Americus W. Miller

Americus W. Miller was born in 1845 in Steuben County, New York, the son of Lydia (b. 1818).

New York native Lydia and her husband were probably married ub New York, sometime before 1849 when their oldest child was born. By 1850 Lydia, probably a widow, was living in Campbell, Steuben County, and Americus was attending school with several of his siblings in Campbell. (Near by lived the family of John Robbins, who owned some $1000 worth of real estate.) By 1860 Lydia had remarried to a man named Robbins and was quite probably a widow again when she was listed as a farmer (she owned some $1000 worth of real estate); in any case Americus was working as a farmer and living with his mother, younger brother Norman B. and two Robbin’s children in Campbell.

Following the fall of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, Americus, who had left New York and settled in Michigan, joined the Lansing militia company called the “Williams’ Rifles,” whose members would serve as the nucleus of Company G.

He stood 5’7” with blue eyes, light hair and a light complexion and was 16 years old and probably working as a farmer in Ingham County when he enlisted with the consent of the Justice of the Peace in Company G on May 10, 1861. According to Frank Siverd of Company G, Americus was present for duty with the Regiment and actively engaged in the various actions, particularly the retreat on July 21 at Bull Run, Virginia. By the end of the year, however, Miller was sick with typhoid fever in a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, but he soon recovered the eventually rejoined the Regiment.

Americus was shot in the left thigh on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run, and, according to Homer Thayer of Company G, Miller was wounded and reported to be missing after that action. In fact, as of October 6 he was convalescing in College hospital in Georgetown, DC, preparing to go home on sick furlough. He was hospitalized from November through February of 1863, and discharged on March 22, 1863, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia, for a gunshot wound of the left thigh. According to the surgeon’s report, “The ball entered on the inner side of the thigh near the middle, passing upwards and outwards making its exit on the posterior surface three inches above the level of entrance, bruising the sciatic nerve and impeding locomotion.”

It is not known if Americus ever returned to Michigan.

He was married to Indiana native Carrie (b. 1851), and they had at least one child: Maud (b. 1871).

In 1868 he applied for and received a pension (no. 12765).

By 1870 Americus was working as a farmer and living with his wife in Fort Dodge, Wahkonsa Township, Webster County, Iowa.

By 1880 Carrie was listed as having remarried one C. H. Richmond and living in Lincoln, Calhoun County, Iowa; also living with them was her daughter Maud Miller.

In August of 1921 Carrie Richmond was listed as Americus’ widow, when she applied for a pension (no. 1178378), but it appears no certificate was ever granted.