Major Richard Oliver Greenleaf / US Army

Richard Oliver Greenleaf was born in South Berwick. ME., Jan 31, 1823. He is the son of Richard and Eliza (Ackerman) Greenleaf. He was educated in the public schools of Haverhill, MA., and graduated at its high school.

He began his working life as an operative in the Haverhill cotton mills. At 26, he became an overseer in one of the mills in Lawrence, MA. In 1857, he came to Nashua and was employed in the office at the mills of the Jackson Manufacturing Company as a bookkeeper.

When hostilities commenced at Fort Sumter on April 19, 1861, Greenleaf was reportedly the first man in Nashua to enlist in the Army. He was commissioned Captain in the First Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers.

(Author’s Note: The Judge Edward Parker history of Nashua states that Greenleaf was “immediately sent to the front.” History shows that the First Regiment NH Volunteer Infantry was a three-month volunteer unit of the Union Army, organized in April 1861 in response to President Lincoln’s call for troops. Commanded by Colonel Mason W. Tappan, the regiment was mustered into federal service between May 1 and May 7, 1861. The regiment was well-equipped and praised by President Lincoln as one of the first complete regiments to reach the capital. It performed defensive duties to protect Washington and the upper Potomac River line against Confederate threats from Virginia. The regiment’s sole combat action occurred at Conrad’s Ferry where they exchanged gunfire with J.E.B. Stuart’s Black Horse Cavalry.)

At the end of Greenleaf’s three-month term of enlistment, he was re-commissioned (Sept. 20, 1861) as Captain in the Fourth Regiment New Hampshire volunteers, commanding Company B.

(Author’s Note: The Fourth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteers, was a significant unit during the American Civil War. It was organized in Manchester on September 18, 1861 and served for four years. They were part of various brigades and divisions, including Casey’s Provisional Brigade, the Army of the Potomac, and Sherman’s South Carolina expeditionary Corps. The regiment participated in the capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard at Port Royal Harbor and the occupation of Jacksonville, Florida. The regiment was mustered out on August 23, 1865.)

Captain Greenleaf “suffered all the hardships and privations of war, participated in all the battles and skirmishes of his command, and was promoted to the rank of Major, Aug. 24, 1864, for gallant and meritorious service in the line of duty.” Major Greenleaf was mustered out Sept. 27, 1864.

He returned to Nashua in 1866. and in 1872 went to Chicago, remained there until 1878, when became back to Nashua. In 1881, he went to Joliet, IL, and in 1891, he again made Nashua his home. It is unknown what drove him back and forth across the country.

His occupation thereafter has been that of a bookkeeper, and at the time the source of this material was printed in 1897, Greenleaf was the manager for the Aerated Oxygen Company, which was located in Nashua’s Beasom Block, on the corner of Main and Factory St.

Major Greenleaf represented Nashua’s Ward Two in the Common Council in 1860, was secretary of the Board of Trade, and three years a member of the Board of Education, and its clerk in Joliet. Since returning here, he has been secretary of the Nashua Board of Trade, Quartermaster of John G. Foster post, G. A. R., of which he was a charter member and has been Commander. He is a member of Rising Sun lodge, A. F. and A. M., and of the Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal), of which he is treasurer.

Major Greenleaf has been twice married; first, in 1851, with Mary Cary, who died in 1854; second, in 1861, with Martha A. Flinn, daughter of Samuel and Clarissa (Langley) Flinn of Nashua. One son was born of his first marriage, Thomas, who died in 1853 in infancy.

Source: History of the City of Nashua, NH from the Earliest Settlement of Old Dunstable to the Year 1895 by Judge Edward E. Parker / Published by Telegraph Publishing Company 1897

US Service Personnel Profiles
By Gary Ledoux February 14, 2026

Edited for brevity and clarity and submitted by Gary Ledoux