In this connection the following war chapter from M. L. Leach's History of the Grand Traverse Region published in the Herald in 1883, will be of interest.

    "At the time of this writing (1883), scarcely years 23 have passed since the first gun fired upon Sumter sent a thrill of excitement throughout the loyal north, and called her patriotic sons to battle, yet is impossible to give anything like a full history of the part the people of the Grand Traverse country took in the war that followed.  Those who make history by their deeds usually do not write history.  Some one who comes after, gathers up the fragmentary records traditions and recollection, and fits them together as best he may.  Fortunate is the write whose chain of narrative is not bade conspicuous by the great number of it missing links. 

   In studying the records of the "boys in blue" who volunteered from the Grand Traverse Country, industrious research enables the writer to do little more than give the names and dates.  The list of volunteers is so incomplete that to publish it seems almost like an act of injustice to those whose names do not appear.  The regiments in which they served, are often a matter of conjecture, and the fate of many, some of whom have fallen in battle, perished in hospitals, or been starved to death in rebel prisons, is involved in obscurity.

   To avoid misunderstandings, it should be remembered that at the breaking out of the war, the unorganized counties of Antrim, Leelanaw and Benzie were attached to Grand Traverse for civil and judicial purposes.  When, in this chapter, Grand Traverse county is mentioned, the territory of the three referred to is intended to be included  Grand Traverse county as thus defined was divided into nine townships--Meegezee, Milton, Whitewater, Peninsula, Traverse, Leelanaw, Centerville, Glen Arbor and Central Lake.

   The number of men in the territory alluded to of an age suitable for military service, making no allowance for exceptions on account of disability could not have exceeded six hundred and probable fell short of that number  From this territory it is believed more that two hundred went into the service within the next four years  Of course considerable accessions to the population resulted from immigration during that period, thus increasing the number liable to military duty.

   "One of the first to volunteer was Curtis Fowler, Jr., son of Hon. Curtis Fowler, judge of probate for Grand Traverse county.  Fighting bravely in the ranks of that gallant First, he was wounded at the battle of Bull Run in July, 1861, was discharged from the service on account of disability  from the wound, and returned home  His brother, Francis Z. Fowler, considering it a matter of honor as well as of patriotism that the family should be represented in the ranks of the defenders of the country, volunteered in the second battle of Bull Run the following year, the first martyr 'from Grand Traverse' to the slaveholders' rebellion.

   "Thirteen volunteers started from Traverse City on or about the 13th of September, 1861.  Their names are as follows:

 

Martin A. Hopper, Andrew McKillip, Isaac Winnie, James Nicholson, James Fitzpartrick, Wm. E. Sykes, Samuel A. McClelland, E. J. Brooks Lewis Steele, Frank May, Aaron Page, Orselus Evans, and Thomas Lee

of these, the first five had been for a long time in the employ of Hannah, Lay & Co.  On settling with them Mr. Hannah made each a handsome present and told them that if they were ever in distress or in need of funds to draw on him at sight and their drafts would be honored.  Wm. Sykes was sheriff of the county.  McLelland, Brooks, May, and Page were from Northport.  Evans was from Whitewater and Lee was from Centerville.

    "At the time of leaving Traverse City it; was the intention of several of these men to enlist in Chicago in Capt Busteed's Company of light infantry.  We afterwards find some of them in the First New York Artillery on of their number, McClelland, holding the rank of second lieutenant.  At the battle of Malvern Hill, the first of July, 1862, the "Grand Traverse boys" received special commendation from their officers for bravery and good conduct.  Of the thirteen mentioned above the following are referred to by names in a published letter from Lieut. McClelland -- Sykes, Evans, McKillip, Nicholson and Hopper.  In the list of those especially commended Lieut. McClelland also gives the names of nine other "Grand Traverse boys" in his company, of whose volunteering and enlistment we have no account.  They were:

 

M. V. Barns, Albert M. Powers, A. N. Brown, Jared D. Delap, James Hutchinson, Charles A. Lee, Sidney Brown, Wm. Wilks, and Hiram Odell

    "On the fourth day of October 1861, fifteen volunteers left Traverse City for Grand Rapids, under command of F. W. Cutler, a recruiting officer.  The following is the list of names.

 

Edward Stanley, Mathew Stanley, Eber Stone, Wm. C_llison, George Flack, Benjamin Ratelle, Dudley Wait, John O'Leary, Patrick Graham, George Askey, John Rodart, John Williams, Lewis Stevenson, Andrew Anderson and Edward Dewaire.

    "On the 15th of August 1862, John Lewis Patrick, a young man who had been for two years an apprentice in the office of the Grand Traverse Herald, started for Chicago where he enlisted in the Mercantile Battery.  Not long after it fell to the lot of the paper on which he had wrought to publish his death, which occurred in the hospital at Memphis, Tenn., on the first of February, 1863.  The editor of the "Herald", Morgan Bates, afterwards Lieut., Governor, speaks thus tenderly of his young friend: He was one of the noblest and purest young men we ever knew, and it caused a heart-pang when he left us to volunteer for the defense of his country.  All who knew him loved him, and his early death will cast a gloom over many hearts."

