James Carroll, Vermilion County

The only mention of James Carroll in the Annual Reports is in the 1868 report when the indenturing agent, Mr. H D Perry was writing a summary of his work and reflecting on a company of boys and girls sent to Vermilion County in 1855. Many of those boys became soldiers in the Civil War and at least three of them lost their lives in that war. James was born in New York in 1842 or 44. Nothing is known of his parents. While in Illinois James worked for John Aldridge in Vermilion County for four years and then went out working for wages.

James Carroll first enlisted with Company D of the 25th Illinois Infantry . Several of the boys from New York were in this company, and they served a full three years. James must have been an exceptional soldier, because when he re- enlisted it was as a sergeant in Co. K of the 150th in 1865. He was then twenty one years old and five feet six and one half inches tall. He had fair hair and blue eyes. He was mustered out of the army in Atlanta in 1866. In 1865 he married in Georgia to Elizabeth Tucker. He continued to live in Cobb and Douglas County Georgia and worked as a farmer there, raising seven children with his wife. James began collecting a pension from the United States government in 1882 as an invalid. He must have been a somewhat prosperous farmer, as evidenced by his massive headstone at the Mount Pisgah Cemetery. He died January 21, 1912 and thereafter his wife collected his pension.