James Asbury Wright

He moved to Minnesota with his family in 1855 and in 1860 was a 22 year old student at Hamline University living with his widowed mother and 4 younger siblings at Red Wing, MN. He enlisted in Company F, First Minnesota Infantry on 18 April 1861 and mustered on 29 April as a Corporal. He was promoted to 5th Sergeant on 19 December 1861.

He was with his company on the Campaign and in action with them at Antietam on 17 September 1862. He later wrote about the night of the 17th ...

Now that the crisis for the day was over and darkness veiled our movements, there was reaction from the tremendous mental strain, and defrauded physical nature demanded relief. The rolls were called and inquiries made about the missing ones – as to time, place, and by whom they were last seen –and what their condition was. It is in this way the losses of a day’s fighting are estimated and reports are made. Then – unless it is certain they are already cared for or are in the hands of the enemy – interested comrades try to find and relieve them.

In preparation for tomorrow, we must rest, refill our cartridge boxes and stomachs. We had gone into action with 60 rounds – 40 in our boxes and 20 in our pockets – and used from 40 to 50 each. Dispositions were made for the night, and ammunition was brought up and distributed. Fires were lit in sheltered places a little to the rear, and coffee made in our tin cups. Then – sitting on the ground where we intended to sleep, talking briefly of the events of the day, and trying to understand them – we ate crackers and pork from our haversacks and drank our coffee – hot, strong, and lots of it ...

He was appointed First Sergeant on 8 February 1863 and was slightly wounded in the face, neck, and shoulder by splinters of lead and wood at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July. He was discharged with the regiment on 5 May 1864.

He reenlisted on 8 March 1865 as a private in the First Veteran Reserve Corps, then was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company E, 1st Battalion Minnesota Infantry. He was Captain when he mustered out at Jeffersonville, IN on 14 July 1865.

He returned to live with his mother in Red Wing and ran the Red Wing Livery and Exchange Stable there by 1870 and to 1877, when he moved to Massachusetts. In 1880 he was making glass shades in Boston, MA, and moved to Beverly, MA in 1881, where he was a carpenter. By 1885 he was a school teacher there. In 1900 he was a "car furnisher" of trolley or railroad car interiors living with his father-in-law in Beverly and by 1910 and to at least 1930 (then 90 years old) was a clerk or overseer in the city Property and Welfare Departments, and lived with his daughter Jennie (Herrick) and her family.

He was the last surviving veteran of the First Minnesota Infantry at his death at age 95 in 1936.

Service information from Minnesota.1 His picture from a photograph in the Minnesota Historical Society posted by Wayne Jorgenson on his excellent First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry website/database,2 also source for other details, from service and pension records. The quote above is from his memoir as published in No More Gallant a Deed (2001), edited by Steven J. Keillor, transcription thanks to Kevin Pawlak. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1930, and the Minnesota State Census of 1865. His gravesite is online on Findagrave.

He married Hannah E Cole (1844-1898) in March 1876 and they had a daughter Jennie Cole Wright (1879-1969).

11/27/1840; Decatur, IL

08/25/1936; Beverly, MA; burial in Central Cemetery, Beverly, MA