Ludwell James Mosher was born at Gillead, Morrow County, Ohio on July 2, 1838. He was the son of Obadiah and Nancy (Allen) Mosher. He was living on a farm in Wilton Township in Waseca County when the war began. At a recruiting rally on April 16, 1861, he was one of the first to enlist. On May 23, 1861, he became a member of Captain McKune's Company G, First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Ludwell was 22 years old. He stood 5' 7 1/4" tall, had a dark complexion, blue eyes and black hair. His friends called him by his middle name, Jim. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam. He was wounded again at Gettysburg, on July 2, 1863, which was also his 25th birthday. He was severely wounded in the hip, thigh and wrist. Sgt George Buckman, who served with Ludwell in Company G, was detailed to help the wounded during the battle. Later, he wrote about the experience and mentioned Ludwell. "I am detailed with twenty men and ordered to report to Surgeon Genls. Hdqrs...we were ordered to the Hospital which had been located just south of the road in the rear of Little Round Top. The ground selected was in an orchard which extended on the south to a log house near a fine spring of water...Heavy skirmishing and cannonading soon commenced and by the middle of the afternoon the battle began in earnest...Wounded men began to pour into the hospital, hobbling along, using their muskets as walking sticks, while the more seriously hurt were brought in on stretchers, mangled and torn, bleeding, groaning, dying. Everything in our power was done to relieve the suffering." "It soon became evident that we must get away from that locality and we pressed every man into the service who had one hand to use and could walk. Holes were knocked in ambulances as they were being filled. Pandemonium reigned. I ran over a stretcher with one leg knocked off which I took and looking about to see who I would take first discovered my comrade L. J. Mosher lying on his back with the hot sun pouring into his face, badly wounded. He greeted me with a welcome I shall never forget. The wounded were all moved back about a mile to Rock Creek during the night." Ludwell remained at the 2nd Corps field hospital at Rock Creek for several days. Eventually he was sent to recover further at Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore. He was placed in Ward 9. While he was able to serve out his three year enlistment, for the rest of his life, he was crippled from the wounds he received in battle. In 1893, he had a flattened piece of lead about 1" x 1/2" removed from his hip. He had received the gift from a Confederate soldier at Gettysburg and had carried it in him for 25 years! Jim was married twice. His first marriage was to Myra Allen. His second marriage was in 1870, to a woman by the name of Etta. They had four children. Some time after the war he moved to Iowa. In 1879, he was living in New Sharon, Ia. Later he moved to Kansas. In 1909, he was living in Seneca. By this time he was receiving a pension of $46 a month for his war time injuries. The 1910 and 1917 rosters of the veterans of the First Minnesota state that he was living in Hiawatha, Kansas, during that period. Jim died in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Sept 2, 1919. He was buried in Kansas. Later, however, his body was removed and buried in a family plot in a cemetery in Waseca, Mn. An interesting side note relates to Jim's oldest sister, Clarissa, who was born in 1819. She married a man by the name of William Baker. Their first son, Ozias, born in 1843, served with Jim in Company L. Thus Jim and his "nephew" Ozias Baker both served together during the Civil War. Sources: George Buckman papers, Minn Hist Soc. Edward Needham Diary, Memorandum 1863, MHS William Lochren papers, Minn Hist Soc, Box 6. The National Tribune, Sept 1, 1910. First Minnesota Association reunion records, 1920, p 202 Descriptive List of the Men of Company G, First Minnesota Association papers, MHS, p 615, box 2. Child's History of Waseca County, James E Childs, 1905, p 340. The St Paul Pioneer Press, Sept 6, 1909. Roster of the First Minnesota Infantry, 1910. Roster of the Survivors, First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, 1917. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
