JAMES H. THURBUR -- 60th INFANTRYWAS IN SEVERAL MAJOR CAMPAIGNS - Nineteen men enlisted in the 60thInfantry in Mooers and Mooers Forks in the early fall of 1861. Seventeenof them were mustered in as privates in Company H, one enlisted as a2nd lieutenant and another became a sergeant. One of the group JamesH. Thurber, the 18-year-old son of George Thurber and Laura Hancock,eventually became one of the original 78 privates in the company.As soon as the regiment organized in Ogdensburg, they left forWashington on November 4th, to join the Army of the Potomac. Theystayed near the capital in Genera; Dix's Railroad Brigade through thespring of 1862. For a short while, they were in the Shenandoah Valleyand then joined General Pope's Campaign which included the Battle ofAntietam.The next year, with the Army of Virginia, they lost heavily atChancellorsville and Gettysburg before going to Tennessee and theChattanooga and Rossville Campaign. That year, they suffered over 150casualties in the field.In 1864, the 60th joined Sherman's Atlanta Campaign and were part ofhis March to the Sea. He was wounded in the shoulder but managed to keepup with the regiment. The next spring, their war ended near Raleigh, NC,at the end of the Campaign of the Carolinas on April 26, 1865. James waslisted as a deserter in June and July, but voluntarily returned to theregiment and was mustered out on July 31, 1865.He returned to Mooers and farming. A year after his return, Jamesmarried Amarilla Wells and they had several daughters. After he retiredfrom farming, James and Amarilla moved to Wareham, MA, to be with theirdaughter, Ida. The couple are buried in the Center Cemetery there. Hedied in 1922 and she died in 1924.
