Joseph D. Wyman was born around 1825 in Maine. He married a woman named Mary, and their daughter Ada was born around 1854. They lived in Freeport, Maine, and Wyman worked as a farm laborer. By 1860, he owned $250 of real estate and $100 of personal property.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on December 10, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company E of the 13^th Maine Infantry later that day. The regiment was stationed along the Gulf Coast for the next few years. He chose not to reenlist, explaining in February 1864 that he “love[d] my home to much to enlisted for three years longer. I wood not stay three [more] years for all unkle Sam bounty. I love my wife and daughter dear.” He assured his daughter that he would return in “nine month[s]…if noething hapuns.” Wyman died of “acute diarrhea” in Washington, D.C., July 29, 1864. His body was exhumed on November 26, 1864, and reburied in Arlington National Cemetery.

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