Jacob Wagner’s Civil War
Jacob Wagner, my great-great-grandfather, was a member of Wiedrich’s New York Light Artillery from Buffalo, NY. He came alone from Germany at age 16 and joined the battery on his 21st birthday. His first battle was Gettysburg, where he fought the three days on Cemetery Ridge. Hand-to-hand combat occurred to save the guns. Jacob continued on and was in Atlanta with Gen. Sherman for the March to the Sea. He fought with the same battery, under Cpt. Charles E. Winegar, at Fayetteville, Averasboro and Bentonville. He was in Raleigh for Gen. Johnston’s surrender at Bennett Place near Durham. Jacob somehow survived the entire two years without injury or disease. His may have been the battery that Gen. John A. Logan used in Raleigh to repulse an effort to burn Raleigh when the news of Lincoln’s assassination came to them during the peace negotiations between Sherman and Johnston. He walked back to Washington from Durham and was charged $2.20 for the not-matching canteen issued to him in Buffalo. Jacob participated in the Grand Parade in Washington. He returned to Buffalo and then married the captain’s daughter. He was lost to view in the 1880 census. I do not know the circumstances of his demise.
