LYMAN I. BRIDGES -- 96th INFANTRYMOVED TO MICHIGAN TO FARM - Lyman I. Bridges proved himself to be acapable soldier. After he enlisted in South Plattsburgh on October 21,1861, he worked himself up through the ranks. When he mustered out onFebruary 6, 1866, at City Point, VA, he was a 1st lieutenant.McComb's Regiment, or the 96th Infantry, mustered on the PlattsburghReservation and probably used the Old Stone Barracks while they werewaiting to leave for Washington on March 11, 1862. By April 17th, Lymanwho was then corporal of Company C with other men from the Plattsburgharea, was at the Siege of Yorktown. As they continued up the VirginiaPeninsula, they encountered heavy fighting at Fair Oaks at the end ofMay. They received 58 casualties -- 11 men died of their wounds, 27 werewounded and 20 were captured or went missing. Two men from his companywere killed and one was injured.During the 7 Days' Battles in June and July, 80 men were captured orwent missing.In mid-December the 96th started their expedition from New Berne, NC, toGoldsboro in North Carolina. For the next year they stayed eastern NorthCarolina, until they were called to the battlefields around Petersburgand Richmond. During their first two months of fighting in May and June1864, 21 of their men were killed or mortally wounded, and they had 77other casualties -- but the worst was yet to come.\At the end of September, they sustained 103 casualties at Chaffin's Farmand at the end of October 52 more casualties on their second visit toFair Oaks. On April 2, 1865, the regiment was part of the generalassault on Petersburg and the city fell on the same day.The 96th stayed in Virginia until February 6, 1866, when they musteredout at City Point.\Lyman returned home to South Plattsburgh where several of his siblingsand his parents, Lyman Bridges and Sarah Wilson, decided to move toMichigan to farm. He married Sarah Thomas in 1868 and had severalchildren. Lyman was active in politics for the Democratic Party. "Lym",as his friends called him, was Hartford, MI's ace Democrat -- one sourcesaid, "When he was not engaged in a political argument along the street,it was usually because there was no one to argue with...He was the typeof political worker always found in the forefront of those torchlightparades that highlighted campaigns in the earlier years."In the Death Roll for 1920 of the Journal of the 43rd Encampment of theDepartment of Michigan Grand Army of the Republic, his name is mentionedon page 102 -- one of 476 Michigan G. A. R. Veterans who died that year.Lyman is buried in the Maple Hill Cemetery in Hartford, MI, with hiswife who died in 1918.
