Private Griffith J. Lewis

Griffith J. Lewis was born in 1837 at Llanwrin, Montgomeryshire, Wales. He immigrated to the United States in 1854, eventually settling in South Bend, Minnesota.

On November 1, 1861, he enlisted in Company I, Fifth Iowa Cavalry. After faithful service for nearly three years, with the rest of his company he was detached from the Fifth Iowa for service on the frontier. On New Years Day in 1864, he reenlisted in Company B, of Brackett's Battalion. In this hardy battalion, tested in the fires of combat during the War Between the States, he took part in the Indian campaigns of 1864-5 under General Sully. He married Jane Roberts in 1873. According to the 1895 publication, The History of the Welsh in Minnesota, Foreston and Lime Springs, Iowa "in 1892 they retired from their farm in Judson to Mankato. They are very highly esteemed by a large acquaintance."