JAMES WATSON -- 95th INFANTRYJAMES H. WATSON 16th and 121st INFANTRYTwo James Watsons enlisted in Clinton County. The first James enlisted in the 95th Infantry in Plattsburgh on September 2, 1863 when he was 24 years old. The regiment needed replacement troops because they had just had 115 casualties at Gettysburg. They were encamped about 100 miles to the south preparing for their next engagement near Rappahannock Station in Virginia. When he arrived in Virginia, James almost immediately deserted. He Is listed as a deserter as of September 26th.The second, James H. Watson, who was a mason born in Champlain, also enlisted in Plattsburgh. The original recruits of the 16th Infantry were obliged to serve for only 2 years, but later recruits had to serve for 3 years. James signed up for three years and joined his regiment after the Seven Days' Battles where they had almost 300 casualties, their bloodiest battle being Gaines' Mill with 231. Crampton's Pass, Antietam, Fredericksburg came in the fall of 1862 with more casualties, but James survived.May of 1864 brought the Battles at Salem Church and Marye's Heights where they were fighting beside the 121st Infantry in the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of General Sedgwick's VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The 16th had 154 casualties in these battles and were mustered out about three weeks later. The 3-year men like James were transferred to the 121st who also had lost heavily -- 276 men.This regiment had only been in the field since September of 1862 so the battles in May were their first major battles. At Gettysburg in July, they were held in reserve and had few casualties for the rest of 1863. In 1864 the 16th was in all the major battles in the Petersburg/Richmond area and they also served in the Shenandoah Valley.In March 1865, they were in the trenches near Petersburg and saw the fall of the city in early April before joining the Appomattox Campaign. They marched back to the capital area and were mustered out within site of Washington at Hall's Hill, VA, on the south side of the Potomac.James returned to New York. He married Mary Wright and he continued to support his family as a mason. In 1905, the couple was living in North Elba with two of their sons. Mary applied for her Widows Pension in 1919. She went to Iowa to live with her son, Edgar, and died in Waterloo, IA, in 1928.
