Benjamin Franklin Martin - Civil War Veteran

In celebration of Memorial Day and the anniversary of the Civil War I am going to tell you about my great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Martin of Marblehead.

Although I never knew him I must have learned a lot about him as a young child as I came across a paper that I had typed, probably in junior high, which was taken from the American Series of Popular Biographies of Massachusetts, copyright 1901 which is now available on Google books. How times change, I’m sure I got it from the library. Here is what I typed:

“Benjamin Franklin Martin, a Civil War Veteran and Postmaster of Marblehead, was born in this town, July 30, 1841, being a son of Joseph and Mary Martin and representative of a well known Marblehead family. His paternal grandfather was Bartholomew Martin. His parents were natives of Marblehead; and his father, whose death occurred in 1872, was engaged chiefly in the cultivation of a farm.  Joseph and Mary Martin had several other children, of whom four are now living (in 1901) namely, Sarah H. of Marblehead, Joseph who resides elsewhere in Massachusetts, Benjamin F, the subject of this sketch; and Martha A. also of Marblehead.

Benjamin F. Martin was reared in his native town and educated in the public schools. When a young man he was engaged in the shoe business, which constituted his principal occupation prior to the Civil War. Immediately after Present Lincoln’s first call for troops to defend the Union, he became associated with Benjamin Day in recruiting the Mugford  Guards, which organized as Company G, Fourteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, on May 2, 1861.

Of this company he became a Second Lieutenant, while his co- laborer in its formation was elected Captain. The Fourteenth was organized in Fort Warren, Boston Harbor and mustered into the federal service July 5 of the same year. It became a part of the Army of the Potomac, and afterward known as the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. After serving for more than a year in the defense of Washington, Mr. Martin was compelled to resign his commission due to ill health; but, when sufficiently recovered he again entered the service, he re-enlisted at First Lieutenant in the Fourth Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, with which he was once more engaged in garrison duty at the national capitol until the close of the war, and was honorably discharged in 1865.

His patriotic zeal had again caused a severe strain upon a none to vigorous constitution, which had already been serious menaced; and, like many of his companions in arms, he was mustered out of service in a weak physical condition. Upon his return to Marblehead he engaged in agricultural pursuits, with the view of more speedily effecting his recovery; and, finding that invigorating occupation to be agreeable as well as conducive to health, he followed it continuously for more than thirty years.

In 1898 Mr. Martin was appointed Postmaster of Marblehead. The ability with which he performed the duties of that important position was appreciated by his fellow-townsmen, irrespective of political parties. In politics he is a Republican, and for a number of years had been an active member of the Marblehead Republican Club. He is also a member of the Masonic Order and a Past Commander of Post No. 82, Grand Army of the Republic, of this town.

In 1861 Mr. Martin married Miss Mary E. Woodfin, daughter of John H. and Emma C. (Chapman) Woodfin, late of Marblehead.  They have thirteen children, Mary E., Emma W., Benjamin F., Joseph, John Hooper, Mary, Henry L. , Mattie T. , Knott V., Lawrence T., George, Robert and Stephen C..”

Since that article I have learned a lot more about Benjamin F, and even have some of the letters which he wrote while serving in the Civil War which I will be sharing with you in future blogs.

A few tidbits of his life that I have found: he was born on a Friday at 3 o’clock in the morning, he took over the milk business from his father and he later became the 15^th Postmaster of Marblehead for fourteen years.  He was appointed in March 1898 by President McKinley and served until 1911.He was reappointed in McKinley’s second term and also by President Roosevelt and President Taft.

When he returned from the war he worked on his father’s farm until he injured his back trying to lift a fifty quart can of milk. On a Sunday in early August, 1902 he fell and sustained an injury which according to Dr. True in town, he received a severe strain to the ligaments in one of his legs. The Captain, as Benjamin was called was confined to his home for a period of time and upon his return to work he walked with two canes rather than the one that he habitually carried to help the leg he wounded in the war.

His military career being on July 5, 1861, when at the age of twenty in enlisted in the Civil War as a Lieutenant Second Class and  commissioned in Company G, 1^st Heavy Artillery Regiment Massachusetts. Benjamin died on November 28, 1911 at his 100 Elm Street home at the age of seventy, from arteriosclerosis.  His body is currently in Waterside Cemetery, but according to his granddaughter, Louise Graves Martin Cutler he was originally buried in a tomb at Green Street Cemetery.  When the town decided to widen Creesy Street they had to remove some of the tombs, his being one of them.  Her father, Knott Vickery Martin was told to come to the cemetery  when they opened the tomb and his description according to Louise was “they opened the tomb and a cloud of dust rose up and all that was left were the brass buttons on his Civil War uniform and his sword,”  True or family lore, I don’t know. 

Louise described her grandfather as a gentleman, secretary of the “Mugford Guards” and a political minded staunch Republican and a member of the Odd Fellows.  I will be posting some of his letters in my next block.