"...At the age of 18, [Peter] was working in Schoolcraft, Michigan. It was from here at the outbreak of the Civil War that he enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry in Kalamazoo, on 22 April 1861. ...Peter was assigned to Company C and traveled with the rest of his unit to Fort Monroe in Detroit for basic training. After several weeks the unit traveled to Washington DC where it became part of the Grand Army of the Republic. Aproximately one year later, 1 July 1862 he was wounded in the left foot and leg by shrapnel from a Confederate cannonball defending Malvern Hill in Virginia during the Seven Days War. While recovering from his wounds, Peter was temporarily assigned to Company I of the Twenty-Seventh Michigan Infantry located at Fort Hamilton, New York. This was the same unit his brother John was assigned to. Later, Peter transferred back to his old unit and was stationed in the Washington DC area. He was discharged, 21 July 1864 in Detroit, Michigan and returned to the family farm."
--Allan Robert Pohl, "Pohl: From One Small Acorn Grows a Large Oak," 1992.