Picture from the National Archives, Washington, DC
John was a senior at Harvard when he enlisted in the Army. He served valiantly during the Civil War advancing from First Lieutenant to Brevet Major in 2nd Battery, Light Artillery, MA Vols., and 9th Battery, Light Artillery, MA Vols. He was badly wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill on 01 July 1862 and at Gettysburg 02 July 1863. John was a machinery designer and "inventor" by trade, and lived in Philadelphia, PA then Minneapolis, MN. He and Julia (Barber) had no children.
Sources:
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
records of the Bigelow Society historian/genealogist;
National Archives; and MN division of vital statistics for John;
Bigelow Family Genealogy Volume II. Page 176 child.
link: http://www.nps.gov/gett/getttour/sidebar/reed.htm
New note 2011:
From: Quinn, Maureen R. <
Maureen.Quinn@gd-ais.com >
Subject: Bigelow and Mount Auburn
Cemetery
CC: "Maureen Quinn" <
mrmquinn@verizon.net >
Date: Thursday, September 1, 2011,
9:27 AM
I am a licensed battlefield guide at
Gettysburg and when I have visitors with me from Massachusetts, I like
to tell them about Capt Bigelow and his actions during the battle.
However, my reason for writing you
is not John Bigelow but the man who founded Mount Auburn Cemetery, Dr. Jacob Bigelow. Is he related to Capt
Bigelow? Only very distant as can be seen from web
pages.......................Rod 2011
Thank you for whatever info you can
give me.
Maureen Reigh Quinn
GD-AIS/ISED
http://www.brotherswar.com/Gettysburg-2x.htm
Bigelow Society Notes:
R17849, John Bigelow, son of Samuel and Anna Jane (Brooke) Bigelow, was
born 4 Feb 1841 in Brighton, MA. He was a senior at Harvard
when he enlisted and served valiently during the Civil War.
Enlisted
first 31 Jul 1861 and again 11 Feb 1863. He was Honorably
discharged 31 Dec 1862. His service included the rank of
Lieutenant,
Captain and Brevereted to major during the Civil War. He served with
the
9th MA Independent Light Artillary, as Captain and Major, and the 1st
Maryland
Light Artillary as 1st Lieutenant and Adjutant. John Bigelow was
wounded
at Malvern Hill in Virginia on 1 July 1862, and again at Gettysburg, PA
on
2 Jul 1863. Filed for application for pension No. 271,858 on 19
June 1879. He was an inventor, machinist, tool and die maker.
Go to: Page 2
Go to Page 3 Visit to Gettysburg
04/15/2004.............................ROD
Go to Page 4 for more on
Gettysburg 03/07/07 ............................ ROD
"FORGE", Bigelow Family Genealogy, Apr 1997,Vol. 26, No. 2, page
33.for "Bigelows of Brighton" article which straightens out the
confusion between the Bigelow and Brooks families.
also see: FORGE: The Bigelow Society Quarterly Vol.25, No.2; April 1996.
Lorrie Stearns compiled the long article below:
which Don Bigelow published at: http://bigelowsociety.com/Captain_John_Bigelow.html
Lorrie Stearns info:
Subject: Obituary for John Bigelow
Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 21:11:44 -0500
From: Lorrie Stearns < amalia@shaysnet.com >
I have just obtained the obituary that appeared in the Chicago
Journal on September 14, 1917 of Captain John Bigelow. I have
posted it
on my web page. If you would like it for the Bigelow Website you
are more than welcome to it.
Interestingly enough it listed that he had a daughter and
grandchildren. When Don was alive we didn't think he had
children...I
tend to think this was a step-daughter...but have to do more research.
I will pull out his pension and military records to double check.
Website:
www.geocities.com/pentagon/8279
Page: John
Bigelow Obituary: www.geocities.com/pentagon/8279/Bigelowobit.html
Enlisted as a private, April 24, 1861, in the 2nd Mass. Battery.
Elected Second Lieutenant, May 15, 1861. Served in Baltimore and
Eastern Virginia in Autumn, 1861.
December 16, 1861 - Appointed Adjutant of the 1st Maryland Battalion.
