Simon Goodell Griffin

Simon Goodell Griffin (date unknown, 1824-January 14, 1902) was an American soldier, legislator, farmer and teacher.

Pre-War
Simon G. Griffin was born at Nelson, New Hampshire (USA) in 1824. Griffin was a farmer and a teacher at first. He represented his town in the State legislature and was admitted to the bar in 1860.

Civil War Service
During the American Civil War, Griffin served first as a captain in the 2nd New Hampshire Infantry from June 1, 1861 to October 31 of that year. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 6th New Hampshire Infantry from November 28, 1861 until he became colonel on April 22, 1862. Griffin led his regiment in First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Army Corps. He led the regiment in the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of Fredericksburg. Griffin led first brigade second division briefly during the winter of 1862-1863.

Griffin's regiment was sent West with MG Ambrose Burnside, alternately serving as regimental and brigade commander. He served under MG Grant in the siege of Vicksburg when MG John G. Parke took IX Corps to Mississippi. IX Corps served most with MG William T. Sherman, preventing Confederate reinforcements from reaching Vicksburg. (A bust of Gen Griffin now stands near Grant Circle at the Vicksburg National Military Park.) Next Col Griffin participated in Sherman's Mississippi campaign of 1864, which culminated in the Battle of Meridian.

Returning East, Griffin commanded the Second Brigade, Second Division, in the Battle of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and the Battle of Cold Harbor. He was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers in 1864, on the recommendations of Generals Burnside and Grant. Griffin became a brigadier general on May 12, 1864. For gallantry at the Siege of Petersburg and around Richmond, he was brevetted major general of volunteers in 1865. When Gen Robert B. Potter, the division commander, was wounded in an attack on Fort Mahone, Griffin became acting division commander during the Appomattox Campaign. He also commanded the division in the Department of Washington after the Confederate surrender.

Post war
Gen Griffin was mustered out of the volunteer service on August 24, 1865. He was a manufacturer and was elected five times to a seat in the New Hampshire Legislature, serving in the last two terms as Speaker. Griffin died in Keene, New Hampshire on January 14, 1902. He was buried in Keene at the Wood;and Cemetery.

Gen Griffin also was a local historian, co-author of:

Simon Goodell Griffin, Frank H Whitcomb and Octavius Applegate, Jr., A history of the town of Keene from 1732, when the township was granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, when it became a city, Keene, N.H., Sentinel Print. Co., 1904. Reprint: Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1980. ISBN 0-917890-21-3, ISBN 978-0-917890-21-5

Simon Goodell Griffin and Ebenezer Tolman, Celebration by the town of Nelson, New Hampshire (originally called "Monadnick no. 6" and incorporated as "Packersfield") of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its first settlement,1767-1917, New York: Evening post job Print. Office, Inc., 1917. Reprint: Salem, Mass.: Higginson Book Company, 1998.