Report of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan
Volume XXVI, published 1896
Lansing, Michigan
Wynkoop, Hallenbeck, Crawford Company, State Printers
Page 32 - 34

BAY COUNTY
Memorial Report
Judge Andrew C. Maxwell
Benjamin F. Partridge

     The military services of General Benjamin F. Partridge, the severe fighting, hard and exhausting marching, his numerous wounds received in action, his many and brilliant promotions, are best summarized in the official records of the war department of the United States and of the State of Michigan, which are hereto appended.
     From the movement upon Yorktown, Virginia, until the final surrender of Lee at Appomattox, General Partridge was an officer in the Third (Butterfield's) Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, army of the Potomac, participating in all the campaigns of that illustrious army.
     Although at times suffering severely from wounds, General Partridge refused to leave the front, believing that while the war of the rebellion continued, the place of the volunteer commander was with the men, who, with him, enlisted for the war, and over whose interests the general always exercised a paternal supervision.
     A temperate, well ordered youth had ensured a vigorous, handsome manhood which he dedicated unreservedly to the service of his country.   No man was more patriotic, no soldier more freely offered his life as a sacrifice to his country's flag.  Quiet and unobtrusive in manner, he never intruded his convictions, neither could he be swerved from the line of conscientious duty by power or threat, this duty being always discharged without fear or favor, whether in camp or on the field of battle.
     At the close of the war when, with the exception of the Western Veteran Troops, the Army of the Potomac was mustered out of service.
     General Partridge with the Sixteenth Regiment, Michigan Infantry Veteran Volunteers, was assigned to the Provisional Division, army of the Tennessee, under Brevet Major General Henry A. Morrow, with orders to report to Major General Logan, at Louisville, Kentucky, where with the division, he was mustered out of service, in camp near Jeffersonville, Indiana, July 8, 1865.

ROSTER.

     Benjamin F. Partridge, Colonel, Sixteenth Regiment, Michigan Infantry, Veteran Volunteers.
     Second Lieutenant, Lancers, October 12, 1861.  Mustered out March 20, 1862
     First Lieutenant, Sixteenth Michigan Infantry, to rank from October 12, 1861.  Wounded in action at Malvern Hill, Va., July 1, 1862.
     Captain, April 16, 1863.   Wounded at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863
     Major, June 1, 1864.   Wounded at Peeble's Farm, Va., September 30, 1864, while in command of Eight-third Regiment, Pennsylvania.

  [From the Red Book of Michigan]

     "Major Partridge, temporarily in command of the Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers, received a bullet through is neck and two other wounds while gallantly leading the Eighty-third to the attack on the enemy's works."
     Lieutenant Colonel, September 30, 1864.   Brevet Colonel U. S. Volunteers, September 30, 1864.  [For distinguished services at the battle of Peeble's Farm, Virginia]
     Colonel, December 17, 1864.   Wounded at Hatcher's Run, Virginia.   February 6, 1865.   Wounded at Quaker Road, Virginia, March 31, 1865.
     Brevet Brigadier General, U. S. Volunteers, March 31, 1865.  [For gallant conduct in the action at White Oak Road, Virginia, March 29, 1865]
     General Partridge suffered continually from wounds received in the service from the effects of which he died October 20, 1892, at his home in Portsmouth, near Bay City, Michigan.  The general was deeply interested in veteran legislation and G. A. R. affairs and was a member of the committee on legislation that had in charge the erection of the Michigan monuments on the battlefield of Gettysburg.   At the time of his death, General Partridge was a member of the honorable order of the Loyal Legion and the Third Brigade Association, First Division, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac.
Edward Hill, Late Liet. Col. 16th Regt. Mich. Inft'y Vet. Vol's. Brevet Colonel U. S. Vol's.   Mary 17, 1894, Irvine, Warren county, Pa.
     General Benjamin F. Partridge was born in the town of Shelby, Macomb county, Michigan, April 19, 1822.   His father, Asa Partridge, removed his family thence to St. Clair county where he died in 1827, leaving four children with an invalid mother but partially provided for.   The subject of this sketch was thus early left to seek and obtain from the world his own living and to assist in the maintenance of those for whom it was his highest duty to provide .  At the age of fourteen years he commenced to earn enough to enable him to attend the common schools then taught in Michigan, and by the aid of a little income derived from teaching school, and various other kinds of work, he succeeded in completing an academic education at the age of twenty-two.  After this, he devoted a year to the study of law and then engaged in mercantile business and real estate transactions in connection with surveying and civil engineering and was subsequently engaged in lumbering in the Saginaw valley until 1867.  He was appointed sheriff of Bay county to fill a vacancy, and for several years followed surveying in the same county.   In 1861 he enlisted in the First Michigan Lancers and later was transferred to the Sixteenth Michigan Infantry and served to the close of the war, and was in fifty-four engagements.   He was president of the general court martial at Louisville, Ky., at the time the army was disbanded in July, 1865, and returned to Michigan with his regiment.   He was in the United States revenue department for the sixth district of Michigan from 1867 to 1871, when he resigned and, resumed farming which he had commenced in 1866.  He had been supervisor of his township eight years, a portion of which time he was chairman of the board.   He was Commissioner of the State Land Office for the years 1877 and 1878.  He was a mason and a member of the U. S. Grant Post G. A. R.  A widow and four children survive him.  He was buried with masonic honors.

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