James Bolles Coit

Educated at the Philips Academy, Andover, MA, admitted to practice law in Ohio, and went to Nebraska in 1858 and was active in the beginnings of the Republican Party there. He was in Norwich, CT in 1861 and raised a company of the 2nd Connecticut Infantry and enlisted as Private. He saw action at Bull Run in June and was appointed Sergeant Major of the regiment. On 20 August 1862 he mustered as First Lieutenant, Company K, 14th Connecticut Infantry.

He was wounded in action on 17 September 1862.

Promoted to Captain on 1 May 1863. Wounded in action 3 July 1863 at Gettysburg, PA. Appointed Major on 1 October 1863.

He was honored by brevet in March 1865 for "gallant and meritorious service" at Antietam (to Lieutenant Colonel), Gettysburg (Colonel) and the Wilderness (Brigadier General). He opened a law practice in Washington DC in 1865, and was active in politics, becoming a Democrat in response to Reconstruction policies. He was head of the Pension Bureau in the Cleveland Administration (1885-89). He returned to make his home in Norwich sometime before his death in 1894.

Basic information from Page1. His photograph from a CDV posted online by reenactors of Company G, 14th Connecticut. Biographical details from his New York Times obituary. His widow Annie Willoughby Fanning (m. 1869) was granted a pension in February 1903.

09/29/1836; Norwich, CT

12/08/1894; Norwich, CT; burial in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, VA