Saturday, November 29, 2008

Franklin Green

Franklin Green was born 1845 in Cayuga County, New York.

Franklin left New York State and came to western Michigan sometime before 1864. (In 1860 there was a 10-year-old Franklin Green, born in New York, living with his parents in Ada, Kent County.)

He stood 5’5” with black eyes, brown hair and a dark complexion, and was a 19-year-old carpenter possibly living in Yankee Springs, Barry County when he enlisted in Company E on February 9, 1864, at Grand Rapids for 3 years, crediting Yankee Springs, and was mustered on February 19. He joined the Regiment March 29, and that same day he wrote to a Mr. Bailey asking that he “inform me whether Mr. Ephraim Parsons [of Company F] got my bonds [?] for my town bounty; he said that he would get them and send the money to me but I have not heard from him since. If he did not get them I wish that you would sell them and send me the money if you please or send me the bonds and I will pay you for your trouble.”

Franklin was admitted to Campbell general hospital in Washington, DC, on May 16, 1864, suffering from “debility,” and was still absent sick when he was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864.

He was probably furloughed in the summer and was back in Michigan by mid-July. On July 24, 1864, Dr. Alonzo Wate, examining surgeon for the provost marshal in Grand Rapids certified that Green was “suffering from a severe cough and night sweats & debility in consequence thereof he is in my opinion unfit for duty.” He remained absent sick until he was mustered out of service on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

No pension seems to be available.

In 1870 there was a 20-year-old, New York-born laborer named Franklin Green living with and/or working for the Stilwell family in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward.

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