James William Boyd

Bmac48

Corporal
Joined
Apr 28, 2010
Location
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

James William Boyd.jpg
 
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686

First document, dated 1931, is a request to the War Dept.in Washington for his Civil War service. ( pre-microfilm days )

Second document is the letter requesting he be turned over to the provost in DC. " By request of Secretary Stanton "

James W. Boyd\'s Confederate Service.jpg
Captain Boyd sent to Washington DC.jpg
 
I've seen a photo of a "Booth clone" who lived in India for a while. That guy looks far more like Boyd than Booth. The photo was used on Brad Meltzer's History Decoded when they got into the whole Booth question. Some folks who live in Tennessee claiming kin to Booth were interviewed, and they showed a copy of Booth's (alleged) signature on a marriage certificate used to demonstrate their link to Booth through this marriage. I believe the place was Sewanee.
 
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686

This is from the American Civil War Research Database :

James W. Boyd

Residence Madison County TN;
Enlisted as a 1st Lieutenant (date unknown).
He was listed as:
* POW (date and place not stated)
Promotions:
* Capt
He also had service in:
"F" Co. TN 6th Infantry
Sources used by Historical Data Systems, Inc.:

- Index to Compiled Confederate Military Service Records
- Information provided by HDS subscribers
- Research by Christine Miller
(c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com

NOTES:
The following was submitted by:
Dr. Chris Miller
Department Coordinator, Department of General Education
Davenport University
220 E. Kalamazoo St.
Lansing, MI 48933
517-367-8244

To amend your records, James W. Boyd of the 6th Tenn Infantry, Enlisted as Lt, promoted
to Capt.
He was part of company F (Madison County, Jackson Tenn) which ceased to exists and
was combined with other companies, including Company L which did not go to Shiloh but
Corinth. (letters of William Augustus Nobles,
http://www.geocities.com/sixth_tennessee/Nobles.html)
There, as part of Van Dorn's Army, he joined the Scouts, which upon passage of the
Partisan Ranger Act, in April '62 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partisan_Ranger_Act)
would take on increasing importance in the Mississippi theater. All cavalry scounts in
this theater would be partisans, irregulars, not regular cavalry. This made it difficult
for all generals to accept them, with the lessons of Missouri and Quantrill on their
mind. One General who did buy into the idea was a brigadeer in Van Dorn's army,
John B. Villepigue. Capt. James W. Boyd is next seen in charge of training scouts and
secret service while attached to Villepigue's Brigade, from the time Van Dorn enters
Mississippi until he is replaced by Pemberton (see a handwritten letter from Boyd
to Secretary of War Stanton, when Boyd is a prisoner in Carroll prison, February 14, 1865.
Images and transcription of original in Turner-Baker Papers microfilm set. Roll 135,
Frame Numbers 411-413). Here he gives his credentials with this army quite clearly.
He is offering his services to Stanton, in exchange for getting out of prison, as he
has a large family that needs him, and like many Tennesseans, he was essentially a
Union man anyway.

He does not, however, tell what he does next. This information he retains as a man of
honor and so do others that possess it, until all who can be harmed by it have passed on.
Shortly after the death of General Lunsford Lomax, John Singleton Mosby gives an
interview to Carolyn Harper Long in which he states:
General Lomax was with McCulloch in West Tennessee and after McCulloch was killed he
was with Van Dorn. In the Fall of 1862 he was ordered to Richmond on a special mission.
He was then detailed back to Van Dorn just before Christmas. He was a Lt. Colonel and
placed in command of the 11th Virginia Cavalry. When Lomax was in Richmond he learned
of his future transfer to Virginia. He had a scout sent up from Tennessee to assess
the military information situation and to set up partisan scouts in the valley. Up to
that time everything in this area had been disorganized and difussed [sic] and
relatively ineffective. Lomax wanted a scouting system identical with the very excellent
system which existed in West Tennessee. He picked his men from amongst the scouts in
West Tennessee and selected a man by the name of Boyd. He had been a railroad detective
and he was among the best they had. He arrived in Richmond several days before Lomax
left and Boyd proceeded on to Staunton where he was met by one of Winder's detectives
by the name of Turner. Boyd recruited and trained some 35 to 40 men in Rockingham,
Shenandoah and Augusta counties and formed them into the Linville Partisan Rangers.
He taught them the fine points of scouting, telegraph line tapping, use of blasting
powder, and all the other things a good scout needs to know. Boyd was one of Van Dorn's
best scouts and did a fine job of setting up the partisans in the Valley.

