James Boggs (general)

James Boggs was born in County Down, Ireland on April 8, 1796.[1][2] His parents were John and Margaret (Kee) Boggs.[1] He was the oldest of seven children.[1] The Boggs family moved to western Virginia in 1807.[1][2]

Boggs owned a large farm in Pendleton County, Virginia, now West Virginia, and had seventeen slaves to operate it.[1] He was engaged in politics over the years, holding the office of county sheriff in 1843, being a justice of the county in 1842 and again from 1852 to 1862 and being a state representative in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1861 to 1862.[1] He became a prosperous merchant in Franklin, Virginia, now West Virginia, mainly occupied in that business by 1860.[1]

Boggs was a brigadier general of the 18th Brigade in the Virginia militia at the outbreak of the civil war.[1] As Virginia forces were organized into the Provisional Army of Virginia prior to their incorporation in the Confederate States Army, Boggs became a brigadier general in that force between April 27, 1861 and June 8, 1861 when it was incorporated into the Confederate Army.[2] Boggs remained with the Virginia militia forces, commanding a brigade in the Valley District in May 1861.[2]

After a quiet period, Boggs's men were called for duty in November 1861.[1] The call was met with some resistance because of the divided loyalties of the population in western Virginia. Boggs himself had a brother who became a captain in the Union Army.[1] Boggs had to request help from the Confederate Army to get the men from the area to report for militia duty.[1] As troops gathered, Boggs was once again in command of the small brigade in the Valley District.[2]

Stonewall Jackson then ordered the local militia, including Boggs's brigade and those of James Harvey Carson and Gilbert S. Meem, to report to Winchester, Virginia for training.[1] After a short time, parts of the brigade went to Moorefield, Virginia, now West Virginia, to fight Union home guard militia units.[1] In early January, Jackson moved against the Union held towns of Romney and Bath (Berkeley Springs) and occupied those towns. Boggs's men protected Jackson's left flank along the Potomac River south of Romney.[1] After Jackson took possession of the area, Boggs's men were split into smaller units which took shelter and were placed on guard duty in the South Branch Valley area.[1]

On February 3, 1862, under orders of January 30, 1862 from the Confederate States Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin, the garrison left by Jackson to hold Romney departed for Winchester, Virginia because of its vulnerable location and a build-up of Union troops intent on retaking the town.[3] The Union force re-entered the town without opposition on February 6, 1862.[3]

By the end of 1861, the 65-year-old Boggs was worn out by his responsibilities, campaigning and harsh winter weather.[1] After his troops were deployed for the winter guard duty and shelter after the capture of Romney, Boggs returned to his home in Pendleton County, where he died on January 28, 1862.[1][2] He was buried in Mount Hiser Cemetery in Franklin, West Virginia.[1][2]

• List of American Civil War generals (Acting Confederate)

• Allardice, Bruce S. More Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8071-1967-9.
• Cozzens, Peter. Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8078-3200-4.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.