Private Lorenz Defani

Lorenz Defani was born in Zusenhofen, Baden, Germany on August 9, 1835 and emigrated to Missouri on April 17, 1851. At the outbreak of the Civil War he responded to President Lincoln's call for 45,000 three month volunteers  enlisting in Company A of the 3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment at St. Louis on June 8, 1861. He served his three months service with the 3rd Missouri until honorably discharged on September 3, 1861. He re-enlisted on October 1, 1861 for three years with Company F, of the 17th Missouri Volunteer Infantry Regiment. He served with the 17th Missouri at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas on March 6-8, 1862 and during the movement of General Curtis' Army of the Southwest  to Batesville, Arkansas.  On May 19, 1862 he was killed in action while a part of a foraging party at Grey's Farm on the Little Red River near Searcy, White County, Arkansas. He was survived by four brothers who served in the Missouri Enrolled Militia. Most of his brothers and sisters lived in St. Genevieve and Perry Counties in Missouri. In 1886 Defani G.A.R. Post 273 was established in Perrville, Missouri in his honor.