Lomax had also arranged for me to begin independent operations in Loudon County to the
North. I got started about the first of the year. At that time I only had a few men,
less than a dozen but we soon expanded and trained the men we had. We never were a
large group nor were we designed to be a large fighting force. We had to form up and
dissolve into the countryside in a few minutes. Secrecy was our greatest ally. We didn't
drill like regulars and we had no permanent camps to provide that camp drudgery so
disliked by regulars. We used dinner bells and whistles to signal with and to cause
assembly. ...

In June of that year my outfit was designated the 43rd Battalion Partisan Rangers.
But on his way back to Tennessee Boyd was captured and in fact did not get back to
Tennessee before Lomax was transferred to Virginia. In February, after the capture of
Boyd became known, the Linville Rangers were put under the command of Jake Cook but
they were never officially recognized by the Confederate government and they were never
paid. But they were active throughout the valley and they provided good information to
Lomax. (This article was copyright by Beth Rhoades in the Baltimore Sun in 1920.
Mosby had asked Caroline not to publish it until after his death, which she thought
a little unfair, since they were about the same age. Beth Rhoades was her executor.)

The story of Boyd's capture appears in the records of Lafayette Baker's National
Detective Police in October 1863. He was captured in his home. It is stated that he
agreed to go to Johnson Island to inform on the activities there in exchange for his
life. As his wife was suffering from chronic bronchitis, it was clear to him that his
family needed him alive, so he agreed to the bargain. The obituary of Caroline Boyd
in December 1864 or Jan. 1865 in the West Tennessee Whig states that her husband,
Captain James W. Boyd, of the 6th Tennessee Infantry, CSA, was "now a prisoner of war."

Boyd was released from prison, only to become a prisoner of fate. Mosby's statement
continues:


Between the first of October of 1864 and the end of March of 1865 there had developed
no less than five serious plots to get rid of Lincoln in one way or another. Before
long the plotters began to interfer with each other and it was suspected that before
long government detectives would make wholesale arrests. Instead it seems as if most
of the detectives were waiting to see who would come out on top so that they could
line up with the winners. During that winter of 1864-65 the capture plan kept being
delayed by one thing after the other ...Men who were sent to Booth from my command were
told that he could not move yet for one reason or another and so on and on it went.
I was by this time convinced that the man was not up to the job. He had brought people
into the plan who were totally unreliable and it was clear that he had a poor head for
organization of such an undertaking. Also, by this time events had moved along to the
point where inaction would mean lost opportunities and with these lost opportunities,
the loss of Richmond and the war. Booth was prepared by a man of proven abilities,
Captain James W. Boyd, the Tennessean....Then John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln."

