciliate the Democratic Party as to become unmindful of Republicans.

Notwithstanding we determined that Ottawa Co. should have a company in the field, one that should represent her, and one that she should not blush to own. Although like "Old Ottawa" toiling under many difficulties at first, we are found to stand inferior to none in the service. We have already gained a high position which has not been accomplished with out much toil. But our hearts are cheered to know that our efforts have been approved of at last, by our fellow citizens of Ottawa County.

We have some cause of complaints for on the 28th of October last, the office of Second Lieutenant became vacant and a man from the 5th Regiment was transferred to our company, commissioned and then placed on the general's staff without our knowledge or consent. This throwing the work of three men on two of us, for less pay by $100 per month, than the other companies have, and because we were here discharging our duties to our country and the powers that did it were in Michigan, and we had no one to urge our legal rights we have had to submit to it and are still submitting to the abuse.

The Democrats have the appointing power in this Regiment, and the Governor in his blind anxiety to conciliate them is neglecting his friends. But no object will destroy our Patriotism. We are bound to succeed. The great questions of the day are discussed here in the army as well as elsewhere, and it is surprising to see the different effects that the same facts as presented to the eyes of our northern men have upon them. Strong Democrats have become Emancipationists, and strong emancipationists have become opposers of Emancipation. The cause is in the men and not the institution of slavery, for no man here can say that his worst expectation in regard to slavery and its blighting effects have not been more than realized. You cannot mingle here with the inhabitants for a day without meeting with some life illustration of some of Ms. H. B. Stowe's pictures of domestic slavery and you will find they are not over drawn. You meet the negro at every point, his language is readily incorporated in the best families. His songs are the past times, and their blood courses through the veins of a very large portion of the present generation and fearfully so in the rising generation.

The White Race is divided into two casts, the Aristocrats and the White Trash. The Aristocrats are the ones that owns the slave and has mortgaged his father's patrimony for twice its value. The White Trash is far the most numerous class, and no where to lay their heads, and are inferior to slaves who as a general thing have their homes. The negro has found his way into the army and even into Co. I in the form of servants. The officers of Co I have been bitten by the negromania. We must have a nigger to carry our baggage. “Well, Sam came, Sam loaded our baggage on his back, Sam marched, but Sam did not halt, and is marching yet as far as we know.”

The negro sits in Congress daily and tempers all our debates. Our most ordinary legislation wears the impress of his Black Majesty before it becomes a law. And so long as he remains a slave in any one of these United States, just so long will his wooly pate pervade every department of our nation.

The Democrat Party in their anxiety to expel him, will drag him forth from his hiding place every day and one every occasion to give him a more Public Expulsion. The Ark of Liberty, of Emancipation of free labor is moving and “Woe to the man or Party of men that shall put forth their hands to stay it.”

On May 3, 1862, he wrote Franklin from a camp near Yorktown, that “Stephen Scales [of Company I] died on the 1st of May of typhoid fever.

My own health is poor but I am able to keep around and in command of my Co. Our duties are very arduous. In addition to our duties as soldiers we have taken to lumbering. There stood an old sawmill just outside the enemy's defenses, directly under fire of their cannons. The enemy had used this mill all winter sawing timber to mount their cannons, guns, barracks, etc. When the siege was determined, it was found that lumber and timber would be necessary for the same purpose on our part. The mill was partially destroyed. A part of a Maine Regiment was detailed to repair it, and work it, but after several days effort, they could make no lumber. In fact, I think they dare not raise the steam for fear of the enemies guns. Volunteers were called for, our colonel designated me and Company I. We succeeded and are cutting logs using beef cattle to draw logs, sawing the lumber as fast as we want it. The only thing peculiar is that it is perfectly in range of their guns. They are firing at it and the balls and shells fall on every side of it, and not a man hurt. Yesterday the shells fell thick and fast, so fast we could hardly count them, falling into the yard, and exploding, throwing fragments in amongst fifty men, all falling on the ground, and strange to say, every man arose unhurt. One struck within four feet of Mr. Tracy of Nunica who was moving logs on the yard, but did not explode and he was unhurt. There is not a company in the army that has stood as much fire and yet not a man hurt. Men have been killed one mile to the rear of us. we are getting hardened to danger. Last night a part of our company were dancing cotillions at the sound of a violin played by Jack Meeks, while shells were playing on our position. . . .”

