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J.L. Bullis
(1841 - 1911)
Home State: New York
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 126th New York Infantry
Before Antietam
Son of a physician, in 1855 he was a 14 year old living with his parents and 3 younger siblings at Farmington in Ontario County, NY. He enlisted there at age 21 on 8 August 1862 and mustered on 22 August as a Corporal in Company H, 126th New York Infantry.
On the Campaign
He was captured, along with the rest of his regiment, at Harpers Ferry on 15 September 1862 and paroled there the next day.
The rest of the War
He was in the parole camp, Camp Douglas, at Chicago, IL to 22 November 1862, then he and the regiment were exchanged and returned to the army. He was captured again, at Gettysburg, PA on 3 July 1863 and paroled on 29 September 1863 at City Point, VA. He was probably promoted to Sergeant, date not given, and was discharged to accept appointment as Captain, 118th Regiment, US Colored Troops on 17 August 1864. He mustered out with them on 6 February 1866.
After the War
By then in Arkansas, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant of the 41st United States Infantry on 3 September 1867 and transferred to the 24th US Infantry on 11 November 1869 on the Army consololidation. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on 20 June 1873 and to Captain on 27 February 1890. He was honored by brevets for action against Indians: to Captain at Remolina, Mexico (18 May 1873) and on the Pecos River in Texas (26 April 1875), and to Major for Saragossa, Mexico (30 July 1876) and Burro Mountains, Mexico (3 May 1881). He was appointed Brigadier General and retired from the Army in 1904.
He made a fortune in silver mining in Texas and died at the Fort Sam Houston post hospital after a stroke at age 70.
References & notes
His service from the Adjutant General1 and Heitman;2 later biographies say he was wounded at Harpers Ferry and at Gettysburg. Details from family genealogists and the New York State Census of 1855. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph in the Liljenquist Family Collection at the Library of Congress. Thanks to Dave Lay for the pointer to Bullis.
He married Alice Maria Rodriguez (1846-1886) in San Antonio in October 1870. He married again, Josephine Anita Withers (1865-1934) in October 1891 and they had 3 daughters.
More on the Web
For much more detail, see a fine online biography from the Handbook of Texas.
Birth
04/17/1841; Macedon, NY
Death
05/26/1911; San Antonio, TX; burial in San Antonio National Cemetery, San Antonio, TX
1 State of New York, Adjutant-General, Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of New York for 1863, Albany: Comstock & Cassidy, Printers, 1864, For the Year 1903, Ser. No. 36, p. 878 [AotW citation 34745]
2 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 261 [AotW citation 34746]