Person:James Bell (9)

Obituary

(Source: Valparaiso Daily Vidette, Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana, Friday Evening, April 9, 1926, page 3, column 5.)

"James Bell, Civil War Veteran is Laid to Rest This Afternoon – Taps were sounded for James Bell, Civil war veteran, this afternoon at 2 o'clock, when services were held at the Masonic temple, on East Lincolnway, in charge of the Porter Lodge of Masons. Rev. E. Richard Edwards, pastor of the Christian church, preached the funeral sermon. A number of members of the Chaplain Brown Post., No. 108, Department of the Indiana Grand Army of the Republic, of which Comrade Bell had been a member for the last thirty years, attended the rites and paid their last respects to one of their number who in his stalwart younger days gave his all in the stirring days when the Union was at stake.

Gray hair, bent shoulders and faltering steps marked this last remnant of a once gallant band whose struggles in those bloody years will live forever in the pages of history. Pallbearers at the services were Paul LaCount, Albert Mathias, Dr. Glen Dolson, Arthur W. Cowdrey, Mark Stoner and Frank A. Kroetz. Interment was in Maplewood cemetery. Comrade Bell, who was born in Porter county on July 27, 1842, died Wednesday at the Soldiers' National Home, Milwaukee, Wisc. According to historical data in the hands of E. M. Burns, adjutant of Chaplin Brown Post, Comrade Bell, joined Company I. 90th Indiana Volunteers, known as the 5th Indiana Cavalry, on August 6, 1862, and was discharged from the same command as a corporal on June 5, 1865.

His war record, which was a memorable one, included participation in twenty-two battles and skirmishes. The 5th Cavalry, of which he was a member, was in conflict nearly every day during the month of June, 1864. It marched twenty-four hundred miles and was transported one thousand miles by water. It captured six hundred and forty prisoners during its term of service, and its casualties were as follows: killed in action, 34, died in hospital, 74; wounded in action, 74; died of wounds, 13; died in rebel prisons, 115; taken by the enemy as prisoners, 497; officers wounded, 6; officers killed, 1; officers taken prisoner, 17, total casualties, 829 from a force of 1,040 men."

1. ↑ Robert Blake bladerph1@@home.com.
2. ↑ Porter County, Indiana Marriage Licence Records, Vols 1-6, held at Valparaiso Public Library, Valparaiso, Indi
   p. 466.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Center Township Cemeteries, Valparaiso, Indiana, Porter County, Indiana, Northwest Indiana Genealogical Societ.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} Obituary for James Bell, Valparaiso Daily Vidette, Valparaiso, Indiana, April 7, 1926.
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 Census, 1900, Valparaiso, Center Twp., Porter County, Indiana.
6. ↑ Historical Registers of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938.
7. ↑ Record of James Bell, Historical Registers of National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, 1866-1938.

   record 21795, James Bell, National Soldiers Home, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

8. ↑ Bumstead's Valparaiso City and Porter County Business Directory, Bumstead Co., Chicago, 1905, p. 56.