Served in Peninsular Campaign; left arm shattered at Malvern Hill.
Rejoined army in autumn; with Burnside at Fredricksburg. Contracted
malaria and returned to Mass.
Appointed Captain of the 9th Mass. Light Battery by Mass. Governor
Andrew and arrived at Camp Barry on February 28, 1863.
July 2, 1863 - Wounded in the hand and side at the Trostle Farm
Gettysburg, PA
August 18, 1863 - returned to command at Mine Run.
January 23, 1864 - returns home on sick leave, not fully recovered from
Gettysburg wounds.
February 12, 1864, returns to command at Brandy Station.
July 13, 1864, near Petersburg, goes to rear on sick leave.
August 11, 1864, returns to Mass. on sick leave.
December 12,1864, returns to battery at Sussex Court House
January 19, 1865, discharged as Major; goes home as Brevet Major.
January 1915, Applies for Pension
Special thanks to Lorrie Stearns and the Ninth Massachusetts Battery for information and Pictures. See the Ninth's Web Page for much more information about the 9th. Many pictures and other information. Additional Note: The Bigelow Society has the Military Records of Capt. Bigelow including his application for Pension dated January 2, 1915.
Additional information from " From My Dear Wife by Frank Putnam
Deane
II, Pioneer Press, 1964"
Detailing Captain Bigelow's story from 1863 to 1865 Thanks again for
the efforts of Lorrie Farr.
January, 1863 arrived amid dissension in the camp of the 9th Battery directed against Captain De Vecchi, who on the 26th resigned his commission, to the delight of the men. On February 20th, the battery's new captain, John Bigelow, arrived.
In December of 1861 Bigelow had received an appointment as Adjutant of the 1st Maryland Battalion of Artillery, had served with the battalion in the Peninsular Campaign, where at Malvern Hill his left arm had been shattered. Rejoining the battalion in the autumn, he was with the army at Fredericksburg but early in 1862 had been obliged to return to his home in Brighton, Massachusetts after contracting malaria. In January, 1863 he had again offered his services to his native state of Massachusetts and had subsequently received an appointment by Governor Andrew to the command of the 9th Battery
On April 17th, the battery was ordered to Centerville where it was to go into camp with the reserve artillery, and there by freak chance, to become attached to the Army of the Potomac when that army marched north in pursuit of Lee's Confederates, who had invaded Maryland and were headed into Pennsylvania in June, 1863.
The Keystone Battery of Philadelphia, which had been camped alongside the 9th Battery, had been ordered up to join the Army of the Potomac, but because the battery had delayed in executing the order, irked General Hunt, the Army's Chief of Artillery, canceled the Keystone's order and in its placed called up the 9th Battery. The Battery left Centerville on June 25th and marching north, joined up with the army at Edwards Ferry the next day, being attached to the artillery reserve of the Army of the Potomac in Colonel McGilver's 1st Volunteer Brigade along with the 15th New York, 5th Massachusetts Batteries and Captain R. B. Ricketts' Pennsylvania Battery; these were the guns which, with John Bigelow's Battery, were to save the day a week later at a little town in Pennsylvania called Gettysburg.
When the battery arrived at Gettysburg on the morning of the 2nd of July, the great battle had commenced, but the battery was ordered into park until about three in the afternoon, when the order came for Captain Bigelow to take his battery and report to Captain Randolph, Chief of Artillery of the 3rd Corps, who directed Bigelow to take up position between a peach orchard and a wheat field in the field of a Pennsylvania German farmer named Abraham Trostle.