And two weeks later he wrote from Camp Cumberland on the Pamunkey River, that

My health is so poor that I think seriously of resigning as soon as the approaching battle is decided. At least if decided favorable to us. I am clearly of the opinion that the two battles, this one at Richmond and one at Corinth, will decide the fate of the rebellion and I am of the opinion that the fate of both the places is already decided in our favor. So far as Richmond is concerned it appears that Yorktown, Norfolk, Suffolk, Williamsburg and West Point are the national defense of Richmond. These places in our hands it would seem that Richmond must fall. A few days will tell. I think I will come home in July. In the meantime encourage the boys to put in all the crops they can. Aaron P. Camp of Allendale died on the 12th inst (May) at the hospital at Yorktown; the same place Stephen Scales died at. He had been engaged in the hospital as a nurse for sometime and died of fever which is worse than the enemy bullets.

He added a note to “Sister Mary,” that “The Pamunkey River lays before me on one side and before me on the other lays our camp and wagon trains.

It's a level plain and as far as the eye can see, nothing but men, horses and the implements of war is visible. The weather is fine today, and our men are more cheerful. I am hardly able to get out of my tent, so you will have to make great allowances for disconnections in subject and sentences. I will not attempt a description of a battlefield. I could not do justice to it, if I should, but enough to say that the Lovers of the Horribles would be fully satiated. We are amongst the first to visit the field in the morning for the purpose of renewing the fight, but the enemy had enough of Michigan rifles and had taken to flight. The field was mostly in a slashing of timber and the dead lay on all sides. The ground was alternately occupied by the enemy and by our troops, so that the dead lay side by side. In one instance a Michigan and an Alabamian thrust a bayonet through each other. Both lay dead, still grasping his bayonet. Many had not died suddenly and evidently their last acts were acts of devotions. The Catholic died with a cross in his hands and some with a string of beads. While another had undone his knapsack and taken out his Testament, and died with it grasped in his hands frequently opened to some promise. Others again had letters from home, from Mother, sisters, from wives, as though loath to part with the last messages from loved ones at home. Even in death, the sufferings of these poor fellows as they lay there bleeding, dying in a cold rainstorm through the night, many of them half under water, may be faintly imagined but can never be told. I cannot comment more nor well longer of the subject. I am so unwell. Lieut. Brennan and Tate are being kind to me and Do all they can to make my duties light. George makes a very good Orderly Sergeant. All are doing everything they can for me, but my health still fails. Colonel Champlin is also very feeble. This war cannot end too soon for my good. The enemy is ten miles this side of Richmond and ten or twelve miles from us on one road and three miles on another road. We march to meet them in the morning. I think they will will back and no battle will be fought this side of the city except skirmishings which is going on all the time. I am able to say that our men are perfect tigers in a fight, but most the officers are worse than useless. Mutinies still prevails to an alarming extent and old dotage and men of limited sense does the rest.”

Stephen was wounded severely in both legs on May 31, 1862, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, and subsequently absent sick on leave for 30 days from July 12, 1862, although the Eagle of June 18, reported that Lowing, along with Colonel Champlin and Lieutenants Dodge and Brennan had arrived in Grand Rapids the day before. “They were received,” wrote the paper, “by the Mayor and Common Council, the Firemen and Grand Rapids Grays, and a large concourse of our citizens, who escorted them to their stopping places. Their feeble appearance excited the warm sympathies of every beholder for these gallant men who have suffered so much in defense of the government. Their noble deeds of daring excite the pride of every Michigander, and when this satanic war is over and history records the deeds of valor performed by Northern arms, the names of the Michigan Volunteers will adorn its brightest pages, and first upon the record will stand in letters of gold the brave deeds of the noble Third.”

Although one source reported in early July of 1862 that Stephen hoped to rejoin the regiment soon, it was not to be, at least not yet. Stephen was absent recruiting in Michigan from June 21, 1862, through January of 1863. In late August the Grand Haven News reported that Captain Lowing was in Lamont, Ottawa County, speaking about the war.

The good citizens of Lamont and vicinity, assembled at the Congregational church, at that place, filling it to overflowing, on Saturday evening last, to listen to a recital of war themes, by Capt. Stephen Lowing, who is on his legs again and at work for his country. For two hours he held the meeting enwrapped in the deepest interest while he reviewed the war and recounted the brave deeds, hair-breadth escapes, and well achieved victories of the gallant Michigan Third, from the skedaddle of Bull Run, to the withdrawal of our forces from Richmond to Williamsburg. Capt. L. has improved greatly in health, his wound is healing rapidly and he anticipates soon to lay aside the crutch for the sword, and again lead his gallant company to victory. He is recruiting for the “3d” generally, and particularly for company “I.” He wants some 30 men. Now is a most excellent opportunity for any one desirous of becoming identified with the gallant “3d” to do so. Geo. Parks, Esq., is recruiting officer at Grand Haven, and John Rice, Esq., at Lamont.

