Andrew N. Miller

Andrew N. Miller, alias “Bernard Henry” and “Edward S. Taylor,” was born in 1838 in England, in Oakland County, Michigan, or in New York.

Andrew stood 5’8” with gray eyes, auburn hair and a florid complexion and was 23 years old and probably working as bookbinder and living in Ingham County (probably Lansing) when he enlisted in Company G on May 10, 1861. (Company G, formerly the “Williams’ Rifles,” was made up predominantly of men from the Lansing area.) According to Frank Siverd of Company G, Andrew was sick with “inflammation of the lungs” at Cantonment Anderson in Grand Rapids shortly before the regiment left Michigan in June of 1861.

Andrew has the dubious unique distinction of being one of only two men in the Regiment who enlisted in the Regiment twice (the other was Charles Spang), and was unique in the Regiment for having enlisted in two additional Regiments, one of them twice. He allegedly deserted while on the road to Bull Run in late July of 1861, although according to Frank Siverd of Company G, Andrew, who had been “missing since the first battle . . . was taken sick and started for Washington and was last seen near the city, since which time he has not been heard from.”

A week later, however, Siverd wrote home to Lansing that the friends of Miller and George Southerland, also of Company G and also missing, “should not be alarmed, for, although they could not be found, yet they are known to have reached Washington.” Siverd added that in his opinion “they have taken care of themselves.”

In fact, Miller apparently joined Company E, Sixty-seventh or Sixty-eighth Ohio infantry at Wauseon, Ohio, on November 15, 1861, under the name of “Edward S. Taylor.” He was appointed Sixth Corporal on December 15, 1861, and was a Corporal and absent sick in the hospital at Camp Chase, Ohio from February 9, 1862, through June. He was subsequently reported as AWOL through December. Andrew apparently returned to the Regiment and on January 1, 1863, was reduced to the ranks from Fifth Corporal. He was reported with the Regiment through April and again AWOL from May 1, 1863, and reported as having deserted on May 2, 1863, near Perkins plantation, Louisiana, while en route from Milliken’s Bend, Louisiana to Grand Gulf, Mississippi.

Apparently, when he was reported AWOL from the Sixty-eighth in July of 1862, Andrew had in fact returned to Michigan and enlisted (a second time) under the name of “Andrew N. Miller” in Company G, Third Michigan infantry on August 8, 1862, at Detroit.

He probably never joined the Third Michigan, however, and was discharged for consumption on December 21, 1862, at Cliffburne hospital in Washington, DC. Miller then returned to Michigan.

According to a letter dated October 21, 1863, from Captain E. Robinson of the provost marshal guard in Detroit to Colonel Hill the acting assistant provost marshal general for the state of Michigan, Miller had recently been arrested. “I have the honor,” Robinson wrote

to report to you the case of Andrew N. Miller who was arrested and sent to these Barracks as a deserter from Co. G 3d Mich Infantry By Prov. Marshal Barry 3d Cong. Dist. [on] October 16, 1863. At the time of his arrest he was recruiting for a position in the 11th Mich Cavalry, in the village of Mason, Ingham County Mich. His discharge papers at that time were about six miles from the place where he was arrested, but was not permitted to go and get them. At the time Miller was brought to this Barracks he was represented to be a desperate fellow and would get away if he could. Consequently I confined him in the guard house where he has remained ever since. I find upon the records at the Adjt. Genls office today -- which note you will find enclosed -- that Miller was discharged at the very time and place that he stated. You will also find enclosed the descriptive list sent by the Provost Marshal to these Barracks with Miller, together with the remarks made by the Provost Marshall. He (the Prov M) has allowed for his arrest $30.00 -- as you will see by the enclosed descriptive list.

It is not known what was the outcome of his arrest.

However, Andrew was apparently a substitute for one Harvey Miller, and on April 12, 1865, enlisted in Company G, Fifty-sixth Pennsylvania infantry under the name of “Bernard Henry,” at Williamsport (probably Pennsylvania) for one year. He was described as 26 years old, 5’6” with gray eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion, and by trade a laborer. He was promoted to hospital steward on June 13, and was last reported as having enlisted in the Pennsylvania infantry in violation of the 50th (old 22nd) Article of War, “prohibiting a soldier from enlisting in one organization, and then deserting to enlist in another.”

