Stamped brass tag with profile bust of a General officer at center of the obverse. Around the edge of the disc and above the General is stamped “MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN” with “WAR OF 1861” across the bottom of the bust. Along the lower edge of the disc is stamped “TO MY MOTHER.” The reverse is stamped “MARCUS KING/CO. D/153D N.Y./VOLS./JOHNSTOWN, N.Y.”

The disc has darkened some with age but the stamping is still readable.

Marcus King was born in Galway, Ireland on November 25, 1842 and came to the United States when he was two years old. The family settled in Schenectady in upper New York State. On December 9, 1863 21 year old King enlisted as a Private in Company D, 153^rd New York Infantry. He joined the regiment while it lay in the defenses of Washington, D.C. At the time of his enlistment King is described as being 5’ 4 ½’ tall with dark eyes, brown hair and a light complexion.

The 153^rd was assigned to the 1^st Brigade, 1^st Division, 19^th Army Corps in February of 1864. It saw its first action at Pleasant Hill on April 9^th.  Sometime in August the regiment moved to Virginia and saw action at Charlestown on August 19, 1864. On August 29^th King reported to the General Hospital at Frederick, Maryland where he stayed till September 21, 1864 when he moved to a hospital in Baltimore. He rejoined his Company in either November or December 1864 and remained with them through his muster out at Savannah, Georgia on October 2, 1865.

After the war King returned to New York where he worked as a switchman on the railroad. He married in 1875 and the couple had one daughter. Sometime around 1894 he moved his family to Chicago, Illinois where he continued to work on the railroad as a flagman. He died of stomach cancer in Chicago on September 24, 1913. He was buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.

Accompanied by military and pension records from the National Archives in Washington, DC.

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