Compounding Boyd's difficulties was now he was working for both sides, with the same
loyalty and commitment he gave to every task. He was picked up by the rescue party,
along with Davey Herold, a known Booth associate--so says the testimony of a detective
from Baker's organization, who was trailing the real Booth when the order reached him
to return to Washington as Booth was dead. While this evidence cannot be corroborated--
in fact, contemporary historians (see Steers and Kauffman) have gone to great lengths
to prove both that the detective never existed and he is wrong, testimony given at the
trial indicates that there actually were two sets of fugitives, Booth and Hynson and
Boyd and Herold. How do we know? 1) the men who stopped at Mudd's were Booth and Hynson.
Hynson gave his own name because he knew Mudd knew him. Not knowing whether Mudd knew
Booth, he gave a false name for Booth. Neither Mudd nor anyone on his property, from
among servants or guests, identified under oath, the other person as Davey Herold.
Herold was tall, lankey, with a heavy growth. Hynson was short, clean shaven, not even
peach fuzz. At this time Booth shaves, according to testimony. 2) When the pair arrives
at Garrett's farm, Boyd gives his name as Boyd. He has a mustache, and in fact, the
mustache on the corpse is identified as curling around his mouth. 3) The lieutenant
who receives Herold as he runs from the barn hears him cry: "Who is that man you shot
in the barn?" The officer replies: "You know very well who it is. It is Booth." "That
is not Booth. He said his name was Boyd." Now, this is not a time when someone would be
predisposed to lie. He recanted later, but who wouldn't say whatever the interviewers
wanted you to say, if you thought you were going to walk away at the end? And everyone
who knew him said Herold was impressionable. He may have even been convinced by that
time it was Booth. Maybe. 4) In his diary Booth refers to his companion as praying
for him day and night. In the first released version of the diary, someone has put
in the bracketed name of [Davey Herold] though this does not appear in the diary itself.
No one had ever, in fact, heard Davey Herold utter a prayer or pious word. Ed Hynson,
however, was noted for his piety, a product of a catholic education and fervent in
religious practice. 5) Hynson's mother was the sister of the doctor who identified
Booth's body. He confessed he was reluctant to do so. The scar on the back of the neck
was the only identifying characteristic, and in a time of war, how many men could be
found with similar markers.

The last section requires proof that does not exist. Historical truth in assassination
history takes the back seat to official stories. If political forces would move in the
direction of exhuming the remains of the alleged Booth, it would be easy enough to find
the descendants of James W. Boyd, to prove conclusive he was the man in the barn. Till
then, the first part of the story, through Mosby's statement, is verified in print.
The rest is conjecture but in many cases conjecture is all we have and is not a
victim of such rapid opposition.
 
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686
The link is to a very complex story, involving two James W. Boyds. The one killed in 1866 isn't the one who wrote Stanton a letter from prison. One source says he offered to turncoat and work as a Union scout in Tennessee. That's more likely, but I'll have to read the article closely to see how they deal with the Potter papers and other docs that allege that Boyd was drafted into the hunt for Booth. Our J.W. Boyd did not live until 1870, as far as I can tell.
 
I came across a newspaper article from a Northern paper indicating that a Capt. Boyd of the Virginia Cavalry had been captured in 1863, in the Valley I think. As best I could tell from his records and perhaps one other article, this was the Captain Boyd Mosby wrote about. We have a thread on this here, and I posted what I had found out . Boyd was said to be awaiting execution, but I don't think that happened.
 
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686

Captain Boyd is discussed in detail here : http://www.history.com/shows/brad-m...ad-meltzers-decoded-the-lincoln-assassination
 
Has to how all this got started I wonder if it was Mosby decades old memories...

Please see the Civil War Times Illustrated Vol 16 article pp.47-49 on James Ward Boyd 1822-1866

Note only found one mention of J.W.Boyd in 1860 census

report of Boyd 1866 death
http://www.tngenweb.org/records/madison/cemeteries/riverside/mrc1-04.htm#b426b


related links

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.tennessee.counties.madison/2169/mb.ashx

Memorial for Boyd daughter
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=boyd&GSmid=47111837&GRid=121102982&
 
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The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686

Thanks for posting the clean photo.

Notice that the setting details of the standing photo can only be from the 1865 release from prison? He was posed with his hand on the stand that would hold the Bible on which he had re-sworn his allegiance to the nation.

The non-ranking jacket indicating removal of his former status is too small and barely covers his gray clothing. He was given a generic blue cap that he held nonchalantly in his left hand. There are no apparent tattoos showing on the fingers. In military terms, he has been handed his come-up'ns.

Notice too that he is standing with his full weight supported on his right leg. He was reported to have sustained a chronic leg injury when the NDP made his arrest on the 1st of Aug, 1863.

Seven Children of James and Caroline 1860 census: Emma 15, Cemetery Rec Ellen born 1846 dec'd w/in year, Jim 12 , John 10, George 7, Callie 5, and Preston 1.

