In 1860, he was a laborer living with his family in Caernarvon Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He stood 5' 11" tall and had light hair and gray eyes.

A Civil War veteran, he enlisted at the stated age of twenty-two in Lancaster March 13, 1865, and mustered into federal service that day as a private with Co. K, 52nd Pennsylvania Infantry. Falling ill almost immediately, he was admitted to Foster U. S. Hospital at New Bern, North Carolina, and by June 6 was a patient at McDougall U.S. Hospital at Fort Schuyler in New York Harbor. Although he is listed as absent at muster-out, he discharged the service by surgeon's certificate (also war's end) at Fort Schuyler to date July 1, 1865. He is found in the company register and has compiled military service records but is not present in the muster-out roll, the Pennsylvania Archives' ARIAS file, or Bates History of Pennsylvania Volunteers.

Also according to his pension papers, he mustered in on June 29, 1863 and mustered out on August 15, 1863 from Co. G, 50th Regt. PA Infantry Volunteers, which was a state militia and was not used for his pension compensation, although the US government reimbursed the state for the cost) It will be necessary to read his compiled military service records to determine his true final status with the army. His brother Mifflin Ayers Russell joined him in the company where their brother Davis Wallace Russell had been serving for about a year and a half.

He married Clara Letitia Ficthorn June 12, 1866, in Reading, Berks County, and fathered the children you see linked below. In 1890, he was still living in Caernarvon Township but later relocated to Maryland where he died at his daughter Louise's Federalsburg home, the last veteran of Watkins Post No. 53, G.A.R.
Contributor: Dennis Brandt (47232334) • [email protected]