Sgt. James Eby, 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry

Photo from the Richard K. Tibbals
Collection of the United States
Army Military History Institute

James Eby was a 29-year-old telegrapher from Horsetown in Shasta County when he joined Company M of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry in March 1863. He rose through the ranks to become commissary sergeant and was discharged at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, on July 20, 1865.

After the war, Sgt. Eby moved around a bit. In 1880, he was selling supplies at Fort Thompson Indian Reservation in the Dakotas, and he applied for a pension in 1890 as a resident of Illinois. By 1900, he was living in the National Military Home in Marion, Indiana, and by 1910, he had relocated to the Danville National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Illinois.