First Michigan Artillery, Battery A

We don't know alot about my great-great grandfather, Franz Bieke. Other than his birth, marriage, and death dates, about all we know is that he was in the 1st Michigan Light Artillery, Battery A, during the Civil War. This group is also known as "Loomis Battery" after the leader. We don't have any pictures, letters, or anything else of Frank Bieke.

So I figured I'd do a bit of research on the internet, to see if I could find out more about him.

It turns out there is a group now, perhaps descendents of the 1st Michigan Light Artillery, Battery A, that competes in Civil War era artillery shooting events.

I also ran across this short article about the 1st Michigan Light Artillery, for what it's worth:

When the Coldwater Light Artillery was first quartered at Fort Wayne in Detroit, it became the envy of other troops stationed there. Some of its members found a young woman, described by the newspapers as beautiful, wandering naked in the woods near the Fort. Her clothing was discovered hanging on the branch of a tree. She was immediately taken in charge by the Light Artillery, whose members established her in a vacant house near the Fort and resisted attempts of civil officials to remove her to a hospital. For several days the soldiers “nursed her with all the tenderness of women.” She was finally identified as Georgiana Bishop of Cincinnati. It was said that she followed either her brother or sweetheart to Detroit. “She is apparently about 20 years of age,” stated the Detroit Advertiser on June 1, 1861, “and very handsome…..The artillerists take turns attending upon her.”