Leaving Michigan for War

   In his memoir, cavalryman James Harvey Kidd recalls watching a dress parade of the Michigan 1st Brigade (of which Marvin Bolton was a member), under the command of Colonel Thornton F. Brodhead (here pictured):  "It was formed on foot, horses not having yet been furnished. It was a fine body of men, and Colonel Thornton F. Brodhead impressed me greatly because of his tall, commanding figure and military bearing." 

Muster-In Roll

Bolton enrolled in the Cavalry in Pontiac, Michigan August 16, 1861 and mustered for duty in Detroit Spetember 7, 1861

This record of service lists Marvin and his brother James both enlisting in Company G of the 1st Michigan Cavalry.  

According to family lore, Marvin saved the life of his brother James in battle at Gettysburg.  He is remembered by their posterity as a great war hero.

Marvin Bolton joined the Union Army in 1861, enlisting as a member of the Michigan 1st Cavalry.  In a memoir of his time in the Michigan Cavalry, JH Kidd describes Michigan at this time as "one vast recruiting station."  The Union was in great need of troops and the people of Michigan were eager to assist:  "Before the close of the year . . . three regiments of cavalry, eleven regiments of infantry, and five batteries were sent out, all for three years. There was little difficulty in getting recruits to fill these organizations to their maximum standard. No bounties were paid, no draft was resorted to. And, yet, the pay for enlisted men was but thirteen dollars a month. The calls of the President, after the first one for seventy-five thousand, were generally anticipated by the governor, and the troops would be in camp before they were called for, if not before they were needed." (Kidd, 3)

Marvin Bolton was one of the many men who answered the call to arms.  His brother James and his employer, John B. Sutton, also left Michigan for war.