James Dryden Gale

In 1860 he was a 20 year old clerk, probably working for his prosperous merchant father Enoch in Norfolk, VA. He enlisted as a Private in Company D, 6th Virginia Infantry on 5 June 1861 and was appointed Sergeant soon after. He transferred with the Company to the Norfolk Light Artillery on 25 March 1862 and was elected 2nd Lieutenant on 3 May.

He commanded the battery on the Maryland Campaign in Captain Huger's absence until 17 September 1862 when the Captain returned.

He was ill in a Richmond, VA hospital from 11 October to 4 January 1863, and was promoted to First Lieutenant on 2 March 1863. He was captured at Hatcher's Run, VA on 2 April 1865, briefly in Washington, DC, sent to Johnson's Island, OH on 9 April, and released after taking an oath of allegiance on 14 June 1865.

In 1870 he was back living with is parents and siblings in Norfolk, a retail hardware merchant. By 1880 and to at least 1910 he was in the hardware business on his own in Norfolk.

His service and other details from Crew & Trask1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave. Thanks to Jim Rosebrock for the pointer to Gale's command role in Maryland.

He married Martha Elizabeth Callis (1846-1942) in May 1868 and they had 4 children; 2 survived into adulthood.

His brother Joseph Addington Gale (1842-1916), later a doctor, was also in the battery to 6 September 1862, but after "loss of right eye" was a Hospital Steward in Richmond, VA from 15 October 1862 to at least January 1865.

11/08/1839; Norfolk, VA

10/16/1918; burial in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Norfolk, VA