The marriage of James Wm. Boyd to Caroline A. Malone on Th. evening the 6th was reported in the "Jackson Republican" of Feb. 14 1845.

The only grave marker discovered in the area is that of a James W. Boyd 1807-1866. The infamous sheriff of McNairy Co, James Waters Boyd was born in Ireland in 1807. A true turn-coat, he and two Chickasaw brothers contracted with the Union army to transport prisoners, often taking a "short" route.
 
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Has to how all this got started I wonder if it was Mosby decades old memories...

Please see the Civil War Times Illustrated Vol 16 article pp.47-49 on James Ward Boyd 1822-1866

Note only found one mention of J.W.Boyd in 1860 census

report of Boyd 1866 death
http://www.tngenweb.org/records/madison/cemeteries/riverside/mrc1-04.htm#b426b


related links

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.tennessee.counties.madison/2169/mb.ashx


Most accounts of Booth's escape and the visit to Dr. Mudd, do not include the removal of the left boot and that the inspectors later found the boot in the Mudd home and currently displayed and photograghed. No one encountered during the rest of Booth's journey mentioned that he had a cast or that he had no left boot or that his footwear did not match. Booth's autopsy notes that his lower left leg exhibited some slight bone fracturing to the extent of bone bruising.
Dr. Mudd did not recognize the individual or his traveling companion, Henson. Writers, following documentation held private, have stated that Mudd and Booth were fairly well acquainted.

http://suite101.com/article/james-w-boyd-the-man-in-the-barn-a247512
"suspicion" that Boyd was the Man in the Barn.

Dr. Mudd’s Guests
The first discrepancy, finally noticed by assassination expert Michael Kaufman, is that of Dr. Mudd's visitors. Various members of Mudd’s household testify to the identity of his late night callers. The younger of the two, who took charge of his wounded friend, gave his name as Henson and his friend’s as Tyser. Henson was described as small, light and smooth faced, talkative—the opposite of the dark, taciturn Herold, who would already be showing a thick growth. His wounded friend may or may not have been recognized as Booth.

Mudd’s stable hand got a good look at Henson. At the trial he was asked

Q. Look at these prisoners here, and see if you recognize any of them. Have you seen any of them before?
A. No, Sir, I do not know any of them.

Q. You never saw the one sitting there, next to the door?—the small man? [Pointing at David E. Herold]
A. No, Sir, I never saw him."

James Wm. Boyd was seen on the same route by at least one military patrol searching for Booth. He and another were on foot at that time. Boyd, according to statements and notes given to a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, had "trained" J.W. Booth. The training was not done during the time of the attempts to kidnap Lincoln; there was no time to train "special tactics" to an "actor" between Boyd's release from Old Capitol Prison on Feb. 14th and the assassination. More likely, Booth had been trained to be a "Linville Partisan Ranger" in 1863.

Stanton had probably given Boyd a special mission to see if Boyd could access Confederate funds in Montreal based on a letter from the Gov. of Michigan forwarded to Stanton by Seward.

The assassination produced a very negative result, extenuating the outcome for the Confederates. A kidnapped Lincoln could have saved Richmond from the retaliation that resulted. The Radical Unionists used the killing to justify the "Reconstruction" rather than "Reunification" of the South.

James Wm. Boyd was not looking for the reward that was not yet posted; he was, more likely, hunting down someone that he had trained and who had taken his failures to the extreme, at great cost to Southerners. JW Boyd's wounds, suffered during his arrest in Jackson, Tenn., Sept, 1863 finally caught up with him.

BY the way, the photo of my Great Grandfather overlays the photo of Captain James Wm. Boyd exactly with only age difference being a factor. Is there a way to find expert facial recognition analysis?
 
Has to how all this got started I wonder if it was Mosby decades old memories...