By mid-fall of the year Stephen was in Detroit. He wrote Franklin from Detroit Barracks on October 4, 1862. “I am very pleasantly situated here and shall remain for the present. The order for drafting is out and published. I hope old Ottawa will be on hand. The County has to raise 164 more men. Georgetown does not get credit for raising company I, except in an approving concern. I am rapidly recovering the use of my limb and I am encouraged. I use but one crutch and can get along about the house some without that. My quarters are comfortable and associated gentlemanly a good boarding house etc. So you see I am all right.”

He was Captain of Company E in February of 1863, while still recruiting in Michigan. In a letter written on February 17, 1863, to Lieutenant Colonel Smith in Detroit, he described his predicament as a recruiting officer.

I want to call your attention [ wrote Lowing] to the changes that have taken place with me. You will recollect that by your order I was to resume recruiting in Ottawa County and at the time I informed you of my intention to raise a Battery, which met with your approval. I received written authority to raise the Battery from Colonel George Grey of the Sixth Cavalry who had (as he stated) received authority from the War Department approved by Gov Blair. The Adjutant General also recognized my authority to raise the Battery.” But soon afterwards Lowing learned “that by an arrangement between the Governor and Colonel Grey made within three days after I received my authority from Colonel Grey, the Battery was to be abandoned and not raised at all. Gov Blair ordered me to turn over my men to some other [Captain] which is creating great difficulty. Of course the Battery is at an end. What now am I still on recruiting service until further orders?

Stephen then went on to describe another problem. “I found a private of the 21st Infantry here on a discharge” and “with his gun and belt on I took them from him and hold them subject to some order.” Then there were two paroled prisoners-of-war. “I went after them yesterday found one sick and” decided “to let them both remain for a few days until he recovers.” And then there were the various problem with deserters and bounty jumpers, and the administrative problems of getting transportation passes on the Detroit & Milwaukee railroad for the deserters he did find in order to forward the men back to their Regiments. He said he did not believe he was needed in Michigan but wanted to be back with his Regiment. “I should ask to return to my Regiment but there is only 130 men for duty and only 3 [?] officers to command them. I am not needed there.’ he had considered the possibly of resigning but the governor’s office “requested that I should not do so at present saying that about 30 of the old Regiments would be filled up” and that “recruiting would soon be resumed with vigor.”

Nevertheless, Lowing remained detached on recruiting service from February through July and he returned to the Regiment from recruiting service in August. On October 8, 1863, he wrote from a camp near Culpeper, Virginia,

These Regiments are contemplating reenlisting for three years or during the war. In that case they will return to Michigan to reorganize and fill up. If we do so we will be home soon. Probably for the winter. This point is undetermined. My health is unusually good and as yet my leg has not troubled me. I am gaining in flesh, weighing 190 pounds. I have for some days been engaged on a court-martial, and am the Judge Advocate, which increases my work but not my pay. . . . Two nights ago we had an opiate for the purpose of quieting us to sleep in the form of an order, informing us that Stewart's [sic] cavalry was within a few miles of us, and nothing between us but a slender picket line. Today, orders are coming and going at a rapid rate, and we are ordered to form a line of battle, and nothing can be heard or seen of an enemy. The bugle sounds to fall in. A punishment is to be inflicted on a sharpshooter. One of Berdan's. He has been court-martialed for disobeying orders and is to be drummed out of camp etc. These court martials are severe things. I have six cases to try. Five where the death sentence is the result of guilty, and one case hearing. The case hearing is nothing, but when we come to try a man for his life, and myself to act as Judge Advocate, prosecuting on the part of the people, and then aiding the prisoners in his defense, and again counseling court, puts upon me a terrible duty, and calls for honest practice into which I have been a stranger. But God helping me, I will deal fairly with these men.

One of the greatest curiosities to us is how you can stay at home when soldiers live so well. And now to prove you know nothing of the comforts of life when compared with a soldier, I am inclined to attempt a description of our mode of living. In the first place George Hubbard and I are messing together. Our tent is six foot square on the ground, running to a point 7 feet high. This comprises cellar, kitchen, parlor, dining hall, and bed chamber. Our bedding, one blanket each. One laid on poles, the other over us. Our culinary apparatus, one frying pan, and one tin cup. Today, we are enabled to get some soft bread, and that pile of jet black stuff constitutes our pastry. We have a choice in meats. Today we may draw a piece of that belly pork that is there in that pile, and the only fault we have with it is that when it was alive it must have been a facsimile of those you and father got up in Ada many years ago.

