Background
He was born in Milton, Massachusetts on 3 April 1832.
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James James Sewall Reed
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James was the eldest of three sons of John Reed and Miranda Barker. The teen-agers arrived in San Francisco Bay in March, 1850, and mined gold in Nevada City, California, until 1852. Reed joined the California State Militia First Light Dragoons of San Francisco in November, 1861.
The Dragoons" patrols of the Central Overland Route seemed unexciting in comparison to the newspaper accounts of civil war battles in the east.
In the fall of 1862, a group of Californians from the northeastern United States approached Massachusetts governor John Albion Andrew proposing to supply a company of 100 cavalry volunteers. The governor accepted the volunteers with the stipulation the men would pay for their uniforms, equipment, and ship passage east.
A Massachusetts enlistment bounty defrayed part of those costs, and citizens of San Francisco donated some equipment. Reed resigned his commission with the 1st Dragoons to become captain of the California hundred.
The California hundred sailed from San Francisco aboard the steamship Golden Age on 10 December 1862.
After traveling across the isthmus of Panama and arriving in New York aboard the Ocean Queen, the California hundred were designated company A of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry commanded by Colonel Charles Russell Lowell. Reed and his men went into combat in Virginia in April, 1863. Subsequent California volunteers were designated companies East, F, L, and M of the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry.
Men from Massachusetts formed seven more companies.
Reed"s company participated in a series of engagements with the 43rd Battalion Virginia Cavalry commanded by John South. Mosby. Reed was one of five Californians killed at the Second Dranesville battle on 22 February 1864.
Membership
James became a member of the 1856 San Francisco Committee of Vigilance, and traveled Central America and South America before joining the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858.
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Born
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Died
February 22, 1864 (aged 31) -
Nationality
United States -
Political Party
Vigilance