Please see the Civil War Times Illustrated Vol 16 article pp.47-49 on James Ward Boyd 1822-1866

Note only found one mention of J.W.Boyd in 1860 census

report of Boyd 1866 death
http://www.tngenweb.org/records/madison/cemeteries/riverside/mrc1-04.htm#b426b


related links

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.tennessee.counties.madison/2169/mb.ashx

A cemetery log for seventh child (by count of the six children listed in the 1860 census), the second child/daughter was born in 1846 and deceased soon after. The person reported the dates as being from the 1600's; or it is an error due to a later change to entries made to the log by another person. The cemetery log provides the name of the child as being "Ellen Moran Daughter of J. W. & C. Boyd"

http://www.tngenweb.org/records/madison/cemeteries/riverside/mrc1-04.htm#b426b

The person who logged the burial site (or as revised by another inserting a "table" formatted doc) goes on to offer a version of the shooting of James W. Boyd arising from a diary entry by a Robert H. Cartmell whose version appears to be that of one who did not actually witness the shooting. The narrative describes a Boyd that he knew of that had been a Lieutenant in Newsome's regiment and that he was involved in a difficulty that resulted in a shooting. Cartmell went on to say that "this man and some one else" stole two horses from a Union element, led by a Maj Smith, the previous spring. Then Boyd, with a squad of Smith's unit took pursuit... all illogical unless it was James Waters Boyd, the ex-sheriff of McNairyCounty, still under contract with the Union army.

Listed on the historical recounting of the officials of McNairyCounty are two surveyors by the name of "Fielding Hurst". That is the name of a west Tennessee Union Colonel. James Waters Boyd, was an ex-sheriff of McNairyCounty (1836, 1838), and was under contract with the Union army to manage prisoner transfers. The Colonel was probably responsible for that contract.

In 2004, Leonard Guttridge, a co-author of "Dark Union", defends the Neff version and discusses the Jackson shooting on Jan. 1, 1866 at the paragraph beginning "The other James W. Boyd?"The latest "Dark Union" defense is more plausible : in which the Rowarks of McNairy Co. had a family score to settle with James Waters Boyd.

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/3873


Neff did not reference the photographed location of the "James W. Boyd 1866" headstone as to the cemetery (problem?).
 
I came across a newspaper article from a Northern paper indicating that a Capt. Boyd of the Virginia Cavalry had been captured in 1863, in the Valley I think. As best I could tell from his records and perhaps one other article, this was the Captain Boyd Mosby wrote about. We have a thread on this here, and I posted what I had found out . Boyd was said to be awaiting execution, but I don't think that happened.


The "Col. John S. Mosby's (deceased 1916) narrative", which I would prefer to believe considering that it fits the impulse of the warrior gene to credit those who have contributed to your training. John Mosby's story was published in the Baltimore Sun in 1920 and corroborates the statements made in James Wm. Boyd's December letter to Sec of War Stanton.

Col. Mosby was not aware of the circumstances of Boyd's capture by the National Detective Police (related to us by historical writers in possession of documents not made available to internet access) on September 1st, believing that he had been captured by the Union while en route back to Jackson, Tn. He was listed on the Union Prisoner of War rolls as having been "captured" on October 1st, 1863. The time-line of that capture fit Mosby's expectation of the trip made home directly after Boyd's Linville Partisan unit was precluded as becoming C.S.A. commissioned following Gettysburg.

This time-line is extremely important as Boyd's "mission" story develops.

Some on this forum refer to James Wm. Boyd as a "Turn Coat". He was doubly loyal to the country in which he was brought up and more so to his "States Rights" neighbors and fellow Tennesseans. Read his letter to Stanton.

Col. Mosby referred to Boyd as a "double-agent"; Stanton never made such a reference and went on assuming that trading information was the only way that Boyd avoided the Firing Squad. To further prove that Boyd was his property, Stanton or his assigned agent paid Boyd a more than reasonable "salary". Therefore: Boyd was a well recognized "Double-Agent" for the C.S.A.

Boyd held "Pass Papers" issued by the extreme top levels of both sides while performing duty assigned by Mosby's superiors.
 
The "Col. John S. Mosby's (deceased 1916) narrative", which I would prefer to believe considering that it fits the impulse of the warrior gene to credit those who have contributed to your training. John Mosby's story was published in the Baltimore Sun in 1920 and corroborates the statements made in James Wm. Boyd's December letter to Sec of War Stanton.

