James Willis Jaggars
Company "I" 1st Alabama Cavalry
James Willis Jaggars was born May 14, 1845 in Morgan Co., Alabama to parents, Thomas Jaggers and Martha Vest Jaggars. His sibling were Benjamin F, Sarah, Mary, Nancy, George, and Lucy. Benjamin F. was also in the 1st Alabama Cavalry, Company "I", and he died October 16,1862 in Hospital #14, Nashville, Tennessee of measles and is buried in grave A-4518 in Nashville National Cemetery. .
His military records show that at the age of 19 he enlisted and muster July 21, 1862 in almost four months after the Union Army invaded North Alabama, Jaggars walked to Huntsville and joined the First Alabama Calvary U.S.A. as a private in Company I. Less than one year later, he was promoted to corporal November 1, 1863 and by Jan. 1, 1864, he was a sergeant on courier service at Reedyville, Tennessee. Sometime in the early part of 1865, the Confederate Army captured Jaggars. He is listed POW from Monroe's Crossroad's, Solomon Grove, North Carolina and held as a prisoner of war until March 10, 1865. He was eventually paroled at Camp Chase, Ohio, mustered out of the Union Army in Nashville on July 19, 1865.
Jaggars returned to Morgan County after the war, and on Dec. 17, 1865, married his first wife, Mary Jane Riggs. They had no children and following her death he married Dovie Jane Powell on April 9, 1913. He was 67 and his new bride was 22. The couple's first child died at birth on May 9, 1915. James Jaggars' only child to live to adulthood is Naomi Jaggers Moore. She was born Nov. 18, 1919. She is still living in Decatur, Alabama and a member of Major Belle Reynolds, Tennessee Tent #4 (Detached) as their only Real Daughter. Her story can viewed: REAL DAUGHTER
James Willis Jaggers was the first justice of the peace in Hartselle, Alabama and was also a Methodist minister and a judge. He died Feburary 22, 1923 and buried at Cedar Creek Cemetery in Morgan County, Alabama.