Edwin Havens

Okay, Edwin did not serve in the 3rd Michigan Infantry nor did any of his friends or relatives, at least none that I know of.

However, Edwin did enlist in the 7th Michigan Cavalry in 1862 and served until the end of the war and for six months afterwards out west before being discharged honorably. He returned to Michigan and lived a long and apparently happy life, dying in Lansing in 1921.

What makes Edwin special, for me at any rate, is his writings. During the war he produced some 8 different journals and more than 200 letters, the latter written mainly to his parents and brother back home in Niles, Michigan. And he produced extensive observations of the military camp in Grand Rapids during the war, how it functioned and describing details about Camp Lee that until now have largely been lost to time and neglect.

You can access the transcripts and originals of all those documents plus his obituary, a couple of photographs and several postwar documents online at the Michigan State University library website.