Eli Waugaman

A 25 year old wagonmaker in Montgomery County, he enrolled on 15 April 1861 at Bairdstown, PA and mustered as First Lieutenant of Company I, 11th Pennsylvania Reserves on 29 July in Washington, DC. He was captured at Gaines' Mill, VA in June 1862 and was exchanged (for Lt. James W Roscoe, Adjutant, 18th Tennessee Infantry) on 27 August 1862 to return to his Company.

He was wounded in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was promoted to Captain on 10 April 1863. He was wounded by shrapnel to his right knee and foot at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on 8 May 1864. He returned to duty and mustered out with his Company on 13 or 14 June 1864. He was honored by brevet to Major in March 1865 for his war service.

By 1870 and to at least 1880 he was again a wagonmaker, at Blairsville in Westmoreland County, PA. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1882 and served to 1893.

His service from Sypher1 and the Card File,2 with details from the Historical Data Systems database. His wound at Antietam from Lieutenant Colonel Jackson's Report and his wound at Spotsylvania from Joseph Gibbs' Three Years in the “Bloody Eleventh”: The Campaigns of a Pennsylvania Reserves Regiment (2002), citing Waugaman's pension file. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870 and 1880. His memorial is on Findagrave. His picture from a full length portrait in Ron Coddington's collection; he kindly shared it on the Military Images Facebook page.

He married seamstress Anne Eliza Cavode (1841-1917) in November 1864 and they had 8 children. Anne was first cousin of George Hay Covode.

He named his youngest child Richard Coulter Waugaman (1884-1941), probably after the Colonel of the 11th Reserves.

05/05/1834; Blairsville, PA

12/27/1897; Blairsville, PA; burial in Blairsville Cemetery, Blairsville, PA