Great-granduncle of Dorotha Piechocki

Private     13th Independent Battery    Michigan Light Artillery

Dates of Service:  27 Aug 1864 - 01 Jul 1865

Albert Adonijah Richmond was born 08 June 1846 in Cleveland, OH, the 3rd child of Martin Sylvanus and Mahalath Bedford Richmond. In 1863, he moved with his family to Keene Twp., Ionia Co., MI. At the age of 18, Albert enlisted at Grand Rapids, Michigan, in the 13th Independent Battery, Michigan Light Artillery. Battery "M" was organized at Grand Rapids, and mustered into service on January 20, 1864. An artillery regiment consisted normally of twelve batteries, given letter designations, but fourteen having been raised, the two batteries last formed were designated the 13th and 14th.

Albert and the 13th Battery were stationed at Fort Foote till October 1864, and at Fort Sumner till December. They were garrisoned at Fort Reno till February, 1865. The Battery was mounted as cavalry February 27, 1865, and detailed for duty in Maryland with the 13th NY Cavalry to suppress guerrillas and maintain peace.

After President Lincoln's assassination, they were sent with the same NY regiment into Maryland and Pennsylvania chasing the conspirators. They assisted in the arrest of Mudd and Harold, two of the conspirators. Dismounted in mid-June, 1865, they again were garrisoned in Fort Reno until they returned to Michigan at the end of the month and disbanded on July 1.

Albert's older brother James had also just returned from service with the Union Army. James seemed unable to "settle down" after three years of war and wanted to try "various pursuits." Perhaps as he always had done, James persuaded his younger brother to try a new pursuit. After a short while in Michigan, the brothers headed westward. 

By the fall of 1870, Albert was working as a farm laborer in Iowa, where he soon met and married Miss Mary Jane Leake. They had one son, Albert Ernest, born in 1872. When Albert's wife became ill, they returned to Michigan with their young son, where Mary died in 1877. She was buried in Alton Cemetery, Lowell, Michigan, in his father's burial lot.