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IDENTIFICATION SHIELD OF JAMES H. WOODS, 29th MASSACHUSETTS: WITH THE IRISH BRIGADE ON THE PENINSULA AND AT ANTIETAM!

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This jeweler-made identification shield is similar to the hollow-stamped silver varieties, but is made of flat metal, though measuring about the same as that type, roughly an inch from point to point. It has a T-bar fastening pin and catch hook on the back (both slightly bent,) and has the soldier’s name, unit and hometown professionally engraved in script on the face: “James H. Woods.” in an arc at top, and “Co. D. 29^th Mass. Vols. / Sandwich.” in two horizontal lines underneath.

Born July 31,1841, Woods was living in Sandwich, MA, when he enlisted on May 18, 1861, giving his age as 19. He later gave his birthplace as Boston, but an 1855 Massachusetts census lists a 14-year old James H. Woods as a laborer in Sandwich, born in Ireland. He mustered into service for three years on May 22, 1861, at Fortress Monroe. A few early rolls simply mark his presence or absence as “unstated,” likely because the first seven companies of the 29^th were first associated with the 3^rd and 4^th Mass Militia, but he is explicitly “present” from the Mar-Apr 1862 roll all the way to the Sept-Oct 1863 roll when he is marked absent and hospitalized at Crab Orchard Kentucky.

This service record puts him in some heavy combat with the Irish Brigade in the 2^nd Corps during the Peninsula Campaign at Fair Oaks, Gaines Mill, Savage Station, Nelson’s Farm, and Malvern Hill in Summer 1862, and then, perhaps most famously, at Antietam in September, where they fought at Bloody Lane. They were transferred to another brigade in the 9^th Corps in late November, and were present, with slight loss, at Fredericksburg. In late March 1863 they went west with the 9^th Corps and served at Vicksburg until its fall in July and then moved to join Burnside in Tennessee, with fighting at Campbell’s Station and elsewhere in November, though by that time Woods was in hospital.

In January 1864 he was transferred to Co. D of the 36^th Massachusetts- officially as of Jan. 31, but only carried on their March-April and May-June company rolls. He is mistakenly listed on one roll in the 29th as having reenlisted as a veteran in mid-January 1864, but this was later corrected and he was among some one hundred men transferred from the 29^th to the 36^th to finish up their term while the reenlisted men went home on veteran furlough. That regiment had been organized in August 1862 and joined the 9^th Corps shortly after Antietam and went west with it as did the 29^th Mass. Woods’s transfer to it took place after the Siege of Knoxville and in time for some campaigning starting at the end of January that the historian characterized as “much marching and countermarching,” after which they were sent back east on April 1, 1864, reaching Baltimore and Annapolis, where the regiment was reorganized and later took part in Grant’s Overland Campaign, with heavy fighting and losses at Wilderness and Spottsylvania while Woods was still with it. He is listed as discharged by order of Gen. Burnside on May 18, 1864, which would complete his three-year term of enlistment, but was not officially mustered out until September 2 with a detachment back in Boston.

In 1869 Woods moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, making him one of the early pioneers of that city, and for thirty years was connected with the Union Pacific Railroad. He was married and the couple had three children, only one of whom survived to adulthood. He outlived his wife, but was survived by his daughter and grandchildren in September 1921. He seems to have been a popular local figure, lived with his daughter near the end, and was known to fellow townsfolk simply as “Jimmy.”

This is a very good example of a Civil War soldier’s identification shield. No such devices were issued during the war. If they wanted them, soldiers had to buy their own and there is a wide variety of commercially made badges, pins and medals that are among the most personal Civil War soldier items out there. [sr][ph:L]

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