Martin Fehl was born in February 1839 in Pennsylvania to Peter and Elizabeth Fehl. His father was a farmer who owned $3,000 of real estate and $750 of personal property by 1860. He was baptized in a Lutheran church in Arendtsville, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1839. He grew up and attended school in Menallen, Pennsylvania. By the early 1860s, he was working as a carpenter in Bendersville, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in the Union army on August 22, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company G of the 138^th Pennsylvania Infantry later that day. He remained devoted to the Union, insisting that “whe are fiting for the write caus” and that he felt “like given my live for my Country if needs be.” He was wounded at Mine Run, Virginia, on November 27, 1863. He eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment, and he died in the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 1, 1864.

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