Col. Mosby was not aware of the circumstances of Boyd's capture by the National Detective Police (related to us by historical writers in possession of documents not made available to internet access) on September 1st, believing that he had been captured by the Union while en route back to Jackson, Tn. He was listed on the Union Prisoner of War rolls as having been "captured" on October 1st, 1863. The time-line of that capture fit Mosby's expectation of the trip made home directly after Boyd's Linville Partisan unit was precluded as becoming C.S.A. commissioned following Gettysburg.

This time-line is extremely important as Boyd's "mission" story develops.

Some on this forum refer to James Wm. Boyd as a "Turn Coat". He was doubly loyal to the country in which he was brought up and more so to his "States Rights" neighbors and fellow Tennesseans. Read his letter to Stanton.

Col. Mosby referred to Boyd as a "double-agent"; Stanton never made such a reference and went on assuming that trading information was the only way that Boyd avoided the Firing Squad. To further prove that Boyd was his property, Stanton or his assigned agent paid Boyd a more than reasonable "salary". Therefore: Boyd was a well recognized "Double-Agent" for the C.S.A.

Boyd held "Pass Papers" issued by the extreme top levels of both sides while performing duty assigned by Mosby's superiors.
Very interesting. So Mosby was talking about the same Boyd. What happened to Boyd? I never found him on the 1870 census, and it looked like one or more of his kids were living with relatives.
 
Very interesting. So Mosby was talking about the same Boyd. What happened to Boyd? I never found him on the 1870 census, and it looked like one or more of his kids were living with relatives.

Right; it is the same Boyd as shown in the "Allegiance" photo of December, 1864 . The Letter to Stanton is tied by the references to the leadership of the West Tenn. / NorthMiss. campaign theater. He was with Villepigue and Van Dorn; he was at Corinth and knew the mysterious Col "W" from HollySprings though he did "not know the particulars of the Trade" that Col. "W" was offering.

I am pretty sure that I have identified Col. "W". Is the NDP report of the arrest in Jackson accessable?

Not on the 1870 census; read the letter to Stanton. One of his conditions is that Stanton place him where he remains anonymous. The statement about "been court martialed" is bogus; he was too valuable and ranked as the chief scout at Army level. Van Dorn was court martialed and Boyd was recalling that event to play Stanton, like a fiddle.

Thanks for getting this off the ground.
 
Right; it is the same Boyd as shown in the "Allegiance" photo of December, 1864 . The Letter to Stanton is tied by the references to the leadership of the West Tenn. / NorthMiss. campaign theater. He was with Villepigue and Van Dorn; he was at Corinth and knew the mysterious Col "W" from HollySprings though he did "not know the particulars of the Trade" that Col. "W" was offering.

I am pretty sure that I have identified Col. "W". Is the NDP report of the arrest in Jackson accessable?

Not on the 1870 census; read the letter to Stanton. One of his conditions is that Stanton place him where he remains anonymous. The statement about "been court martialed" is bogus; he was too valuable and ranked as the chief scout at Army level. Van Dorn was court martialed and Boyd was recalling that event to play Stanton, like a fiddle.

Thanks for getting this off the ground.
On different case, that of William J. Lawton, a former Jessie Scout who came to Tenn with Gen Thomas--his reports are on microfilm at NARA. The whole reel deals with scouting reports, etc. That makes me think the NDP report you mention may be on that reel. I wrote up the death of Lawton because his ID disc was dug in Va., and it dated to his service under Gen Stahel in the Valley. It was absolutely the same Lawton shot in April 1864 by a CS guerrilla in Ga.
 
On different case, that of William J. Lawton, a former Jessie Scout who came to Tenn with Gen Thomas--his reports are on microfilm at NARA. The whole reel deals with scouting reports, etc. That makes me think the NDP report you mention may be on that reel. I wrote up the death of Lawton because his ID disc was dug in Va., and it dated to his service under Gen Stahel in the Valley. It was absolutely the same Lawton shot in April 1864 by a CS guerrilla in Ga.

