James George Mitchell

Drummer James George Mitchell (R37) Indiana and Jefferson Counties, 1893-1900

Early Life: 

James George Mitchell, born January 15, 1847, Perrysville, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, son of Thomas Sharp Mitchell Sr. and Sarah E. (Blose) Mitchell; educated, common schools; captain, Civil War, 1861-1865; married, Caroline Neal, children, sons, David Barkley (1869–1875); unnamed, 1870, did not survive infancy; Mabel Clare (1874–1946); Pennsylvania National Guard; plasterer; merchant; postmaster, Hamilton, Jefferson County; Jefferson County Auditor, 1874; elected, Republican, Pennsylvania State Senate, 1893-1900; died,  Hamilton, Perry Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, July 19, 1919 (aged 72); interment White Church Cemetery, Hamilton, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. (i)  

 Early Career:

Enlisted, drummer, Pittsburgh, September 9, 1861, age 15, Company A., 105th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (also known as "Wildcat Regiment") saw action in many battles including Yorktown; Williamsburg; 2nd Bull Run; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; Gettysburg; Wilderness, commissioned but not mustered out, captain, May 7, 1864, older brother, placed in charge of their unit; Spotsylvania; Petersburg and Appomattox; mustered out with his company, July 11, 1865.

Assigned, with regiment, Gettysburg Campaign, front lines, intense fighting, Little Round Top, July 2-3, 1863. In a post-battle letter, Colonel Calvin A. Craig wrote: “The One Hundred and Fifth never fought so well as at Gettysburg. We rallied some eight or ten times after the rest of the brigade had left us, and the boys fought like demons. Their battle-cry was "Pennsylvania". I could handle them just as well on that field of battle as though they had simply been on drill. This is a state of perfection in discipline that is gained by but few regiments.” (ii)

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, his older brother, captured, enemy flag, from the color bearer, 18th North Carolina Infantry. (iii)

Captain, Pennsylvania National Guard, decade.  

Postmaster, Hamilton, Jefferson County, was removed by Cleveland administration, reappointed, Harrison term; Jefferson County Auditor, 1874.

Pennsylvania Politics:

Unsuccessful campaign Pennsylvania House of Representatives, 1882.

Elected, Republican, 37^th district, Pennsylvania State Senate, Indiana and Jefferson Counties, 1893-1900, Chair, Appropriations, Canal and Inland Navigation, Finance, Judiciary Special, Law and Order, Military Affairs, Mines and Mining, Public Grounds and Buildings, Public Health and Sanitation, Public Supply of Light, Heat and Water and Railroad and Street Passenger Railways Committees.  

Introduced legislation, 1897, ensure that city bakeries and small factories producing baked goods would be subject to state factory inspections, that schools statewide would have uniform textbooks which were pre-approved by a gubernatorial commission, and which transferred responsibility for the maintenance and rebuilding of township bridges of more than thirty feet in length to the commissioners of the counties where those bridges were located.

Cited:

Smull’s Legislative Hand Book, (1900) Miller, H.P., Biographical Sketches of Senators, page 1162, 1181, 1192-1194.

(i) https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/61979512/james-george-mitchell

(ii) Bates, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, Vol. III, pp. 784-786

(iii) Beyer, Walter Frederick and Oscar Frederick Keydel. Deeds of Valor: How America's Heroes Won the Medal of Honor: Personal Reminiscences and Records of Officers and Enlisted Men Who Were Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for Most Conspicuous Acts of Bravery in Battle Combined with an Abridged History of Our Country's Wars, Vol. II: "Another Group of Heroes", pp. 529, 531. Detroit, Michigan: The Perrien-Keydel Company, 1902.