John E. Spalding was 24 years old when he enlisted in Company E, 3rd Michigan Reorganized Infantry on September 3, 1864, at Grand Rapids, for three years and was mustered on September 9. He was discharged at Benton Barracks, MO, on September 28, 1865.
He eventually returned to Michigan and settled in Grand Rapids township. He is buried in Mason Cemetery.
 |
| Theodore Castor, Company C |
Wounds
Very few were wounded by cannon fire and there were no reports of men being wounded by bayonet although hand-to-hand combat did happen.
Company I had the highest number of men wounded (48), while Company A had the lowest number (28).
By engagement:
In the week of May 5-12, 1864, alone, the Old 3rd Michigan suffered 88 wounded (or nearly 23% of the total wounded).
Disabilities
During the war 434 men were discharged and 40 officers resigned from the 3rd Michigan on account of a disability of one type or another.
Another 65 men from the Old 3rd who had been consolidated into the 5th Michigan were discharged for disability.
Altogether some 539 or more than 38% of the total enrolled were discharged for disability.
At least 42 men suffered the loss of a limb. Some of the more common disabilities reported were: Asthma, bronchitis, consumption, deafness, dysentery, epilepsy, gunshot, heart disease, hemorrhoids, hernia, measles, pneumonia, rheumatic fever, rheumatism sunstroke, trauma or accident, typhoid fever, varicose veins and venereal disease
Reenlistees
Between late December of 1863 and March of 1864, 206 men reenlisted for three more years of service. Company G had the highest number of reenlistments, 24 (or 13.4% of the total reenlisted). Company B had the lowest with 11 (6.1%). The average reenlistment was 18 per company.
Transfer and Second Units
Aside from the 362 men who transferred into the 5th Michigan Infantry following consolidation in June of 1864, some 357 Old 3rd Michigan men were either transferred or discharged and reentered the military.
Of that number 57 would join a third unit.
At least 195 men entered a second Michigan unit.
If we add the 357 men who reentered a second unit to the 362 men who were transferred to the 5th Michigan infantry, we arrive at a grand total of 719 men who served in a second unit, or 51% of the overall total of men who served in the Old 3rd Michigan.
Former Old 3rd Michigan soldiers also enlisted in units of other states as well as the federal armed forces:
Of these five, only Champlin did not survive the war.
Of the original Field & Staff:
Of the Musicians who served in the Old 3rd Michigan:
Of the 10 original Captains:
Of the 10 original First Lieutenants:
Of the 9 original Second Lieutenants:
Of 48 Sergeants:
Of 78 Corporals:
Four Privates would become Majors: Emery Moon, Dan Kennicutt, George Nairn, and Michael Long
Curiously, not one man who enlisted in the Old 3rd Michigan after June of 1861 became a commissioned officer.
By far the highest number of men in the 3rd Michigan captured was 27 (nearly a quarter of them from Company K) reported for the week between May 5 and May 12, 1864, during the Wilderness-Spotsylvania campaign.
The next highest number was 19 taken on July 1-2, 1862, at White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill, Virginia. Ten men were taken on May 3, 1863, at Chancellorsville.
Nine soldiers were captured on November 30, 1863, at Mine Run, Virginia (with Company C losing 7 men or 77% of the total).
The regimental average was 10 men per company captured during the war, and the high scorer was Company C with 20. Company G suffered the lowest number of men taken prisoner (3).
Following consolidation with the 5th Michigan on June 10, 1864, some 24 former members of the 3rd Michigan were taken prisoner on October 27, 1864, at Boydton Plank road, Virginia.
(pictured above: Theodore Castor of Company C, was wounded in the leg and taken prisoner at the battle of the Wilderness on May 5, 1864.)
Desertion
LT James D. Bennett
During the war at least 131 men were charged with desertion. Nine of those, however, were as a result of the chaos which ensued in wake of the fiasco at First Bull Run, July 21, 1861.
Straggling probably also accounted for another 44 men who were charged with desertion on or about September 21, 1862, at Upton's Hill, Virginia. (Many of those charges were removed after the war.)
Of the number charged with actually having deserted we know:
53 were discharged for disability
5 mustered out of service
3 died of disease
4 listed as No Further Record
21 transferred to the 5th Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the two regiments in June of 1864
3 transferred to U.S. regular army units
6 transferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps (also known as the Invalid Corps)
 |
| Rev. Francis Cuming |
Not including the six men for whom we do not have a birth year, more than three-quarters of the total 1,411 enrolled were born after 1830 and one in five born after 1842:
11-16 years of age: 31
17-19 years: 275
20-29 years: 811
30-39 years: 204
over 40 years: 72
over 50 years: 10
over 60 years: 3
If we combine the numbers of all those men under 30, that group comprised nearly 80% of the total enrolled in the Regiment (1,412).
