site logo
[no picture yet]

[no picture yet]

Federal (USV)

Colonel

James Gettys Elder

(1822 - 1882)

Home State: Pennsylvania

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 126th Pennsylvania Infantry

Before Antietam

He trained as a whip maker and had his own shop in St. Thomas, PA, before becoming a general merchant and partner in the firm Elder & Dixon. By 1850 he was Captain of the Franklin Artillerists, a local militia company. On 20 April 1861 he enrolled and mustered in Harrisburg as Captain as they became Company C of the 2nd Pennsylvania Infantry for 3 months' service. He mustered out with them on 24 July.

On the Campaign

He commanded the regiment in Maryland.

The rest of the War

He was severely wounded in the hip in action at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862, and was on medical furlough when the regiment mustered out of service on 20 May 1863.

After the War

He lived in Chambersburg, was County Treasurer (1864-66), and was a banker there, a founder of the Franklin County Bank.

References & notes

His service from Bates1 and the Register.2 Personal details from a sketch in George O. Seilhamer's Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Vol. 1, 1905). His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary E. Brindle (1827-1903) in 1845 and they had 8 children.

Birth

02/13/1822; Markes, PA

Death

12/16/1882; Chambersburg, PA; burial in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Chambersburg, PA

Notes

1   Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871  [AotW citation 23890]

2   Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant General's Office, Register of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1865, 16 volumes, Harrisburg  [AotW citation 23891]