Homer C. Munson

Homer C. Munson was born in 1841 in New York, the son of Alpha (b. 1803) and Mary (1807-1867).

Connecticut native Alpha married New Yorker Mary sometime before 1837 and settled in New York for some years. (In 1840 there was one Alpha Munson living in Otisco, Onondaga County, New York.) His family moved from New York to Michigan sometime between 1841 and 1850 when they were living in North Plains, Ionia County, where his father worked as a farmer and Homer attended school with his older brother Floridus. By 1860 Homer was living with his family and working as a farmer in North Plains.

Homer was 20 years old and probably still living in North Plains when he enlisted in Company E on May 13, 1861. He was reported sick in the hospital (probably Chesapeake) at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, from July of 1862 through September. He was dropped from the rolls on October 23, 1862, at Edward’s Ferry, Maryland, for reasons unknown, but probably for being absent in the hospital and his whereabouts were unknown to the company. However, he returned to the Regiment on February 10, 1864, at Camp Bullock, Virginia and was reported at Division headquarters in March.

On June 1 or 2, 1864, Homer was taken prisoner, probably near Cold harbor or Gaines’ Mill, Virginia, and transferred as a prisoner-of-war to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. He apparently died on September 6, 14 or 16, 1864, at Andersonville prison, and was buried in Andersonville National Cemetery: grave 8876. There may be a memorial dedicated to him in Haynes cemetery, North Plains: lot no. 125.

Homer’s family may have been living in Gilmore, Benzie County in 1867 when his mother died. In any case, in 1881 Alpha eventually applied for a dependent’s pension (no. 286084); that same year he was living in Muir, Ionia County. By 1891 Homer’s father was living in the Ionia County Poor House when his pension application was reportedly rejected (reasons unknown).