Height
Of the 922 reported physical measurements, four men were
5 feet or less: Tommy Byers, John McPherson, Albert Pelton and Jacob Rebhun. At the tall end, we have George Korten at 6'10, George Randall and Robert Swart at 6'6", Sam Aldrich and Ben Waite were 6'4", and Alex French and Calvin Wilsey 6'3".
Over half of the men were between 5’6’” and 5’11”.
Education
At least 679 men were reported as able to read and write and 38 were listed as illiterate; both numbers were probably higher. We also know that at least 40 men attained “higher education” degrees in architecture, law, medicine, education and the ministry.
Religion
In religious matters the men were overwhelmingly Protestant, although this remains measured speculation.
Of the 116 reported religious preferences we know that 84 were Protestant, 29 Catholic, 2 were Universalist, and 1 was Jewish.
Occupations
At least 788 (or more than 56%) of the 1,405 reported prewar occupations were directly related to the farm, and if one adds the 161 laborers, nearly 68% of the men who joined the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry were either farmers or laborers (and quite often both).
The next highest represented occupation was carpentry with 67 men who had worked in that trade before the war, followed by 59 in the lumber industry, 35 clerks, 24 blacksmiths and 23 shoemakers.
If we add the farmer/laborer group to the next five occupations, more than 82% of the regiment fell into seven occupational categories.
They met annually for a reunion, which included a business meeting of association, followed by a banquet. For many years these reunions were held on the first Wednesday after the anniversary of the battle of Fredericksburg of December 13, 1862. Beginning in 1904, annual association meetings fell on or near June 13, the day the regiment left Grand Rapids in 1861.
The 1885 reunion was held in Grand Rapids in conjunction with the reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, which was also held in Grand Rapids. And while the records are unclear, the reunions of 1924, 1925 and 1926 were presumably held in Grand Rapids.
No reunions were held in 1873, 1875 or 1880 while the 1913 reunion was held in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Gettysburg.
The 55th and final reunion was held at the Pantlind Hotel (today the Amway Grand) in Grand Rapids, Michigan in June of 1927; six of the fourteen remaining Association members attended.
(photo above: 1921 reunion)
We know that 107 men were divorced or separated from their wives, 11 were divorced twice, and 3 men were divorced three times.
At least 291 men were reported at death as widowers, and at least 19 were widowers twice.
Families
At least 765 men had children and 20 of them had 10 or more children. Andrew Kirschman, Theodore McClain and Elam Moe tied for the record: each man had at least thirteen children. In Elam's case, two of his sons, Daniel and Robert also served in the Old 3rd Michigan, and all three survived the war.
Related to each other
Of the 1,411 men enrolled in the regiment, at least 289 were related in one way or another. (This does not include the many relationships by marriage or distant family connection such as first cousins, brothers-in-law, etc.) There were at least 10 known father-son combinations, 2 uncle-nephew combinations: Stephen and Clarence Lowing and Ezra and Dennis Guernsey, and at least 154 brother combinations.
(photo above: Warren Wilkinson and his wife Alice Foster)
At least 30 men are listed as "no further record" in regimental documents and with the exception of Henry Smith, Thomas Henfry and Virgil Hamilton all were listed in an "Unassigned" company.
Clarkson Abbott
Charles Brown, substitute
Joseph Cantor, substitute
Edward Grayson, substitute
Edward Hall
Charles Hamill
Virgil Hamilton
John Hamilton, substitute
Gilbert Hansen
John Harper
John Harris
Thomas Henfry
Henry Jones
Nathaniel Lenning
John Marsh
Christy Martin
John Miller (2), substitute
William Monroe (2)
Edwin Moucham
Edward New, substitute
John Otto, substitute
Charles Palmer
Samuel Sikes
Henry Smith, substitute
Robert Smith
Alfred Spencer
Calvin Strain
Franz Sumner, substitute
Henry Ward, substitute
Charles White, substitute
Only Henfry and Hamill appear to have ended up in several different units: Henfry served in the 17th US infantry and Hamill served in the 12th Michigan infantry, the 1st US cavalry and in fact stayed in the army after the war serving out west for some years.
Eleven of the 30 were substitutes for men drafted.
Five of the 30 are known to have survived the war.
Enlisted in but never joined the regiment
Another seven men never joined the 3rd Michigan in Virginia: Rendel Fisher, William Sayles, Martin Bates, John Lucas, George Runyan, Edmund Bement and Preston Chaille.
