Heritage \ Writings \

Civil War: What Bay Did for Nation. (1916)
Article written by M. M. Andrews, Civil War veteran.

1916 article, contributed by James Petrimoulx - July, 2009.

The Bay City Tribune - Thursday, June 15, 1916 (page 4)

M. M. Andrews, Civil War Veteran,
Tells What Bay Pioneers Did For Nation.
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Very few persons now live in Bay City who were here in the spring of 1861 when the Civil war began. Bay City at that time was a village of only a few hundred inhabitants and the county of Bay little less than a wilderness

When on April 12, 1861 Fort Sumpter in Charleston harbor was fired on by the secessionists and the whole country was aroused , President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to “put down the insurrection” Governor Blair was asked to furnish one regiment, fully armed and equipped as Michigan’s quota of this first call for troops.

It is interesting to note as time went on and the war assumed gigantic proportions and a great army was created that the little village of Bay City and the sparsely populated county of Bay sent so large a percentage of their men to the front.

Michigan in the war gives the official figures showing that Bay county was credited with 511 enlistments. The same publication gives the names of the following commissioned officers, claiming Bay City as their home:

Henry H. Alvord, 1st Lt. 23rd Michigan Infantry;
Eben R. Ayers, 1st Lt. 102nd U.S.C.T.;
James G. Birney, Captain 1st Cavalry;
Fitzhugh Birney, General Staff;
Wm. A Bryce, 1st Lt. 29th Infantry;
Ralph W. Cummings, Surgeon 23rd Infantry;
Anthony Eastman, 2nd Lt. 14th Infantry;
Edward A. Eddy, 1st Lt. 23rd Infantry;
Fred J. Forsyth, 2nd Lt. 16th Infantry;
Samuel D. Garrigues, Surgeon 29th Infantry
William Grandy, 2nd Lt. 29th Infantry;
Duncan McNaughton, Captain 16th Infantry;
Benjamin F. Partridge, Brevet Brigadier General;
Henry S. Raymond, Lt. Colonel 23rd Infantry;
Walter Whittemore, Major 2nd Cavalry.

One considerable body of men was recruited in Bay City by Henry S. Raymond and entered the service as Company F 23rd regiment Michigan volunteer infantry. The regiment participated in 26 engagements of the great conflict many of them the most important battles of the war.

Here are the names of the only organized company of soldiers that Bay City sent to the front in the war of 1861-1865, so far as the records are available:

Captain H.S. Raymond, promoted to Lt. Colonel;
1st Lt. Henry H. Alvord, promoted to Captain;
2nd Lt. John Y. McKinney, promoted to Captain;

W.H. Bennett Norman Babcock Jerome Blodgett Isaac Brown Martin Burns Theodore Campau Augustus Campbell Russell Carman Theodore Carson Daniel Chapman Theodore Case Samuel Clark Edward Cole Ralph G. Coons William Deems James Deems John Deems Andrew Douglas Henry W. Durfree Edward A. Eddy

Oliver Fillison Adolphus Franklin George W. Frieze Frank Gadwood James Haggard John J. Haarington Daniel Hopkins Henry W. Hogler George W. Howell J.S. Kenfield Edward Lark James Kent Henry L. Johnson Peter Miller John L. Miller Jas. J.B. McCormick Allan A. McDonald Benjamin Mason Lewis Micheleod John J. Marging

Matthew Murphy Patrick Murphy Ambrose Paine Wm. H. Perkins James Parine John C. Rowden William Salsbury Hiram Spenser James H. Tripp Moses Truckner William Underwood Moses Wells Levi Welch Josiah Whittle

The late John C. Rowden of Auburn who was the last 1st Seargeant of this Company F, 23rd regiment furnished the writer the names of these loyal sons of Bay, he having kept the records of the company.

Before Mr. Rowden’s death he was greatly interested in the movement started by the late E.B. Foss and other patriotic citizens here to place in one of our parks a suitable monument to the memory of these and other hundreds of veterans of the Civil war and Spanish-American war who have within the last 50 years made Bay City their home. It is hoped that the monument enterprise will be put through to completion in the near future.

When the project was originally started it was the earnest wish and expectation that such a monument would be built by this time and it was planned to make its dedication a feature of the week of the encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic and reunion of the Spanish War veterans which come to Bay City this week.

However it may well be the occasion of a patriotic demonstration at a later period.

Additional Notes:

• 1912 - Mr. Andrews was cashier at the Old Second National Bank in Bay City.
• 1913 - Mr. Andrews, a member of the H. P. Merrill Post No. 419, in Bay City, was elected Senior Vice Department Commander of the Department of Michigan, Grand Army of the Republic.