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Catalog Number
2020.9.491Title
De Boe, MartinDescription
Image of Holland MI resident Capt. Martin De Boe's record of service in the "Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers in the Civil War, Vol. 3 and Vol. 25", and his obituary in the October 22nd, 1908 edition of Holland City News, page five.History
Captain Martin De Boe was born in 1837 in the Netherlands. He came to Holland MI with is parents in 1847. On May 13th, 1861, he enlisted in the 3rd Michigan Infantry, Co. I. He was wounded in action, suffering a wound in the hand, at Fair Oaks, Virginia, in July 1862. He was subsequently discharged for disability on August 7th, 1862. However, his story does not end there.On August 14th, 1862, he enlisted in the 25th Michigan Infantry Co. I as a First Lieutenant Comissioned Officer. After the death of Captain William E. Dowd on February 17th, 1863, Martin became Captain of the company and led it until the close of the war. He was mustered out with the rest of the regiment on June 24th, 1865.
However, his old wound came back to bite him. On October 17th, 1908, he passed from complications of the old wound at the Grand Rapids Soldiers Hospital. He is interred in Pilgrim Home Cemetery.
The 3rd Michigan Infantry was organized on June 10th, 1861. The third was engaged in heavy fighting from the start of the war, losing 30 killed, 124 wounded, and 15 missing in the battle of Williamsburg VA. The regiment was engaged in the First Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (it fought on the second and third days of that battle), Wilderness, and Spotsylvania. After many of the soldiers' contracts were up, a great number did not reenlist, prompting the attachment of the 3rd to the 5th Michigan Infantry in June 1864. It was mustered out of service in late June of 64, but was reorganized in October 1864. The reorganized third was disbanded on June 10, 1866.
The 25th Michigan Infantry Company I was largely made up of Dutch immigrants from Holland, Michigan and its surrounding areas. The company is most famous for its involvement in the Battle at Tebb's Bend, where roughly 200 Union soldiers repulsed an attack by the Confederate general John Hunt Morgan and his raiders. The 25th Infantry was also involved in several campaigns in Eastern Tennessee and Sherman's March to the Sea, where the 25th fought at Tunnel Hill, Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, Kingston, Allatoona, Pine Mountain, Lost Mountain, and Kenesaw. The regiment also took part in the siege of Atlanta. The regiment was mustered out on June 24th, 1865.
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