James Wm Boyd does not appear in the "Provost Marshal Records on Spies, Scouts, Guides, and Detectives". In the end, Stanton must have followed through on Boyd's request for anonymity in pursuit of further missions.

Whether he was arrested by the National Detective Police on August 1st or September 1st only makes his last known association with his comrades in Northern Virginia somewhat closer than what Col. Mosby believed to be the likely time of his capture by Union forces. The question is that the Army records don't pick up Boyd as "taken captive" until Oct 1st, then he is sent from prison to prison.

In each prison, he irritates other prisoners but the Union had to believe whatever he would pass along- regardless of truth. I would bet that he was more interested in the morale of the fellow prisoners and their views on the progress of the war. He was not treated as being a Union spy, but logically faced the Union officers' treatment towards one who has turned on his own people. That is the worst fate of a warrior.

I have trouble accessing the Reels through National Archives.
 
James Wm. Boyd mustered in as a Lieutenant of Company F, 6th Tenn. Either his experience as a railroad detective or prior military service earned this officer rank. He was soon cashiered out of the Cav unit and transferred to a scout unit. Soon, he assumed the rank of Captain heading up General Staff level scouting operations in North Mississippi with Gen. Villepigue. He "rode with Van Dorn". He knew about HollySprings and how to move a raiding force into the town's area; this time, late 1862, Van Dorn's force was noticed, by chance.

http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/text/waro0025.txt

From Pages around 435 to 450

Holly Springs, Miss. was strategically important due to its large store of Army Corps supplies that Gen. Grant appears to have been amassing for the assault on Vicksburg. At first, I thought that the suspicion of compromise of the security of HollySprings, would fall on the shoulders of a field commander failing to observe and report Rebel troop movements. Col. T. Lyle Dickey almost fit that bill.

Col. Dickey was returning to Grant's headquarters at Oxford, Miss. from a one week expedition to destroy RR facilities around Tupelo. On Dec. 18th, his unit was about 35 miles from Oxford when he barely avoided a large Rebel Cavalry movement outside of Pontotoc, Miss. His assessment of the size of that force was about 6- 7000. His couriers failed, twice, to carry a dispatch of that observation forward to Oxford. Dickey's 800 man force reached Oxford at 5:30 p.m. on the 19th and telegraph messages were sent North.

Gen. Earl Van Dorn struck HollySprings on the 20th, the same day that Col. Dickey wrote his report of the Tupelo mission.

But, there seemed to be only a side glance at Col. Dickey in reports and correspondence by Gen. Grant, who was informed of Dr. Wirtz' report to HQ Washington.

http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/text/waro0024.txt

Based on Info at Page 510 and Approx.:

Captain Jas. Wm. Boyd's December 1864 letter to Sec of War Stanton includes a repetition of his testimony of the events leading to the raid on HollySprings, Miss. He knew the Union officer who made some kind of a deal concerning HollySprings, but he did not know the "particulars of the trade". He had been told, and expected, "Col. W" to arrive for a meeting at Grenada, Miss. with "nine companies" from his regiment and did not understand why he came alone.

Dr. Wirtz' position as a Corps Medical Director would have had a rank to distinguish his authority over field and hospital surgeons who's ranks were generally that of "Major". Dr. Wirtz was probably a Lt. Col., maybe a full Col. He probably "visited" Grenada on a secret mission without "nine companies" because he did not command a regiment. As a "Surgeon", he also had "special privileges" as a condition afforded to medical staff in service to the Army. He was not in the reporting chain of command and did not answer to the "military commander".

U. S. Grant rescinded, by General Order, within a couple of weeks after the raid, the "special privilege" of Surgeons to roam freely about the countryside, confining them to their respective regimental encampments. The surgeon, Dr. Horace Wirtz, had reported atrocities occurring during the Holly Springs Raid, supposedly committed by Rebel officers and troops. He sent that report directly to his immediate superior in Washington, bypassing Grant. Dr Wirtz was relieved of his Army Corps position one month after the date of his report on the order of Maj.-Gen. U. S. Grant.

