New Yorker Came South To Fight

Florence Martin was born on May 15, 1836 in New York. His parents, Nicholas and Ava, had immigrated to the United States from France in the 1830s. Florence volunteered and enlisted in the U.S. Army as a private in August, 1862, in Rome N.Y. His regiment did war duty in the Washington D.C. and Virginia area, then moved south to the Charleston area. Florence fought in the battle of Fort Fisher, where his unit lost 95 men. He was discharged from the Army on July 1, 1865. In October, 1867, at the age of 29, he married Catherine Bradley, 16. Florence, a painter, carpenter, and handyman, had eight children with Catherine. In 1892, he received an Army pension, and in his late 60s he was a patient at the Old Soldiers and Sailors Home in Bath, N.Y. Florence was discharged in May of 1907 to live with his daughter, Mrs. Edward Laurie, in Syracuse. One day after returning home, he tripped along the city street and hit his head on a curb. He died three days later in St. Joseph’s hospital. Florence is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Syracuse.