No sooner had the battery maneuvered into position than casualties could be counted among the men and the horse of the battery;-- now they were seeing action for the first time. Bigelow directed his fire at the Confederate batteries posted along the Emmitsburg Road with such effective results that the Southern gunners lost accuracy and slackened their fire. Now Semmes was forming his Confederate infantry in front of the buildings of the Rose farm less than half a mile distant, Bigelow turned his guns in that direction. Soon Semmes went down and his brigade dispersed with the loss of some 400 killed. Meanwhile General Kershaw had sent two of his Southern regiments against Bigelow's front and left and Barksdale's Mississippians started coming in on his right, forcing him to retire his battery which he did by prolong firing. Upon reaching Trostle's barn yard, Colonel McGilvery ordered Bigelow to hold that line at all hazards until the Union line could be reformed in his rear. No sooner had Bigelow placed his guns in this position when on came Barksdale's brigade consisting of the 13th, 17th, 18th and 21st Mississippi Regiments sweeping all before it. The Union cannoneers were order to fire double canister, which tore great gaps in Barksdale's advancing Confederates, but soon the Southerners reached the guns and hand-to hand fighting took place. The Union line meanwhile being reestablished, Bigelow was ordered to fall back and abandon his guns. The battery had delayed the Rebels long enough for the Union line to be reformed at the expense of twenty-eight men killed and wounded, including Bigelow wounded by a shot in the side; and the loss of sixty of its eighty-eight horses dead; twenty more wounded, and four of its six guns left in the hands of the enemy, but which were recovered early that evening by a charge of Union infantry.
On the following day the gallant battery, now under command of Junior Second Lieutenant John S. Milton and consisting of but two guns, was engaged at Zeigler's Grove on Cemetery Hill, where it helped to stem Pickett's gallant charge, losing five more horses.
During the remainder of that summer and fall the battery was active at Warrenton, where it remained in camp from August 1st until September 16th, when it again resumed the march, going to Culpepper Court House and remaining at that place until October 11th, when the battery took part in the Briscoe and Mine Run Campaigns during the latter part of November without suffering further loss.
The weary and battle-tried battery went into winter quarters on the 13th of December on a hill overlooking Brandy Station about a mile northwest of the town, where the men again occupied themselves, building log huts and making themselves comfortable for the winter.
Captain John Bigelow returned to his command of the battery on February 12, 1864. He had been severely wounded July 2nd of the previous year when his battery had made its gallant stand at Trostle's farm at Gettysburg.
Now, with the coming of the new year, the battery had been reassigned from the 1st Volunteer Brigade of the Artillery Reserve, in which it had seen so much action the previous year, to the 2nd Volunteer Brigade of the Artillery Reserve; but with the spring campaign about to get under way it had been again reassigned to Major Robert H. Fitzhugh's 34th Volunteer Brigade of the Artillery Reserve only to be assigned, a month later, to the Artillery Brigade of the Fifth Corps, commanded by J. Howard Kitching, colonel of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery.
May 4th saw the battery abandoning its winter camp at Brandy Station and resuming the march, this time to Ely's Ford on the Rapidan, where it crossed the river, finally arriving at the Chancellor House that evening. When they arrived, the Army of the Potomac was hotly engaged with the rebels in the Wilderness and then at Spotsylvania; but the battery did not see action until May 19th when it was placed in position on the Anderson Farm, near Spotsylvania, while nearby the battle of Harris Farm was being fought. Four days later, on the 23rd, after crossing to the south bank of the North Anna River at Jericho Ford, it went into its first action since leaving winter quarters, losing one man killed. Here the battery remained until the 26th, when it again recrossed the North Anna at Quarles' Ford, moving to Bethesda Church on June 1st and being under fire much of the time until the 3rd. Leaving Bethesda Church, and after much marching and countermarching, the battery crossed the James River on the 16th near Wilcox's Landing and advanced to the Petersburg front. They were hotly engaged on the 18th near the Avery House on the Baxter Road in support of an infantry attack and suffered the loss of one man killed, and six wounded, one mortally. The battery then proceeded to the Jerusalem Plank Road on the Petersburg lines, where it constructed and occupied Fort Davis.
On the 14th of August the battery moved to Fort Dushane (or Duchesne) near the Weldon Railroad, and on the 27th of October accompanied the 2nd and 5th Corps to Hatcher's Run where the corps forced a passage and returned the following day to its previous position. In December the battery accompanied General Ayres' 2nd Division of the 5th Corps on a second expedition on a the line of the Weldon Railroad, beyond the Nottoway River. Upon returning from the expedition the battery was garrisoned at Fort Rice, where it was to remain until the following February.
