From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (PIONEERS & PATRIOTS: Anderson County Military Servicemen, Revolutionary War - WWI)

Green Thurman was born a slave in December 1848 in Kentucky. He served in the Civil War as a private in Company C of the 116th Colored Infantry Regiment that was organized between June 6 - July 12, 1864 and attached to the Military District of Kentucky.

Thurman remained on duty at Camp Nelson until September 1864, setting up defensive positions at Camp Nelson and later at Hickman's (or Hickman Creek) Bridge against Brigadier General Quincy Adam Gilmore's attack.

On Sept. 27, 1864 he reported to Major General Benjamin Butler's Army on the James River in Virginia and saw duty in the Seige of Petersburg and Richmond from October 23 1864 - April 2, 1865. He was also at the Battle of Hatcher's Run March 27 - 28 and at the Fall of Petersburg on April 2, 1865. He was again active in the pursuit of General Lee and at the Appomattox Court House for the surrender of Lee's army on April 9.

After the war ended, the regiment was dispatched to Texas, arriving there May 25, 1865. It remained on garrison duty in Texas and Louisiana till January 1867, when it was sent back to Kentucky and mustered out of service at Louisville on January 17, 1867.

Green Thurman was married on March 6, 1869 to Miss Mary Munday. In 1876, he was living in Lawrenceburg and applied for a military pension based on a gunshot wound to his left arm that he received during the war. He was allowed compensation of $8 a month beginning June 1876.

Thurman remained a resident of Anderson County: he appears on the 1880 Anderson County Census as the 35-year old husband of Mary and the father of Alice, William, July, Lucy, and James. The 1890 Census was destroyed, but the family appears again on the 1900 report with Green listed as aged 51, with children Hollie, George, Jess, Bettie, Herbert, Durtha, and Virginia.