James Edward Bartlett was born around 1841 in Georgia to William and Elizabeth Bartlett. His father was a farmer who owned $1,990 of real estate and $9,370 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Robertson County, Texas, in the 1840s and then to Bexar County, Texas, in the 1850s. By the early 1860s, he was working as a stock raiser in Texas.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on September 12, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 8^th Texas Cavalry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 9 ½ inches tall, with light hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Shiloh, the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Chickamauga, and the Atlanta campaign. He expressed devotion to the Confederate cause. In March 1862, after a series of Confederate defeats, he declared that “we have had a fore taste of what our fore Fathers had in achieving our independence.”

 

He was wounded in August 1862 and spent several months recovering. Union forces captured him near Jonesboro, Georgia, on August 28, 1864, and imprisoned him in Louisville, Kentucky. He was transferred to Camp Douglas in Illinois on December 15, 1864.

 

In March 1865, he agreed to join the Union army. He mustered in as a private in Company D of the 6^th United States Infantry on March 24, 1865. He fell ill in May 1865 and spent several weeks recovering. He deserted on November 28, 1865, taking his Springfield musket, knapsack, and haversack with him.

 

He settled in California after the war, and he married Linnie Hampton on May 8, 1871. They eventually moved to Oregon, and he died there on May 3, 1882.

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