During the last week in December, Major Bigelow ( he had on August 1, 1864, been promoted to the rank of Brevet Major, U.S. Volunteers) had resigned his command of the battery and Lieutenant Richard S. Milton was promoted to the command, his Captain's commission being dated January 1, 1865
For the first month in the new year, the battery remained inactive at Fort Rice, but on the 5th of February it was sent on an expedition to Dabney's Mill on Hatcher's Run, where it was to view the army in action for the next two days, but not take part. On the 7th it returned to Fort Rice, remaining there until March 25th when it was ordered to join the Artillery Brigade of the Ninth Corps, commanded, by Major Charles A. Phillips, former commander of the 5th Massachusetts Battery. On the same day it was ordered up and shared in the assault against Fort Stedman, without loss.
Upon evacuation of Petersburg by the confederates, the battery on the 3rd, after turning in two of its guns, marched through the desolate city and joined in the pursuit of Lee's retreating army. On the 5th it reached Nottoway Court House where it was ordered to remain. It stayed in this vicinity until April 20th when it was ordered to City Point, arriving there April 23.
On the 3rd of May, Captain Milton headed his battery on its northward journey passing over many of the hard-fought battlefield of the previous four years, and reaching the defenses of Washington on the 13th.
The Grand Review of the victorious army was held on May 23rd (Sherman's army was to march the next day) and the gallant little battery joined in the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. Six days after the review, the battery was ordered to turn in its guns and equipment--the end was now in sight for the battle-weary men. The men entrained for Boston on June 1st, arrived there two days later and immediately marched through the city (where little notice was given it because of its unexpected arrival) to Galloup's Island in Boston Harbor. There on June 6th it was mustered out of the service of the United States, being discharged three days later.
The battery had lost during its service two of its officers, and
thirteen of its enlisted men killed and mortally wounded and four
additional enlisted men had died of disease, a total of nineteen men
EBAY:
CAPTAIN JOHN BIGELOW, WHIPPLE
CDV, INSCRIBED
Captain John Bigelow of the 9th Massachusetts Light
Artillery Battery. Original Civil War era CDV in VG condition.
Marked Whipple, Boston on the back.
Captain Bigelow's heroics in the Civil War at Gettysburg are
well documented (on the net, see the Bigelow Society home
page). The inscription and signature on the back is probably
not his, but it is old and may be by an authorized proxy. The
inscription appears to have been done before the CDV was
trimmed to size. Actual size is 4" x 2-3/8"
Guaranteed authentic/satisfaction guaranteed. With regard
to the inscription, I guarantee that it is old and original to the
CDV.
I am looking for any information about John Bigelow that I might
read
to
understand and "get into" his character such as childhood and military
anecdotes and records, school records and sibling information. It
would be good to learn more about his wife, Julia Gardner (?is that the
right
name?) and his step-daughter (Edna?). Through a local crony
of mine, I have
copies of several military papers and pension records. My crony
has the
saddle he used in Gettysburg and several other of his implements of
battle.
I would love to hear from you and discuss this chap in more detail.
My email address is weaverson@msn.com and my phone number is (717)
731-0577. I live in Camp Hill, PA which is a suburb of
Harrisburg, the state
capital.
I look forward to hearing from you. Mike Weaver.
Subject: Capt. John Bigelow
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 12:50:40 EST
From: Elliot M. Levy, Capt. STEWARTFOODS@cs.com
I portray Capt. John Bigelow in the 9th Mass. Light Artillery
Civil War re-enactors based in Northampton, Ma. I do have his
pension papers, many news clipings concerning his death, an
original copy of Baker's "History of the 9th" signed by Capt.
Bigelow, and an original copy of Bigelow's "The Peach Orchard".
Do you have any further information on the Capt. I want to
enhance my impression and would appreciate any information you could
provide. Thank you.
Elliot M. Levy, Capt.
9th Mass. Light Artillery
97 Brooks Rd.
Longmeadow, Ma. 01106
413-567-6754
Go to: Page 2
<
rodbigelow@netzero.net > 