Aside from Fisher the other six joined a different Michigan unit: Sayles in the 6th cavalry, Bates in the 3rd cavalry, Lucas in the 10th cavalry, Runyan in the 5th infantry, Bement in the 12th infantry and Chaille in the Light Artillery. All but Fisher are known to have survived the war (what became of Fisher remains unknown).
Left out of the "Brown Book" Regimental Record of Service
For reasons which are today unclear, 35 men were not listed in the official state-sponsored regimental record of history of service of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry.
The so-called "Brown Book" series underwritten by the Michigan State Adjutant General's Office under the direction of then Adjutant General George Brown, consisted of one volume for each regiment listing each soldier's name followed by the company letter. "Unassigned" refers to a soldier who was never assigned to a company in the 3rd Michigan, often as the result of being assigned or transferred to another unit but that was not always the case. Unfortunately the record remains unclear on this.
Given their well-known reputation and status int he local West Michigan community, some of the missing names, such as Adolphe Campau, Edwin Pierce, Don Lovell and Daniel Littlefield are indeed surprising.
 |
| Daniel Littlefield |
Another 7 were listed only in the 5th Michigan Infantry regimental history:
BARKER, Fred - K
BISSOT, Henry - Unassigned
CHAMBERLAIN, Charles -Unassigned
KENNICUTT, Daniel - K
KORTEN, George - Unassigned
MONTAGUE, Charles - Unassigned
STEELE, Peter - G
 |
| unburied dead at the Rose Farm, Gettysburg, July 1863, by Timothy O'Sullivan |
103 men killed in action
49 from wounds
97 of disease4 in accidents
1 suicide1 murdered
5 unknown cause
This represents a nearly 18% casualty rate (based on a total enrollment of 1,411).
When we take into account men consolidated into the 5th Michigan Infantry, transferred to other regiments or discharged from the 3rd Michigan and who subsequently reentered the military, another 90 men died by the time the war ended on May 6, 1865. Another 11 men did not live to see 1866.
From the spring of 1861 until the end of 1865 at least 361 men of the 3rd Michigan infantry perished. As a group, the 3rd Michigan suffered a 25% casualty rate, or one of every four men who enrolled in the 3rd would not survive the end of 1865.
First to die
The first man to die was probably Joseph Proper or Propier, on May 8, 1861, at Cantonment Anderson in Grand Rapids. He was buried about one mile away from the camp in what is now Oak Hill (north) cemetery, at the corner of Eastern and Hall streets in Grand Rapids. (Note: Joseph is not included in the calculations here since he was never mustered into state, let alone federal service.)
Of those men mustered into service with the regiment Chauncey Strickland was the first to die. He perished of lung fever at camp in Grand Rapids on June 18, 1861.
His remains were returned to his family home in Clinton County.
The first man to die after the regiment arrived in Virginia was probably William Choate of Company C; he died of disease at Camp Blair, Virginia, near the Chain Bridge and presumably buried near the camp.
Homer Morgan of Company B was the first to die by violence, on July 20, 1861, allegedly a suicide.
Last to die
Originally in Company E Moses Monroe transferred to the 5th Michigan Infantry in June of 1864 when the regiments were consolidated. He was wounded on April 6, 1865 at Sayler’s Creek, Virginia, near Appomattox and died of his wounds on April 23.
Eleven other former members of the 3rd Michigan died in April of 1865, and another three in May. For example, Casper Thenner, sick from disease, had just returned to his home in Grand Rapids when he died on May 27, and was interred in what is now an unmarked grave in Oak Hill (south) cemetery.
The last to die in 1865 was probably Asa Daniels, who had recently returned to Clinton County, Michigan when he died of unknown causes on December 13.
Perhaps the last man to die as a direct consequence of the war was Samuel Thurston of Company C. According to the Grand Rapids Herald of February 9, 1897,
“After carrying a rebel bullet in his right lung for over thirty years” Thurston, who was an inmate of the Michigan Soldiers' Home “has given up the fight. The bullet had for over thirty years been ploughing its way downward through the tissues of the lungs, and yesterday afternoon dropped out, death being almost instantaneous. The ball was covered with a linen patch, just as it had left the rifle of some rebel soldier, the patch and bullet being firmly connected. At 2 o'clock yesterday morning Thurston was taken to the hospital, having been in usual good health up to a short time before that. In the afternoon he complained to his nurse that his heart pained him, and while she was gone to secure a hot water application Thurston died.”
Last man standing. . .
