Ephraim E. Brown

He enlisted as Private in December 1861 in Company C, 64th New York Infantry, and served three years and five months, leaving the service as a Sergeant.

18 years old at the battle, Brown wrote the following about what he saw that day:

On reaching the Summet Barlow & Miles dismounted their horses & sent them to the rear. Ordering us by the right flank march bringing us in line of Battle lengthwase of the Hill & Ridge, when fully to the Summet not a gun yet fired nor a Reb yet seen we at this moment with right & left of Regt was but a few rods from the Reb lines steadily marching towards them & up went their flags & whiz came their bullets. Showing in a minuet their full position lying in 2 Deep Cut roads in form of a perfect L. Showing thus (This is now referred to in history books as the Sunken Road or "Bloody Lane".) At this moment Ephraim Green tapped me on shoulder saying "Eph, See this flag to our right - lets take her down." Saying "Oh", & fell backwards to the ground. I threw my right arm under him & supported him from a heavy fall. Bill Wemple steped forward raised his head to his knee & he Brave Soldier heard the Battle no more.'

He farmed in New York until 1867 when he moved to Kent County, Michigan, married the Swedish-born Matilda Peterson in 1869, and farmed 163 acres - most in fruit trees. He also served in township and school positions. By the time of his death at age 90, he was living in Zephyrhills, FL where he was active in the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR).

Service information from an extract from his diary from NY and the Civil War and a brief bio online transcribed from Biographical Sketches in A. W. Bowen's History of Grand Rapids and Kent County (1900). Further details accompany a picture of him at age 87, hosted online by the Pasco County (FL) Historical Preservation Society.

3/10/1844 in NY

12/14/1934; burial in Englishville Cemetery, Comstock Park, MI