James L. Kilgore

James L. Kilgore was a 1st Lieutenant in the 19th Indiana Infantry / Company A.

War Career

Kilgore was commissioned 1st Lieutenant of the 19th Indiana Infantry / Company A on July 29, 1861 and mustered the same day. He resigned on October 11, 1861, though Alan D. Gaff suggests he may have been discharged as part of a purge of unqualified officers in the regiment. However, it is also likely that he was discharged on account of Typhoid Fever. He reenlisted on February or March 1, 1862 in the 19th Infantry and briefly served as a recruit unassigned to a particular company. Again, he was discharged April 23, 1862 for "rheumatism," a collection of symptoms commonly confused with Typhoid Fever.

He enlisted a third time on January 1, 1864 as a recruit in the 36th Indiana Infantry / Company K where his brother Alfred Kilgore briefly served in late 1861 and early 1862. He died on August 5, 1864 of chronic diarrhea while serving in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Family

• David Kilgore (Father) - First elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 1833 as a Whig, Kilgore served a long and successful career in politics and government before the outbreak of the war. During the war he served as a close adviser to Indiana Governor Oliver P. Morton and organized several relief efforts for Indiana troops.
• Alfred Kilgore (Older Brother) - A lawyer who served in the 36th Indiana Infantry between September 1861 and May 1862. He was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives and served from 1863-1867 before his untimely death in 1871.
• Married with children

Sources

• Alan D Gaff, On Many A Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996).
• Arthur Andrew Olson III, Tracking the Political Career of David Kilgore Across Pioneer & Civil War Era Indiana (2012).
• Indiana. Adjutant General's Office. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Indiana. Volume II. (Indianapolis, 1865). (Page 169)