James Wilson Barnett
James Wilson Barnett was born on May 27, 1839, in Derry, Pennsylvania, to John Barnett and Nancy Morrison. His father was a farmer who owned $3,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property by 1860. Barnett grew up and attended school in Derry, and the 1860 census listed him as a “student of divinity.”
He enlisted in the Union army on September 15, 1861, and mustered in as a commissary sergeant in the 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry on November 5. As he explained in June 1862, he enlisted “not because I thought I would love a soldier’s life, but because I felt it to be my duty and that thought or rather feeling seemed to impel my enlistment.” That same year, he declared that he “would not, for all the joys earth can afford, go home until I have done something for my country, or until my humble services are no longer required in the army…When this infamous rebellion is crushed then—lookout—we will be home and not till then.”
The regiment took part in the Seven Days Battles, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battle of Gettysburg. In September 1862, after surviving Antietam, he hoped that “this fall will see the war ended. I have seen enough to satisfy me. Oh! the horrors of this battle field. They cannot be imagined.” On November 15, 1863, he was promoted to 1st lieutenant and transferred to the 10th USCT Infantry. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg, and the army transferred it to Texas in June 1865. Barnett mustered out a year later, on May 17, 1866.
Barnett returned to his parents’ household in Derry after the war and began work as a dry goods merchant. By 1870, he owned $1,000 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property. He married Sophronia Gore around 1870, and they had at least five children: John, born around 1871; Ellen, born around 1874; Nancy, born around 1875; Mary, born around 1878; and Ralph, born around 1880.
The family lived in Derry, and Barnett worked as a “retail dealer [of] general merchandise.” Their son John suffered from “tuberculosis of [the] hip joint” and died around 1891. By 1900, Barnett was working as a railroad agent in Derry, and he became the local postmaster sometime in the early 1900s. His wife died on April 18, 1922, and he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Derry on September 28, 1929.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (847) | Barnett, James Wilson | 1839-05-27 | 1929-09-28 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Sergeant
- Rank out: 1st Lieutenant
- Rank highest: 1st Lieutenant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 14
- (1474) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Louisa Craig, 3 January 1862
- (1475) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Louisa Craig, 7 April 1862
- (1476) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Louisa Craig, 23 June 1862
- (1477) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Louisa Criag, 24 September 1861
- (1478) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Louisa Craig, 14 February 1862
- (10243) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Nancy Barnett, 11 October 1861
- (10244) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 10 December 1861
- (10245) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Unknown, undated
- (10246) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 14 January 1862
- (10247) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 20 January 1862
- (10248) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 21 September 1862
- (10249) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to Nancy Barnett, 10 November 1862
- (10250) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 30 May 1864
- (10251) [writer] ~ James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 22 September 1864
People - Records: 3
- (848) Craig, Louisa is the [friend of] (847) Barnett, James Wilson
Places - Records: 1
- (790) [birth, death] ~ Derry, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1870, 1800, 1900, 1910, and 1920 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; Pennsylvania Death Certificates, 1906-1968, available from Ancestry.com; Blairsville (PA) Dispatch, 1 October 1929; James W. Barnett to John Barnett and Nancy Barnett, 21 September 1862, DL1629.006, Nau Collection; James W. Barnett to Louisa Craig, 23 June 1862, Nau Collection.
