Khachadour Paul Garabedian Khachadour Paul Garabedian ( ; August 25 , 1836 - August 25 , 1881 ) was an Ottoman - born Armenian United States Navy Sailor of the Union Army , considered the only Armenian soldier to have served in combat during American Civil War . During the Civil War , he held the rank of officer and served aboard two ships which blockaded against the ports of the Confederacy for the Union . His first task was to go along the Atlantic Coast and reach the Gulf of Mexico . In 1865 he was discharged from the Navy and settled in Philadelphia where he is believed to be the first citizen of Armenian ancestry . Life . Of Armenian descent , Khachadour Paul Garabedian was born near Constantinople in Rodosto ( today Tekirdağ ) , Ottoman Empire on August 25 , 1836 . In the 1850s Garabedian emigrated to the United States and settled in Lowell , Massachusetts . Garabedian worked as a machinist at the Massachusetts Mills and eventually became a naturalized United States citizen . It is noted that in 1868 , Garabedian filed for a patent with the US Commissioner of Patents for a Pipe Coupling . On June 18 , 1871 , Garabedian married Hannah Matilda “ Tillie ” Wynkoop in Philadelphia at the Church of the Messiah . They had no children . Garabedian died of tuberculosis at the age of 45 on August 25 , 1881 and is buried in the Fernwood Cemetery near Philadelphia . American Civil War . On August 6 , 1864 at the age of 28 , Garabedian enlisted in the Union Navy and served on two ships as a Third Assistant Engineer and held officer rank . A local newspaper article states that Khachadour Garabedian enlisted in the USS Home . However , it is only recorded that he served on the USS Grand Gulf and the USS Geranium . These ships were mainly used to blockade Southern Navy ports off the Carolina coast and in Gulf of Mexico as part of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron . Garabedian was discharged from his services on August 19 , 1865 . Legacy . Khachadour Garabedian was rediscovered in a flea market by Armenian American Gary Koltookian , when stumbling upon an advertisement on a newspaper from 1855 regarding an Armenian cabinetmaker named Menas Garabed . The discovery of Menas Garabed , who is believed to be Khachadour Garabedian ' s brother , eventually led to the discovery of Khachadour Garabedian himself . Koltookian eventually gathered more information regarding Khachadour Garabedian through local newspapers , directories , National Archives , and records from Union Navy Officers . It was later discovered that Garabedian ' s grave at the Fernwood Cemetery was left unmarked and was in a badly deteriorated and crumbled state . A restoration campaign led by Koltookian was launched which aimed to restore the deteriorating gravestone . With the help of a $ 10 , 000 donation by a member Philadelphia Armenian - American Veterans Association , the inauguration of the new gravestone was held on October 1 , 2011 . Fifty people had attended the inauguration ceremony which included letters read from Lowell mayor James Milinazzo . The gravestone was designed by Leo Hanian , an ethnic Armenian who fled persecution from Azerbaijan . The gravestone is designed in an Armenian khachkar style and is made out of Indian black granite with a depiction of an ornate Cross . The gravestone carries Garabedian ’ s name and dates of birth and death along with two images of the Independence Hall of Philadelphia and the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin in Armenia . The lower part of the tombstone describes his life in detail with an image of the USS Grand Gulf .