Lyman M. Ward

Lyman Munson Ward (October 6, 1836 – January 19, 1909) was an American farmer, Republican politician, and Union Army colonel in the American Civil War. He served four years in the Michigan House of Representatives, and received an honorary brevet to brigadier general after his service in the war.

Early life Ward was born in Cattaraugus County, New York, on October 6, 1836, the 4th of six children born to Reverend Abel Ward and his wife Esther ( Dibble). He moved with his family to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1851. He was educated at common schools in Genesee County, New York, and attended high school and a private academy in Fond du Lac. They attached to the brigade of John Joseph Abercrombie, and engaged in skirmishing with Confederate forces under T. J. Jackson at Martinsburg, Virginia, in early July 1861. They ended their three-month service guarding canals and river crossings in the vicinity of Harpers Ferry.

This time, Ward and his regiment were ordered to the western theater of the war, and attached to the Army of the Tennessee, under Ulysses S. Grant. The 14th Wisconsin had not yet been organized into a brigade when the Battle of Shiloh broke out on the morning of April 6, 1862, and were waiting for orders in the vicinity of Savannah, Tennessee, about nine miles from the battlefield. That afternoon, they received orders to reinforce the Union position at Pittsburg Landing, and arrived there at about 11pm.

Ward briefly resided in Fond du Lac again after the war, but moved to Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 1866. He operated an orchard in Berrien County for the rest of his life. They did not have any children.