Albert Adonijah Richmond

 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.

 

(Siblings Emma, Albert (2nd from left standing), James A, and Belle with parents Martin and Mahalath Richmond, and son Ernie c 1876)
(Siblings Emma, Albert (2nd from left standing), James A, and Belle with parents Martin and Mahalath Richmond, and son Ernie c 1876)

Application for disability pension
Application for disability pension

Albert stayed in Michigan, relying on his family to help care for Ernie while he worked in a sawmill. He married again in 1881 to Grace Enos. Together they had three more sons, Philip, born in 1882; James who lived only two days; and Dean, born in 1887. The following year, Albert applied for and received a disability pension. 

He was enumerated on the 1890 Veterans Census for Montcalm County, Michigan, as a resident of Trufant.
He was enumerated on the 1890 Veterans Census for Montcalm County, Michigan, as a resident of Trufant.


Albert and Grace filed for divorce in 1897. In 1908, Albert moved to Salem, Oregon, with his son Philip and several of his extended family. Tragically, Phillip died in July 1910 in a forest fire which consumed the logging camp where he was employed. Albert, sick at heart after the loss of Philip, passed away on 12 March 1911 at the age of 64. He is buried in "Odd fellows Cemetery" in Salem.

Application for Headstone - March 18, 1936
Application for Headstone - March 18, 1936

 

ADDITIONAL SOURCES: Ancestry.com; fold3; chroniclingamerica.loc.gov (Library of Congress); NARA records in personal collection; family correspondence; wikipedia; nps.gov

 

GRAVESITE:  Odd Fellows Cemetery (formerly, Old Pioneers Cemetery), Salem, OR

Written by Dorotha Simmons Piechocki, May 2001

Updated August 2020 by Gerald and Dorotha Piechocki