James Pride Boggs, our 2nd cousin 5x removed on the Stewart/Green branch, was indestructible. During his three years in the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves (a.k.a. the 40th Pennsylvania Infantry) he rose through the ranks from enlisted to officer—which wasn’t common—while being captured once and wounded twice.
Boggs was the youngest child of Andrew & Mary Annette (Irwin) Boggs, born near Evans City, Pennsylvania, on August 12, 1839. Mary died in 1857 when James was 18, and his father remarried soon thereafter to a woman named Rachel Hazlett.
James was working as a blacksmith, still living with his father and new step-mother, when the Civil War began. He enlisted in Company D (nicknamed the Canongessing Rangers) of the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves on April 25, 1861, twelve days after the fall of Fort Sumter. He was ordered to report to Camp Wright, near Pittsburgh, where he was sworn in as a corporal on June 14.
After a week of training, Boggs’s regiment departed for Harrisburg on June 24, then on to Baltimore and Washington, DC, arriving on the 26th. They remained on duty in the nation’s capital and Maryland through the early fall, then moved to winter quarters at Camp Pierpont in Langley, Virginia.
In June 1862, the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves joined the disastrous Peninsula Campaign in northern Virginia. Though they were at the Battle of Mechanicsville on June 26, they were not heavily engaged. But a day later, at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, they were not as fortunate. The regiment was ordered to hold back an advancing Confederate column near Boatswain’s Swamp, but before long they were surrounded; most of the other Union regiments had retreated, leaving the 11th Pennsylvania behind.
Boggs and his surviving regiment—46 had been killed and another 109 wounded—were marched to Richmond by the Rebels. The enlisted men were held prisoners at Belle Isle in the James River. After five weeks in captivity they were released in a prisoner exchange at Aiken’s Landing, Virginia, on August 5, 1862.
James Pride Boggs returned to duty just in time for another Union defeat. On August 29, the day before the Second Battle of Bull Run, he was severely wounded in the left temple at the Battle of Groveton. It’s unknown if it was a gunshot or artillery fragment, but it earned him a promotion; he was made a 1st sergeant in the field hospital on August 31.
Boggs recovered from his injury at the South Street U.S.A. General Hospital in Philadelphia that fall. In a rare stroke of luck, while hospitalized Boggs missed the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, in which his regiment fought. At Fredericksburg, more than one in four soldiers of the 11th Pennsylvania Reserves were killed or wounded.
When spring arrived, Boggs returned to command his company after accepting a promotion to 1st Lieutenant . . . just in time for the Battle of Gettysburg.
According to The Civil War in the East,
The division of two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves under General Crawford reached Gettysburg on July 2nd and massed in column of regiment behind Little Round Top. The division met the attacking Confederates with a volley at short range of “buck and ball,” then charged. Some men charged beyond a stone wall in pursuit of the enemy, but General Crawford called them back and set up a heavy skirmish line. On July 3 the division took a number of prisoners and captured a battery as the Confederates withdrew in some confusion.
A monument was later erected to the 11th at the site of the engagement. It reads:
July 2nd in the evening charged from the hill in rear to this position and held it until the afternoon of July 3rd when the Brigade advanced through the woods to the front and left driving the enemy and capturing many prisoners.
Present at Gettysburg: 25 officers and 367 men. Killed 1 officer and 4 men. Wounded 2 officers and 33 men. [Boggs was not among the wounded.]
The 11th Pennsylvania Reserves would be part of the Union’s successful Bristoe Campaign in the fall of 1863, including the battles of Auburn, Bristoe Station, Buckland Races, and Second Rappahannock Station. The Mine Run Campaign followed in late November, when Boggs’s regiment guarded the Orange and Alexandria Railroad between Warrenton Junction and Bristoe Station.
While in winter quarters at Bristoe Station, Boggs requested a furlough to return home. He’d certainly earned it.
Quarters Co. D, 11th Regt. P.R.V.C
Camp at Bristoe Station, Va
January 16th 1864
Lieut. Col. Fred T. Locke
A. A. Genl. 5th Army Corps
Col.,
I have the honor to apply for a Leave of Absence for 14 days to visit my home in Evansburg, Butler Co., Penna. I have not had the pleasure of visiting my parents since I entered the service. They are advanced in years, and to me in a great measure they look for support.
I trust that this may meet with your approbation and a Leave for the time afor stated be granted me.
I have the honor to be
Very Respectfully
Your Obt. Srvt.
James P. Boggs, 1st Lieut Co. D
11th Regt P.R.V.C.
Boggs was granted a furlough from January 22 to February 1, 1864. On returning to Virginia, he resumed command of Company D, and on May 1, 1864, accepted a commission as captain. And just as with his previous promotions, it came with a price. Four days later on May 5, 1864, Boggs was wounded in the right thigh at the Battle of the Wilderness. The injury was even more severe this time, and he was sent to Pittsburgh to recover. On June 13, he was discharged from the service for disability and returned home to Evans City.
Three years later, the Union Army honored his sacrifice. On June 22, 1867, he was appointed a major by brevet “for gallant conduct at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia,” effective March 13, 1865. Brevets were honorary titles only—he wasn’t a true major, nor did he receive an increase in pay, as he was then a civilian.
James Pride Boggs married Melissa J. Campbell in 1867; he was 28, and she 18. According to family notes, they had nine children, though I have only been able to find the names of six: Mary Wilhelmina (1868), Nettie Erdeau (1871), Frank Winton (1876), Carline E. (1877), Grace Alice (1880), and Zora Gertrude (1884). Like their parents, most spent their entire lives in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Boggs spent his post-war years working the oilfields of western Pennsylvania, where oil was first discovered in 1859. He died in Evans City at the age of 90 on July 6, 1930, (96 years ago today,) and was buried in the Evans City Cemetery. Melissa (Campbell) Boggs died two years later, age 82, on August 23, 1932, and was buried beside him.
Interesting fact: The Evans City Cemetery was used for the opening scenes of George Romero's 1968 zombie classic, Night of the Living Dead.
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