Martin M Harry

Martin Marshall Harry

Martin Marshall Harry enlisted in Company I, 16th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry at Urbana, Illinois on December 26, 1862. He was enrolled for three years of service at Springfield, Illinois on January 21, 1863. He served under the command of Captain Jackson of Kankakee and entered action in Kentucky. On one of the scouting raids made by his regiment through Lee County, Virginia he and 185 of his comrades were captured by the confederate army. He was sent to Lynchburg, Virginia and then on to Richmond and spent two months in the prison camp at Belle Isle in the James River. From there he was sent to Andersonville, for over eleven months and in that notorious stockade suffered everything that human beings could be called on to endure. From Andersonville he was removed to Florence, South Carolina because Sherman’s army was rapidly advancing across the Carolinas. Finally the order came to exchange 10,000 sick and convalescent prisoners, and they were paroled at Benton Barracks in St. Louis and were moved frequently until he was finally mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee on August 19, 1865. During his service he was promoted to Sergeant.

Martin Marshall was born January 8, 1844 in Lewis County, Kentucky. He was the eldest of seven children born to Joseph and Lucinda “Ruggles” Harry. He died October 3, 1918 in Urbana, Champaign County, Illinois and is buried at Mt. Olive Cemetery, Mayview, Champaign, Illinois. He married Olivine “Dilling” Harry on January 9, 1868 and they had two children. Olivine died in 1873. On October 21, 1877 Martin married Mary Jemima “Boyd” Harry and they had four children.

Photograph and information submitted by Martin Marshall Harry's great grandson Timothy J. Adams.

Martin Marshall Harry