Or we may draw from that pile of beef whose only fault is that it would have not been here, it it had not got too poor to draw its breath of life any longer. So you see our outfit is complete and we demonstrate Longfellow's

“Man wants but little here below,
Nor yet that little long.”

The life of Patriarchs has been lauded from time immemorial and principally for their wants and light cares. But they did not want less than we have, or care less of danger or consequences than this army.

So you see how simple it is of you fellows at home to build large houses, barns, get beds, dishes, and in fact encumber yourselves with cartloads of useless commodities, so that you could not move for days, while we in two minutes, have our whole kit strapped on our backs and are off at double quick, and laugh at you old fogies.

On November 1, 1863, he wrote from near Bealton Station, Virginia, “I have been very busy since I arrived here.

Having had so long a time at home. The other officers have put a fully share of duty on me, besides I had to learn some things new, and many things over again that I once knew. My health is good but my limb injures my marching. I shall not be able to stand hard marching and will have to go into the Invalid Corps or resign. . . . We have some expected to return home this Fall to recruit, but I now think we will not come at all. . . . This army has done some very hard marching and done some good fighting this Fall, but I am satisfied that all attempts to advance this Fall are worse than useless. We can go about as fast and far and put out men to guard, though about every mile we advance weakens us, and if we spin our lines too fine, the rebels can flank us. Cut off our rear, tear up our track, and compel us to fall back for want of supplies. This large army is unwieldy in an enemy country. A smaller and getter appointed army is much better. We should have more mounted men. These large armies are an experiment and I am of the opinion that they are not the thing to travel over on enemy country with.

I believe that our operations should be confined to the places accessible by water as long as there is such a place in the hands of the enemy, and never attempt a line, one or two hundreds miles by railroad until compelled to do so.

What a world this is! How large and comprehensive and yet in what a small space it may be represented. This camp is a very fair representation of all the world. Here you find men of every color, shade, clime and tongue, and all the different interests are here manifested. As you look over them you will see every man acting some part, and each seems to act as though on his shoulders rests all the welfare of the nation. Old gray heads are here, and striplings are seen mounting horses and riding for their lives for a mile or so, and then return without any object or business, only to make up the ‘General Hurly Burly.’ To the casual observer it would appear that something awful was going on. Orderlies are riding for their lives with packages of ominous looking papers, delivering to the commanders of Regiments, Brigades or Divisions. And when opened the whole thing does not amount to enough to pay for the sheet of paper. Get a look into the inside of this whole array and you will exclaim "How empty." What a farce. Is it possible that such a show and expense are all moonshine, and the dear people pays. The fact is Patriotism dies within us, and honestly blushes (within us) at the deception. But the men are honest, but are disgusted with the manner the war is conducted.

I was the Judge Advocate and the first one that ever got up paper sufficient to condemn a man to be shot, and I never want to do it again. Many have been sentenced to death but the papers have been set aside by the reviewing officer for informality, but not in the case I tried. I have about 30 more cases to try of the same nature, but have been on the march of late and not able to attend to it. I hope I shan't get to attend to it.

From near Brandy Station he wrote on November 22, 1863, “I should have written to you before, but the fact is I have been on a court martial since the 29th day of September last, and all times when the Regiment stops long enough our court martial convenes.

My duties are being “arduous” as I have to prepare all cases for trial. Try them and write up all the proceedings and send them up to headquarters for review. . . . I find myself in a difficulty. I am unable to stand a long march. My legs become very much inflamed and painful, but again when we are in camp, or on easy marches I am all right. Now if I thought I had much more marching to do, I would go into the Invalid Corps. Then I would have to go in for three years; on the other hand with the Regiment, I would be discharged when the Regiment is discharged. Or I suppose that I could manage to get my resignation accepted when I should leave the Regiment for the Invalid Corps. What had I better do?. . . We are again under marching orders which means attempt to cross the Rapidan. You will not wonder when I tell you that the army dread the movement very much. Had we moved along when we pushed the enemy from this place we would have been willing to have tried to cross the river. The enemy was on retreat and we were victorious and fifteen days earlier in the season. Now the enemy has had fifteen days to reinforce and strengthen their defenses. And we are no stronger. The season is later. Several attempts have been made to cross the river in which we have been defeated each time, and suffered each time from bad weather. The same thing is to be tried again at this late season of the year , although we were here two months ago, with a larger army than we have today, and yet we did not attempt it then. I have fear for the result, but I hope for the best. . . . Amongst other things I should like to know who went from Georgetown on the draft, and who are to go, and fill the next quota of 15 for Georgetown. We did think some of coming home to reenlist but at present it would not help Georgetown much if we did for about all that enlisted from Georgetown are promoted, discharged, or dead, and would not reenlist. But I do not think we will reenlist at all now, it has got so late and our time is so near out.

