Joseph E. Boyd
Joseph E. Boyd was born around 1843 in Nauvoo, Illinois, to John and Margaret Boyd. His father was a ship carpenter who owned $200 of real estate and $50 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1840s and then to Frederick, Illinois, in the 1850s. By 1860, Boyd was working as a boat builder.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 6, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company D of the 115th Illinois Infantry on September 13. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 1 inch tall, with dark hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign.
In 1863, his father considered naming Patrick Fagan (an older soldier in Boyd’s regiment) as his guardian. Boyd complained that “I dont think it is right for I have took care of my self for eight months and I think I can for eight months longer for I am Near enough a man to know what is wright I think.” He added that he had sent his father “money along as I could get a hold of it and that is all that a son could do.” He died near Dalton, Georgia, on October 13, 1864.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (4902) | Boyd, Joseph E. | 1843 | 1864-10-13 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Private
- Rank highest: Private
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 1
- (1446) [writer] ~ Joseph E. Boyd to John Boyd and Margaret Boyd, 17 April 1863
People - Records: 2
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 1
- (262) [enlisted] [D] ~ 115th Illinois Infantry
SOURCES
1850 and 1860 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, available from Ancestry.com; Databases of Illinois Veterans Index, 1775-1995, available from Ancestry.com; Joseph E. Boyd to John Boyd and Margaret Boyd, 17 April 1863, DL0213, Nau Collection
