Benjamin F. Mattern was born around 1842 in New York to Jacob and Ann Mattern. His father was a carpenter who owned $500 of real estate in 1850. The family moved to Gorham, Ohio, sometime in the late 1840s, and Mattern attended school there. He enlisted in the Union army on September 1, 1861, and mustered in as a corporal in Company K of the 38^th Ohio Infantry later that day. The men served in the Western Theater of the war, taking part in the siege of Corinth, the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the siege of Chattanooga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. In August 1863, he declared that he had "been in the service nearly three years and feel it my [duty] to continue in it untill treason and rebellion is crushed out." Mattern mustered out in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 12, 1865.

 

He returned to Gorham after the war, and he married Susanna Ely around 1866. They had at least two children: Aden, born around 1867; and Lula, born around 1869. Mattern worked as a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $800 of personal property. The family moved to Fayette, Ohio, sometime in the 1870s, and he took a job “operating machinery.” He applied for a federal pension in December 1867 and eventually secured one. By 1900, he was living in Adrian, Michigan, and working as a cabinet maker. He died there on October 18, 1916.

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