Henry S. Mather

Henry S. Mather was born in 1839 in Ionia, Ionia County, Michigan.

Henry may have been related to one Asaph Mather of Matherton, Ionia County. In 1860 there was a 20-year-old farm laborer named Henry Mather, born in New York, living with and/or working for the Denn Verris (?) family in Climax, Kalamazoo County.

In any case, Henry stood 5’6” with blue eyes, dark hair and a light complexion and was 22 years old and probably employed as a harness-maker in Ionia County when he enlisted as a Sergeant in Company D on May 13, 1861. Henry was wounded in one of his fingers on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run and subsequently hospitalized in September. By April of 1863 was sick in the Division hospital, and in June and July was sick in a general hospital.

He reenlisted on December 23, 1863, at Brandy Station, Virginia, crediting Boston, Ionia County, was presumably absent on veteran’s furlough in January of 1864 and probably returned to the Regiment on or about the first of February. He was again absent sick or wounded in May of 1864, and may have been reduced to the ranks since he was transferred as a Private to Company A, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. However, before being mustered out he was promoted to Corporal to date February 22, 1865, and Sergeant to date April 1, 1865. He was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

After the war Henry probably returned to Michigan and eventually settled in Saranac, Ionia County.

He was married.

He may also have been a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association.

Henry died on October 1, 1880, in Ionia County, Michigan.

In 1887 his widow applied for and received a pension (no. 346487).