Dr. Wirtz was later reinstated to his Medical Office at facilities located near Hilton Head, S.C. The prison holding Boyd was in a nearby area when Stanton sent for him to be transferred to Old Capitol Prison in Washington. At about the same time of Boyd's deposition to the Asst Sec of War and the prison's Col. Wood, Dr. Wirtz was, again, relieved from his duty.

I have gone through the reports leading up to the raid and after the huge loss of supplies- in the neighborhood of $1,500,000 and 1500 captives. Such a loss would have impacted the effort to take Vicksburg. The only officer, Col."W", in Grant's command stationed at HollySprings was HORACE R. WIRTZ,Medical Director, Thirteenth Army Corps. Various websites offer information about Dr Wirtz and his joining the Indian Campaigns.

All of the scarce and medical valuable supplies were destroyed in the raid.
 
James Wm Boyd does not appear in the "Provost Marshal Records on Spies, Scouts, Guides, and Detectives". In the end, Stanton must have followed through on Boyd's request for anonymity in pursuit of further missions.

Whether he was arrested by the National Detective Police on August 1st or September 1st only makes his last known association with his comrades in Northern Virginia somewhat closer than what Col. Mosby believed to be the likely time of his capture by Union forces. The question is that the Army records don't pick up Boyd as "taken captive" until Oct 1st, then he is sent from prison to prison.

In each prison, he irritates other prisoners but the Union had to believe whatever he would pass along- regardless of truth. I would bet that he was more interested in the morale of the fellow prisoners and their views on the progress of the war. He was not treated as being a Union spy, but logically faced the Union officers' treatment towards one who has turned on his own people. That is the worst fate of a warrior.

I have trouble accessing the Reels through National Archives.
There is an online index of these by NARA that gives some excerpts. For whatever reason, I sent them an e-mail stating the reel number and what I was interested in and that I was writing an article (which was never published except on my blog)--well, as I say, for whatever reason, they sent me the photocopies free gratis.

Holly Springs is where most of my dad's ancestors were living before and during the war, on his mother's side, that is. Her father was captured in Tupelo on Dec 14th and exchanged two weeks later. At the time he was a member of Warren's Partisan company.
 
The recent thread about Booth naturally caused an interest in this man, James William Boyd, Captain, Confederate States Army, and frequent victim/patsy/sucker of several Lincoln conspiracy theories. This website is devoted to the theories, but also admits somewhat that Boyd was killed in Jackson, Tennessee in 1866, nearly a year after he was supposed to have been killed at the Garrett Farm in Bowling Green, Virginia and paraded in front of witnesses on an ironclad as John Wilkes Booth.

What I would like to see is more info about Captain Boyd, is unit, family, newspaper accounts of his time in Tennessee, as well as location/photos of his grave. This should put to rest any of the silly conspiracy theories.

View attachment 22686
Yes, but they clearly show that this J.W. Boyd had been a sheriff who rode for the Union and was not the Capt. Boyd of the 6th Tenn Cav. My theory on the Capt. Boyd of this thread is that his handlers whacked him when he was no longer of any use to them. Or maybe he did change his name, as Cobra Dave suggests.
 
There is an online index of these by NARA that gives some excerpts. For whatever reason, I sent them an e-mail stating the reel number and what I was interested in and that I was writing an article (which was never published except on my blog)--well, as I say, for whatever reason, they sent me the photocopies free gratis.

Holly Springs is where most of my dad's ancestors were living before and during the war, on his mother's side, that is. Her father was captured in Tupelo on Dec 14th and exchanged two weeks later. At the time he was a member of Warren's Partisan company.
That is fantastic. The raid Holly Springs was on the 20th of Dec 1862. If he was captured in Tupelo the same year, Col TL Dickey arrived outside of Tupelo on the Dec 15th and sent Lt Col Prince and 100 troops into Tupelo at 6 PM. Bragg was supposed to be camped 5 mi. to the east. This is Dickey's report:

http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/text/waro0024.txt

At Page 497

Looks like you might now know where the exchange prisoners came from
 
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