There is no further record.

In fact, Andrew survived the war.

He was married to Elizabeth.

In 1877 he applied for and received (?) a pension (no. 521723).

His widow was living in Washington, DC, in 1893 (?) when she applied for and received a pension (no. 390017).

Charles E. Henry

Charles E. Henry was born in 1838 in New York, the son of Thomas (b. 1802) and Hilly (b. 1811).

His father immigrated to America from Ireland and probably married Hilly in New York. In any case they resided in New York for some years. Sometime between 1845 and 1848 Thomas moved to Michigan, and by 1850 Thomas had settled his family on a farm in Grattan, Kent County where he also worked as a mason and where Charles was attending school with four of his siblings. By 1860 Charles was a farm laborer who was attending school and living with his family in Grattan, Kent County where his father operated a sizable farm.

Charles stood 5’10” with black eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was 23 years old and possibly still living in Kent County when he enlisted in Company K on May 13, 1861. On February 13, 1862, he wrote to a friend from Camp Michigan, near Falmouth, Virginia, that

At present my health is good & as a general thing we are having good times, at least as good as this kind of life affords. “Our camp is now situated about ten miles southwest of Washington. We have been here since the first of last Dec. For the most part the Reg. have built log cabins to live in. As for my part I am living in a tent which has prove[n] to be comfortable.

Owing to unfavorable weather we have not done but very little in [the] military line. This winter until of late I have experienced the most disagreeable weather of my life. One day it will snow the next perhaps it will rain, consequently the whole country about here is one bed of morter [sic]. For too [sic] or three days past the sun has shone like spring & the mud is drying up amazingly, enough so, as we have battalion drill in the forenoon & bayonet exercise in the afternoon. A few days since we received new guns, they are the Ostrian [sic] Riffle [sic] & they prove to be a superior gun. They will at least do good execution [at] one hundred rods. I think if we ever get a chance to try them on secesh we will be apt to make the fur fly.

Since the success of our arms in your part of the country I fell considerably encouraged & last night news reached here to the effect that Burnside has taken Roanoke Island, with two thousand rebels, besides killing about five hundred. I begin to think the war in future will be carried on with more vigor. I think it is high time that we do something besides play soldier. It has been almost one year since I entered the service, which time is about as long as I anticipated I should have to serve, but when I look back I find I did not know as much about such affairs as I do now. With me soldier's life is not preferable to that of any other, unless on such an occasion as this. Never the less this will prepare us to appreciate the blessings of life after the war is over.

Charles was a nurse in the hospital in July of 1862, but soon returned to the Regiment, and was shot in the left leg on August 29, 1862, at Second Bull Run. He was subsequently hospitalized at Fort McHenry, Maryland, and discharged on October 31, 1862, at Armory Square hospital, Washington, DC for wounds received in action.

After he was discharged from the army Charles eventually returned to Michigan, probably to his family’s home in Kent County. In 1870 Charles was working as a farmer in Grattan, next door to his younger brother Thomas and his family; his mother (?) Mahala (b. 1816 in New York) was living with him as well as two younger siblings.

He was married to New York native Florence N. (b. 1849) and they had at least two children: Alice A. (1884-1951) and Mabel (b. 1887).

Charles was residing in Greenville’s First Ward, Montcalm County in 1890 and 1894, and in December of 1892 when he became a member of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association; he was also a member of Grand Army of the Republic Kent Post No. 83 in Greenville. In fact, he quite likely lived the remainder of his life in the Greenville area, and was residing there in 1894 and in 1911. By 1920 Charles, his wife Florence and their daughter Alice were living with Mabel and her husband Joseph Gibson in Greenville.

In 1863 he applied for and received a pension (no. 15228).

Charles died on October 3, 1921 in Greenville and was buried in Forest Home cemetery: section 16, in Greenville (Florence and Alice are also buried alongside Charles).

In 1921 his wife applied for and received a pension (no. 919028).