Martin Van Buren Richardson was born around 1839 in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Reuben and Mary Richardson. His father was a mechanic who owned $200 of personal property in 1860. The family moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, sometime in the 1840s, and Richardson attended school there before beginning work as an artist.
He enlisted in the Union army on April 18, 1861, and mustered in as a 1st lieutenant in Company C of the 1st New Hampshire Infantry on May 2. He mustered out on August 9, 1861, when his three-month term of enlistment expired. A month later, on September 20, he mustered in as a 1st lieutenant in Company C of the 4th New Hampshire Infantry. He took part in the Battle of Port Royal, the siege of Charleston, the Battle of Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. He mustered out on September 17, 1864.
Richardson returned to Manchester after the war, and he married Henrietta McQuesten in the late 1860s. He earned a living as a painter, and by 1870, he owned $150 of personal property. They moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, sometime in the 1870s, and by 1880, he was working as a salesman. He died in Worcester on October 22, 1885.
Image: Martin Van Buren Richardson (Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com)