In your original post you showed in the Subject Line the word in question spelled "giffeny" but in the text, the word is spelled "griffeny."

Per Webster, the base word "griffe" has two meanings:
1) A person of 3/4 black and 1/4 white ancestry.
2) A variant of "griffe" is "griff" is an arrangement of parallel bars on a loom for lifting the hooked wires that raise the warp threads in weaving jacquard or dobby fabrics.

1) Is it possible the occupation was used to describe the soldiers ethnicity?
OR
2) Did the soldier work in some type of fabric manufacturing on a machine which performed whatever the heck the second definition is describing?