In December, however, he was back in Michigan on detached service from December 29, 1863. By February 16, 1864, he was back with the Regiment in camp at Brandy Station, Virginia, when he wrote to Michigan Governor Austin Blair seeking promotion to Major. Lieutenant Colonel E. S. Pierce had just resigned and it was rumored that Major Moses Houghton would replace him, thus leaving vacant the post of Major. Lowing, who claimed to be the senior captain in the regiment felt he should be promoted. Lowing told the governor that

Major Hoton [Houghton] is the next in line and ought to be promoted if he asks for it. I am the Senior Captain of the regiment and, I think, of the state. My commissioning the date of Oct. 28th 1861. I was severely wounded at Fair Oaks [May 31, 1862] and many younger officers were promoted to higher rank while I was disabled. As soon as I recovered I presented recommendations [from General Hiram Berry among others] which you considered satisfying at this time and promised me that I should be remembered at the earliest opportunity. That opportunity now presents itself. I am calling your attention to these facts rather than procure further recommendations, unless you desire further recommendations.

I [also] mention however that I came to Michigan in command of the detachment of the 3rd Mich inf and enlisted one hundred and thirty-four men in thirty days which is more than the 1st regiment did and more than the 5th did except they took in a company already enlisted.

The application I make is to be commissioned Major of the 3rd if Major Hoton [Houghton] is promoted and to that of Lt. Col. . . .

Hoping that the efforts I have made to serve my country in the field and in reenlisting this regiment and recruiting the same will meet your approbation and be rewarded by granting my request.

From Camp Bullock, near Brandy Station, he wrote Franklin on February 21, 1864, that he he was “on another court martial. I had not been here two days but became Judge Advocate of a court martial.” He resigned his commission on April 9, 1864, at Brandy Station, Virginia, and he explained in detail his reasons for resigning in a letter to the War Department dated March 29, 1864.

I joined this Regiment at its organization, and have been with it in all its engagements, until the Battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, on the 31st day of May 1862, when I was severely wounded with a gun shot through the thigh, which disabled me for marching for a year after. I was detailed on recruiting service in the State of Michigan in May last [1863], I tendered my resignation, which was disapproved, and I was referred to the Invalid Corps, with the intimation that the Government still required the services of officers disabled for Field Service, and who were yet able to do Garrison Duty. Preferring not to join that Corps, I was permitted to rejoin my Regiment in September last, and accompanied them in their Fall campaign, frequently in great pain and suffering, to such a degree that I was compelled to apply for a position in the Invalid Corps, to avoid duty I was unable to perform. A notice of my appointment reached me in Michigan in January last, too late to enable me to appear before the Board for examination. I returned with my Regiment in February, and accompanied it on the march to James City [Virginia], and find that the Winter has made no improvement in my ability to march. The Invalid Corps is still open to me, but I desire that my resignation be accepted unconditionally, as I don't wish to receive any gratuity from the Government, or become a sinecure, believing the Invalid Corps to be a Humane Institution for the wounded, disabled and destitute, and not for those still able to provide for themselves.

Thus, he rejected any offer to join the Veteran's Reserve Corps, believing that while he was still rather fit he remained unable to march with any endurance.

Stephen returned to Ottawa County and devoted most of his energies to the practice of law but failing hearing caused him to retire some seven or eight years before his death.

He became Prosecuting Attorney of Ottawa County in 1868 and moved to the County seat in Grand Haven in 1868, where he continued his practice of law in Grand Haven until January 24, 1884, when, owing to his deafness, he resigned from the law and moved to his farm in Allendale where he was living in 1884, 1888 and 1890.

He received a pension no. 209,819, dated May of 1884, and drawing $20.00 per month for a wounded right thigh.

He married his third wife, Lydia Church Wheeler (d. 1889), but they, too, reportedly quarreled frequently and were divorced.

Finally, in 1870 he married Ohio native Emily Markham (1851-1936), who was 34 years younger than Stephen, and they subsequently had two daughters: Myrtie (b. 1873) and Emily (b. 1875). Stephen had two sons and a daughter by his first wife Ruth: Luke (1843-1922), Oscar (b. 1847) and Martha (b. 1841).

Stephen was injured by a bull while farming in 1889 and never fully recovered from his wounds.

He died of dropsy on November 4, 1891, in Allendale Township and was buried in Georgetown cemetery. He left a landed estate valued at $60,000 at his death.