Based on a review of pension records:
Corydon Orcutt Jr. was born in 1832 or 1833 in Genesee County, New York, the son of Corydon Sr. (b. 1807 in New York) and Jemina Johnson (b. 1810 in Connecticut).
Corydon Sr. and Jemina eventually left New York and moved to Michigan sometime between 1848 and 1850 by which time they were living in Plainfield, Kent County where Corydon Sr. and Jr. both worked as laborers.
Corydon Jr. married New Yorker Catharine Levy (b. 1835) in West Sparta, Livinston County, New York, on November 18, 1853, and they had at least three children: Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1854), Samuel (b. 1861) and Mary (b. 1863).
Corydon may have been living in New York around 1855 when their first child was born but by 1856 Corydon had returned to Michigan. By 1860 Corydon Jr. was working as a shingle-maker and living with his wife and three children in Solon, Kent County; his neighbors on both sides were also shingle-makers. One of these was John Olim who was living with Leonard Parrish, and Leonard would also join the 3rd Michigan.
Corydon stood 5’6” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was a 32-year-old farmer possibly living in Kent County when he enlisted in Company F on January 30, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Cato, Montcalm County, and was mustered the same day. He joined the Regiment on March 27, was taken prisoner on June 2, 1864 at Gaines’ Mills, Virginia (near Spotsylvania), and was first confined in one of the prisons in Richmond, Virginia on June 3 and then sent to Andersonville prison on June 8. He was transferred as missing in action and a prisoner-of-war to Company F, 5th Michigan Infantry upon consolidation of the 3rd and 5th Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.
On August 16 Corydon was admitted to the prison hospital at Andersonville where he died the same day of enteritis. He was buried in Andersonville National Cemetery: grave 5846.
In 1865 Catharine applied for and received a widow’s pension (no. 66033). The following year she remarried to Arnold Roberts of Livingston County, New York. In 1868 an application by Arnold Roberts was filed in Livingston County, New York, on behalf of Corydon’s three minor children (no. 146991).
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