Francis Marion Phelps
Francis Marion Phelps was born on December 23, 1844, in Three Rivers, Michigan, to Nelson Phelps. His father was a teamster who owned $1,000 of real estate by 1850. His mother died when he was one year old. The family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1840s, and then to Appleton, Wisconsin, around 1851. His father died in the 1850s, and he went to live with an uncle.
 
He enlisted in the Union army on September 28, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 10th Wisconsin Infantry later that day. The regiment took part in the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, and the Battle of Chickamauga. He suffered a minor injury in the fall of 1862. As he informed his friends, “all I remember is that I was just putting a ball down my gun when I felt a stirring right on my breast. I pulled down my shirt & saw the ball. I got it out & put it in my gun & sent it back to the oner [owner].” He was wounded again at Lookout Mountain, reportedly “by a log that rolled down the side of the mountain.”
 
In March 1864, he became a 2nd lieutenant in Company E of the 38th Wisconsin Infantry. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded in the hand in the Battle of Weldon Railroad. He remained committed to the Union war effort, writing in September 1864 that “I hope we will [have peace] but it must be honorable with no consessions on our side but what are right.” He later declared that he would “fight untill every rebel both north & south is made to feel the power of our Government.” He fiercely supported Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1864. When Wisconsin Democrats mailed a “large package” of Democratic ballots to the regiment, Phelps promptly burned them. He was promoted to 1st lieutenant on September 6, 1864, and he mustered out on July 26, 1865.
 
After the war, Phelps reportedly studied law at Lawrence University. He married Alice M. Mack on June 11, 1867, and they had at least three children: Fred, born around 1872; Nelson, born around 1874; and Edith, born around 1877. They lived in De Pere, Wisconsin, and Phelps worked as a “manufacturer of hubs and stokes.” By 1870, he owned $3,500 of personal property. In 1872, a local writer praised the “quality of his productions” and noted that Phelps’ skills were so highly regarded that he was unable to “meet the demand of his customers.”
 
The family moved to Oakland, California, around 1875, and he worked in the lumber business there. He applied for a federal pension in January 1880, and he eventually secured one. According to his voter registration records from the 1890s, he was 6 feet tall, with brown hair and black eyes. By 1900, he was working as a mining engineer, and by the early 1900s, he owned two mines.
 
His wife died on December 26, 1919, and by 1920, he was living in his daughter Edith’s household in Oakland. He died there on November 6, 1928, in Oakland, California.
3304
DATABASE CONTENT
(3304)Phelps, Francis Marion1844-12-231928-11-06
  • Conflict Side: Union
  • Role: Soldier
  • Rank in: Private
  • Rank out: 1st Lieutenant
  • Rank highest: 1st Lieutenant
  • Gender: Male
  • Race: White

Documents - Records: 40

  • (3841) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 24 October 1862
  • (3851) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 4 June 1863
  • (8908) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 11 June 1863
  • (8909) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 23 June 1863
  • (8910) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 5 July 1863
  • (8911) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 24 July 1863
  • (8912) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 1 August 1863
  • (8913) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 10 August 1863
  • (8914) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 15 August 1863
  • (8915) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 24 August 1863
  • (10565) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 9 September 1863
  • (10567) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 25 October 1863
  • (10941) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 11 November 1863
  • (10942) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 2 December 1863
  • (10943) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 18 December 1863
  • (10944) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 8 January 1864
  • (10990) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 13 January 1864
  • (10991) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Catherine P. Tibbits et al., 29 April 1864
  • (10992) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits, 31 May 1864
  • (10993) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits et al., 15 July 1864
  • (10994) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 28 July 1864
  • (10995) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits et al., 5 August 1864
  • (10996) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Unknown, 6 August 1864
  • (10997) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 12 August 1864
  • (11004) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 24 August 1864
  • (11008) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 1 September 1864
  • (11010) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits, 15 September 1864
  • (11011) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 23 September 1864
  • (11014) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 10 October 1864
  • (11015) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Unknown, 13 October 1864
  • (11016) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 31 October 1864
  • (11017) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 5 December 1864
  • (11024) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Catherine P. Tibbits, 15 December 1864
  • (11031) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 21 December 1864
  • (11032) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 3 January 1865
  • (11034) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friend, 8 January 1865
  • (11037) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits, 21 January 1865
  • (11038) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Jackson Tibbits, 8 February 1865
  • (11040) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 12 March 1865
  • (11041) [writer] ~ Francis M. Phelps to Friends, May 1865

People - Records: 4

  • (3926) Tibbits, Jackson is the [aunt/uncle of] (3304) Phelps, Francis Marion
  • (3940) Tibbits, Catherine P. is the [cousin of] (3304) Phelps, Francis Marion
  • (3941) Tibbits, Sarah L. is the [cousin of] (3304) Phelps, Francis Marion
  • (3942) Tibbits, Lydia Curtiss is the [aunt/uncle of] (3304) Phelps, Francis Marion

Places - Records: 2

  • (2336) [birth] ~ Three Rivers, St. Joseph County, Michigan
  • (2337) [death] ~ Oakland, Alameda County, California

Show in Map

Regiments - Records: 2

  • (84) [enlisted] [C] ~ 10th Wisconsin Infantry
  • (929) [officer] [E] ~ 38th Wisconsin Infantry
SOURCES

1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; New York, New York, Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937, available from Ancestry.com; Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940, available from Ancestry.com; California Death Index, 1905-1939, available from Ancestry.com; General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, available from Ancestry.com; California Voter Registers, 1866-1898, available from Ancestry.com; Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette, 10 June 1872; The Morning Union (Grass Valley, CA), 11 November 1928; Oakland (CA) Tribune, 7 November 1928; Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 24 October 1862, DL1511, Nau Collection; Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 1 September 1864, DL1521.025, Nau Collection; Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 23 September 1864, DL1521.027, Nau Collection; Francis M. Phelps to Friends, 31 October 1864, DL1521.030, Nau Collection; Solon W. Pierce, Battlefields and Camp Fires of the Thirty-Eighth (Milwaukee, WI: Daily Wisconsin Printing House, 1866).