   In August, 1862 recruiting was lively; Capt E. S. Knapp, called L. Edwin Knapp in "Michigan In the war" assisted by Lieutenants Jacob E. Siebert, of Manistee, and Charles H. Holden, of Northport, raised a company in a short time, in Manistee and Grand Traverse counties, to which was given the name of the "Lake Shore Tigers"  The following is an imperfect list of the men enlisted by Lieut. Holden, in Grand Traverse, with the names of the townships to which they were credited:

     Capt. Knapp's company had originally been intended for the Twenty-first, but on arriving at Ionia, that regiment was found to be full.  Application was next made to the Twenty-fifth, then organizing at Kalamazoo, but that being full also, the company finally proceeded to Jackson, and was mustered out into the service as company A of the Twenty-sixth, under Col. Farrar.

   Lieut. Holden was prosecuting attorney of the county at the time of organizing the company and resigned his office for the purpose of entering the service.  He was mustered in as first lieutenant, and was afterwards made quarter master of the regiment.  He resigned April 4th 1864 and was honorable discharged.  The second lieutenant was Sewell S. Parker of Monroe.  Lieut. Siebert who helped to enlist the company does not appear to have belonged to the Twenty-sixth.  According to "Michigan in the war"" he, belonged to the Twentieth, and was killed in action at Poplar Spring Church, VA, Sept 30, 1864.  Of the enlisted men from Grand Traverse:   

     In the summer and fall of 1863, from the early part of July till late in October, Lieut., Edwin J. Brooks of Northport was engaged in recruiting for the Tenth Cavalry, under Col. Foote having its rendezvous at Grand Rapids.  Unfortunately there is at hand no list of Grand Traverse men who volunteered for that regiment under Lieut. Brooks.  Lieut. Brooks was mustered in as first lieutenant of Company E.  He was promoted to a Captain April 25th 1864; March 13th, 1865; he was made Brevet Major of U.S. Volunteers for gallantry in action at Strawberry Plains, east Tenn., Nov 17th, 1864. (Brevet means a temporary position).  On the same day he was further promoted to Brevet Lieut. Colonel. U. S. volunteers, "for gallant and meritorious conduct through four years of active service".  He was mustered out and honorably discharged Nov 11th 1865.  In September while Lieut. Brooks was recruiting the citizens of Traverse, anxious to make up the full quota of the township by voluntary enlistment, raised by subscription a fund for the payment of fifty dollars bounty to each recruit enlisted and credited to the township before the expected draft should take place.

   On the 12th of October official information having been received that the draft would take place on the 26th of that month and that only eleven men were needed to fill up the quota of Grand Traverse county the board of supervisors appropriated eleven hundred dollars to a fund to be called the military bounty enlistment fund.  The chairman and clerk of the board were authorized to draw orders on this fund for one hundred dollars in each in favor of the first eleven men who would enlist and be sworn into the service of the United States prior to the  _ _d of the month, provided they should be accredited to the county in the coming draft.

   During the following winter additional calls for troops made it necessary to hold out additional inducements for voluntary enlistment.  In the month of February a series of war meetings was held in Traverse, which resulted in the calling of a special town meeting to authorize the issuing of bonds for the purpose of raising money to pay bounties to volunteers.

   The efforts at enlisting were successful  On the second day of March, 42 recruits left Traverse City for the rendezvous at Grand Rapids, constituting the full quotas for Traverse, Peninsula, Centerville.  On the evening previous to their departure the ladies gave them an entertainment providing a bountiful supper at the boarding house of Hannah Lay & Co., at which a large proportion of the population of the village and surrounding country was present.  Mr. Hannah presided, brief addresses were made by Hon. Morgan Bates and Rev. J. H. Crum, and the scene was enlivened by patriotic and soul stirring music and at the directions of Mr. Charles H. Day.  The following is a list of the volunteers.

 

Traverse: Albert S. Brooks, Earnest Crain, Wm W. Bradley, George L. Smith, Edward Beavis, Aaron Mettes, Myron A. Moody, Paul Gravel, Robert Myhill, James Lynch, Tobias F. Houghtaling, John Sutherland, Wm. W. Johnson, Henry C. Fuller, Sands Moon, Alonzo F. Hopkins, John Flannery, James Monroe, George W. Hargraves, Wilson P. Johnston

Peninsula: James Birney Lancaster, Charles Loukey, Columbus Winnie, Richard W. Smith, Abram D. Langwarthy, Francis L. Bourasaw, Wm. B. Munn, John M. Wallison

Centerville: Thomas Harmer, Adam Cook, James Manseau, Isaac Clark, James Mason, Jacob Burger, Clouver Warren, Martin Novotney, Ferdinand Kord, Philip Egler, Albert Norris, Henry Lemmerwell, James Clark, Martin Wachall

    Several of these men found their way into the Fourteenth regiment, and first entered upon activity duty at the front in the vicinity of Nashville, Tenn.  Those known to have been in that regiment area:

 

Crain, Mettes, Gravel, Lynch, Lancaster, Lonkey, Winnie, W. R. Smith, Langworthy, Bourasaw and Allison