Levin E. Ferrin

US Congressional Record

CASE OF LEVI E. FERRIN.

April 7, 1890.—Laid on the table and ordered to be printed.

Mr. Snider, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

ADVERSE REPORT:  [To accompany H. R. 1278.]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 1278) to remove the charge of desertion against Levi E. Ferrin, have duly considered the same and submit the following report:

The full detailed history of the soldier’s military service is given in the report of  Capt. F. O. Ainsworth, chief of the record and pension division, War Department, as follows:

Case of Levi E. Ferrin, private, Company H, First Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers, alias Lewis E. Fletcher, private, Company A, First Vermont Cavalry Volunteers.

 (photo: Levi Ferrin’s headstone in Pine Hill Cemetery, Dover, NH)

Levi E. Ferrin, private, Company H, First Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers, was enrolled on September 2, 1861, to serve three years. His record appears to be good until August 31, 1862. The company muster-roll of October 31, 1862, reports him, “Absent; taken prisoner near Sbeppardstown, Va., September 29, 1862.” (The First Massachusetts Cavalry Volunteers was engaged in a skirmish at Shepherdstown, Va., September 29, 1H62). The prisoners of war records show him captured at Shepherdstown, Va., September 29, 1862: paroled at same place (or at Antietam) October 1, 1862; reported at Camp Parole, Maryland, October 13, 1862; sent from there to Acquia Creek (no date), also reported as sent from Camp Parole to Alexandria November, 1862. The company muster-roll of December 31, 1862, reports him “Deserter; exchanged prisoner; not yet reported to company.” (General Orders, No. 191,War Department, Adjutant-General’s Office, datedNovember 19,1862, declared duly exchanged: (1) All enlisted men in the United States service, captured and paroled in Virgina and Maryland, up to November 1, 1862.) • • • The company return for January, 1863, reports him “Deserted, January 10, 1863, Annapolis, Maryland.” He never rejoined this command.

On August 26, 1864, he was enrolled, a private, in Company A, First Vermont Cavalry Volunteers, as Lewis E. Fletcher, to serve one year. He was mustered out as of this organization June 21, 1865.  No testimony in this case is on file at the War Department.

As this man’s absence in desertion, before he enlisted in the First Vermont Cavalry Volunteers, exceeded four months, the War Department is not empowered under existing law to remove the charge of desertion in his case.

Respectfully submitted. F. C. Ainsworth. Captain and Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army.

The Secretary Of War.

The committee do not find that there is anything in the record of the soldier to entitle him to the relief sought for, and recommend that the bill be laid upon the table.  1st Session. No. 1317.

Personal Facts:

Levin Ferrin was born 25 Apr 1846 in Bridgewater NH to Jonathan and Harriet Ferrin.  He was a shoemaker by trade and worked in various shoe factories in Natick and Lowell Mass as well as Newmarket.  He married Emma A. Fuller 4 April 1867 in Newmarket, NH, and their newborn son, Eddie H. Ferrin, died 16 Oct 1868. Emma died in 1870, and he remarried Abby Spead of South Newmarket the following year.  By 1880 they moved to Natick, MA.  Abbie died 1899, and he remarried the same year  Almedia Farwell in Greenville, NH.  He died 30 Nov 1904 in New Ipswich NH and is buried at Pine Hill Cemetery, Dover NH.