The last known survivor of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry, was probably Edward McArdle of Company E. He died on October 15, 1937, at the Pacific Branch, National Military Home, Los Angeles, California, and was buried in the National Cemetery in Los Angeles.
 |
| eight men of the Old Third are buried in Dayton National Cemetery, Ohio. |
The men of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry died literally all over the United States and Canada. They are buried as far west as California and British Columbia, as far south as Key West, Florida and as far north as Montana and Maine.
The great majority are buried in Michigan and Virginia, followed by Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. In fact, at least 884 men who served in the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry, or nearly 62% of the total enrolled, died and were buried in Virginia or Michigan.
Of the 684 men reportedly buried in Michigan, by far the largest number (208) are found in Kent County, and of that number 43 are buried in the “Michigan Soldiers’ Home” Cemetery in Grand Rapids.
After Kent, the Michigan counties with the next highest number of burials are Ottawa (53), Ionia (50), Barry (37), Muskegon (27) and Newaygo (23).
Unknown Many of the 195 men buried in Virginia are probably interred in unknown graves scattered throughout the state, like so many thousands of soldiers. For example, it is likely that of the estimated 35 men who died at Fair Oaks, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, all are interred in Seven Pines National Cemetery, although we know exact locations for only a fraction of that number. And the men who died at Groveton on August 29, 1862, their remains were reportedly brought to Arlington National Cemetery and interred in a mass grave very close to the Custis-Lee mansion.
The fact that so many men who died in prison camps remain listed as "unknown" is well-established. However, it is also quite likely that several of the Old 3rd soldiers who returned to Michigan during the war and died at home today rest in unmarked graves. This is particularly true for Samuel Camp in Lamont, Ottawa County, Francis Barlow, Henry Kampe and William Gibson in Grand Rapids, as well as Chauncey Strickland probably in Clinton County.
Of the 1,285 reported birthplaces of the men of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry 217 were born in Europe, and 74 in Canada, or some or more than 22% of the reported places of birth. Another 998 in the United States.
From Europe the highest number came from present-day Germany (107), followed by England (39), Scotland (14) and Ireland (35).
In the United States, the overwhelming number of men were born were born in New York State (497), accounting for nearly39% of the total reported. Next was Michigan with 225 or about 18% of reported birthplaces; of that number 31 men were born in Kent County (the point of origin for the regiment). Third highest was Ohio (131).
Taken together, New York, Ohio and Michigan accounted for more than two-thirds (66.4%) of all reported birthplaces.
Dwight Merrill, Company E, 3rd Michigan Infantry. Buried in Whipple Cemetery, Newaygo County.
Matt VanAcker, Director, Tour, Education and Information Service for the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, and curator of Save the Flags, recently shared with me two fascinating bits of information regarding Allen Shattuck, formerly of Company G: the first is Shattuck’s climb up the capitol dome and the second concerns his role as a delivery person in Lansing after the war. Shattuck, along with his two brothers Daniel and Nelson, served in Company G, 3rd Michigan during the Civil War. See the sketches of the three Shattuck brothers.
If you’d like to know more about Save the Flags please contact Matt at MVanacker@legislature.mi.gov.
The History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry
Based on over 30 years of research and thousands of pages of primary and contemporary source materials, the history of the first infantry regiment to leave Grand Rapids, Michigan for the war in Virginia, is available in two volumes:
History of the 3rd Michigan 1855-1865 The story of the regiment from its beginnings in the mid-1850s when western Michigan was a frontier to its final mustering out of federal service. in June of 1864 More than 450 pages long with a detailed chronology, rosters, numerous appendices, an extensive bibliography and exhaustive surname index.
History of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Association 1870-1927 Recounts the creation of the Old 3rd Michigan Infantry Association in the early 1870s and describes each of the 55 annual reunions. Based on newspaper accounts and association records, also comes with an extensive surname index and membership roster.
Also available is The Generals of the 3rd Michigan Infantry Provides comprehensive biographical sketches of the five men who were awarded the rank of brevet general during the American Civil War; four brigadier generals: Stephen G. Champlin, Moses B. Houghton, Israel C. Smith, and Ambrose A. Stevens; and one major general Byron R. Pierce.
The Biographies of the Men who served in the 3rd Michigan Infantry
Now available in print the biographies of every one of the 1,411 men who served at one time or another in the 3rd Michigan Infantry, 1st organization. In four volumes, on Amazon:
And thanks for the support!
The 3rd Michigan Infantry research Project website has migrated back to blogger so be sure to subscribe and get the latest updates.
Over the coming weeks I'll be posting information from the old website so it will still be accessible.
Thanks for your support!
