Starbird family

Starbird, Solomon

Rank : Sgt.

Regiment : 127th New York Infantry Regiment. Company B. (1862-1865)

Service : 1862 September 8-1864 October 31

Rank : Lieut.

Regiment : 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (1863-1865)

Service : 1864 October 31-1865 August 29

Starbird, George

Rank : Lieut.

Regiment : 1st New York Mounted Rifle Regiment (1861-1865)

Service : 1862 July 7-1865 September

On March 28, 1826, John Starbird (1791-1846) of Fairfield, Maine, married Mary Bates (ca. 1805-1856). They had four known children: Marianne Macomber Starbird, Solomon Bates Starbird, Silas Bates Starbird, and George Bates Starbird.

Marianne Starbird (1829-1864), often known as "Annie," never married, and during the Civil War, she operated an art school at 553 Broadway in New York City. Although she offered daily classes in drawing, watercolors, pastels, and painting, Marianne struggled to support herself financially and to keep the school solvent. She died of an illness in 1864.

After working for several years as a lawyer in New York City, Solomon Starbird (1832-1889) was mustered into Company B, 127th New York Volunteers on September 8, 1862, at the rank of sergeant and served with that regiment until October 31, 1864. He then served as a 1st and then 2nd lieutenant in the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers, an African American regiment, from October 31, 1864 to August 29, 1865. After the war, he married Hannah Judkins and moved to Nebraska and then Colorado, where he continued to work as a lawyer. He died in Denver, Colorado, in 1889.

Silas Starbird (1834-1898), a teacher, hired a substitute upon being drafted in August 1863.

George Starbird (1843-1907) served with several companies of the 1st New York Mounted Rifles from July 7, 1862, to September 1865. He mustered in as a private, but later served as commissary sergeant, quartermaster sergeant, and 2nd lieutenant. In 1866, he married Eleanor Sargent Learned and they moved to Buffalo, New York, where he was employed as an iron worker. He died in 1907.

From the guide to the Starbird family papers, ca. 1845-1864, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)