At the age of 23, sometime after his immigration from Prussia, Sol Franklin volunteered to serve in the Confederate Army. His unit, Company D – Hamer’s Rifles of the 18th Regiment, was raised on April 19, 1861, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Almost every battle fought by the regiment was in Virginia where in 1868, after the Civil war, he married Susan Jane Griggs in Danville. Together they raised nine children. Until his death in 1889, he owned and operated a general store and served as Deputy Postmaster.
During his four years in the army he was shot and wounded four times. After the battle of Fredericksburg, December 11, 1862, the Eighteenth regiment, with the Seventeenth, were mentioned in the official report of General Lee for gallant conduct. Sol Franklin was shot and wounded in this battle.
For treatment of his wounds, he was sent to the Confederate General Hospital No. 2 in Danville, Virginia. He was detailed by General Lee to work and recuperate, spending the majority of 1863 as a Ward Master in this hospital in Danville.