Martin Freeman

Martin Freeman (May 18, 1814 – September 11, 1894) was a civilian employee of the Union Navy during the American Civil War and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Battle of Mobile Bay. He is one of only a handful of civilians to have received the medal.

Born on May 18, 1814, in Germany, he made his way to France in 1833 where he embarked on the SV France at Le Havre, arriving in New York on November 6, 1833. He embarked on a career in the maritime industry in the US and was working on the Gulf Coast. In New Orleans, he met a fellow German immigrant, Ann Bigler and had two daughters in New Orleans with her: Catherine Freeman (1851–1874) and Anna Marguerite Freeman Walter (1853–1917). She died when the girls were young and he met and married another German immigrant, Anna Marguerite Weymann (or Wieman) Freeman. The two married in Mobile, Alabama on December 26, 1859.

A Unionist, he moved his family back to New Orleans after it was recovered from the rebels. A third daughter, his first with Anna, Nathalie Henrietta Freeman (1861–1884)