James H German 1843 - 1864

James H German was the youngest son of Isaac F German and his second wife, Jane. He was born sometime between June and October in 1843, when his father was already past age 60 and his mother was about 41 years old.


Here's a listing of Isaac and Jane's family from the 1850 census of Roxbury:

1561      GERMAN    Isaac F.  72    M     Farmer   NY                            
                    Jane      49    F              NY                            
                    Charles   16    M              NY        at sch              
                    Albert    10    M              NY        "                   
                    James      8    M              NY        "                   
                    Amanda     5    F              NY        "                   

On October 6, 1863, at age 20, James joined F Company, 4th Infantry New Hampshire as a paid substitute for another man who had been drafted.  He sent his bounty money home with a friend, to support his parents.  His father was about 80 years old, and had been "unable to labor and support himself & wife" for several years:

From Jane German's 1868-1869 claim for a Mother's Pension

James was captured by the Confederates on May 16, 1864 at Drewry's Bluff, Virginia, and "died of disease" on June 1, 1864 in Petersburg, VA.  He was unmarried and had no children when he died, and probably the furthest from home he had ever been.

See transcription from 1895 source document, at bottom of this page.

When James was captured on May 16 the Union Army was encamped between Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg, so he was most likely taken north and held at Richmond.  By June 1 the Union had withdrawn, returning control of the rail line south out of Richmond to the Confederacy. A fellow POW from James' unit was ultimately imprisoned in Andersonville, and it's likely that James was being sent there when he died in Petersburg.

Location of Drewry's Bluff, VA

After the war over 6,000 Union dead who were buried in the Petersburg area were moved to the new Poplar Grove National Cemetery; most of them could not be identified.  James is probably buried there.

View of the James River from Fort Darling, atop Drewry's Bluff, Virginia

View of Drewry's Bluff from the James River, 1865

In October of 1864 Jane used James' bounty money to buy a house and lot in Prattsville for $350, taking out a mortgage of $60 for the difference.

In the New York census of June, 1865 Isaac and Jane listed James as in the Army, probably just days before they were informed of his death as a POW the year before:

June 9, 1865 Listing of Civil War deaths from Prattsville.  It appears that James was 20 when he enlisted in October 1863 and still 20 when he died in June 1864.  

Isaac died in January, 1866.  In 1868 Jane applied for a Civil War mother's pension stating that she had been dependent on James for support before his enlistment, and was ultimately awarded $8 per month retroactive to James' death on June 1, 1864.

Revised Register Of The
Soldiers And Sailors Of New Hampshire
In The War Of The Rebellion 1861-1866.

Prepared And Published By
Authority Of The Legislature,
By Augustus D. Ayling, Adjutant General.

Concord: Ira C. Evans, Public Printer. 1895.

FOURTH REGIMENT NEW HAMPSHIRE VOLUNTEER INFANTRY. (THREE YEARS.) Part 1[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]

BY FRANCIS W. PARKER, late Lieutenant-Colonel Fourth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and Brevet Colonel United States Volunteers. ·  German, James H. Co. F; substitute; b. Roxbury, N.Y.; age 20; res. Prattsville, N.Y., cred. Manchester; enl. Oct. 6, '63; must. in Oct. 6, '63, as Priv.; captd. May 16, '64, Drewry's Bluff, Va. Died, dis. June 1, '64, Petersburg, Va. Krick, Robert <bob_krick@nps.gov> 5/27/14 to me Mr. German: thanks for the note.  There are many moving parts to this particular problem, and I do not have answers to any of them.  Your relative almost certainly was taken to Richmond when he was captured on the 16th.  That is a pretty strong likelihood, based not only on other cases, but also on the fact that the Union army was between the Confederates at Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg to the south.  So there was no easy way to get him to Petersburg.  However, by June 1 the Federal troops had fallen back into the Bermuda Hundred peninsula and the railroad between Richmond and Petersburg was in operation again.  So it is possible that he was in the process of being sent south from Richmond, probably not to Petersburg but perhaps to some other prison farther south.   Men who died as prisoners of war in Richmond usually were buried at either Oakwood Cemetery or on Belle Isle in the James River.  In 1866, all of those men were removed to the newly established Richmond National Cemetery east of town.  I do not see German's name on the list of burials there, although the list is known to be very, very incomplete.   If he actually died at Petersburg, I do not know where his temporary burial might have been.  But after the war Union dead were collected from all around Petersburg and moved (mostly) to the City Point National Cemetery.  I do not see German's name there, either.  But because my knowledge of Petersburg details is inadequate, you definitely should make this same enquiry with the staff at the national park there.  It is called Petersburg National Battlefield, and it is a separate national park entirely.   In case you are not aware of it, German's mother filed a pension claim on him, and that is available to be seen.  The pension records are organized by unit, and then by company.  That particular pension application now is available online through a site called Fold3.  That is a subscription site, but you might be able to get a free trial for a day or two in order to see what you want to see--if indeed you have not done so already.  Look at the Civil War Widows' Pensions file, select New Hampshire, then Infantry, then 4th regiment, then Company F, and you'll see the file there, listed as Germain. I suspect that your relative's grave cannot be found, but you certainly should ask the folks at Petersburg for what they know about wartime burials of prisoners around that city. Sincerely, Robert E. L. Krick Historian Richmond Natl. Battlefield Park