Francis M. Perry Michigan Sharpshooters
TWO BROTHERS IN THE CIVIL WAR
Oliver Eli Perry is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He never married or had any children and died at age 18 fighting in the Civil War. His brother Francis Marion Perry is buried in Oceana County, MI. He also never married or had children.
Oliver Cheney Perry and his wife Sophronia Harriman Perry of Claybanks, Michigan sent four of their six sons to fight in the Civil War. Augustus and Charles Judson Sr. survived with injuries. Their two younger brothers, Francis Marion Perry and Oliver Eli Perry, joined Co. B, 1st Michigan Sharpshooters together. They were under the command of Capt. Elmer C. Dicey. Oliver Eli went into his final battle with his brother Francis Marion at his side and died of wounds suffered at Spotsylvania Court House on May 9, 1864. Francis Marion died six weeks later on June 28, 1864 at the Battle of Petersburg, after writing to his parents about Eli’s last minutes on the battlefield.
In 1886 Sophronia Harriman Perry, Francis’s widowed mother, applied for a mother’s pension she was entitled to because of the death of her son Francis. She as required to submit proof of many facts: that she had been at least partially dependent on her dead son for support, that she was a widow, and that she was unable to support herself. Accordingly, his Civil War pension file gives a great deal of information. These five poignant letters from 18-year-old Francis to his parents were submitted because each mentioned money Francis was sending to them during his service in the Civil War, thus proving in part that his mother was financially dependent on him. Submitter Nancy Neihart
Francis M. Perry Civil War Letters: Biography | April 29, 1863 | May 7, 1863 | July 1863 | Oct. 25, 1863 | June 21, 1864