James William Conine

He was raised in Ohio, but had moved to Lexington, KY as a young man. He had pre-War experience in the "Lexington Rifles", a militia company commanded by the later-famous John Hunt Morgan. At the outset of the War he "went North" and was appointed First Lieutenant, First Kentucky Infantry, and enrolled as Adjutant at the formation of the Regiment in Ohio on 5 May 1861. He transferred to Company E as First Lieutenant on 1 September 1861 - Company E having detached as Artillery in early 1861, later known as the First Independent Battery, Kentucky Light Artillery (or 23rd Independent Battery, Ohio Artillery).

He was assigned as aide-de-camp (ADC) to General Cox on the Maryland Campaign and was mentioned by the General in his after-action Report.

On 23 November 1863 he was commissioned Colonel and commander of the 5th US Colored Troops (USCT, formerly 127th Ohio Infantry). He was injured near Petersburg, VA in June 1864 and never returned to his regiment. He was discharged for disability from the hospital at Annapolis, MD on 13 September 1864.

By 1870 he was a chair shipping agent in Columbus, OH. In 1888 he was commander of GAR Post No. 3 in Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, IN.

Service information the State of Ohio,1 Augustus Woodbury's Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps (1867), and William Henry Perrin's Kentucky: A History of the State (1887). Details of his service with the 5th USCT from Versalle F. Washington's Eagles on Their Buttons: A Black Infantry Regiment in the Civil War (1999). Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a portrait photo collection of General Cox and his staff, from the Library of Congress.

He married Frances Louise "Fanny" Curtis (1841-1931) in October 1862 and they had 3 daughters.

12/13/1836; New Haven, CT

10/23/1895; Apalachicola, FL; burial in Magnolia Cemetery, Apalachicola, FL