Minneapolis, MinnesotaThe Womack Family Legacy · Documented Profile
James Tignal
Womack
July 14, 1835 — April 14, 1912
A Kentucky-born Union officer whose own letter explains why his service ended—and preserves his account in the contemporary military record.
Download the documented chapterThe identity chain
One James, Three Records
The military jacket, pension index, and veteran headstone repeat the same unusual combination: James T. Womack, Company E, 14th Kentucky Infantry. The service and pension records also agree that he was a first lieutenant.
- Military unit
- Company E, 14th Kentucky Infantry
- Rank
- First lieutenant
- Service
- October 15, 1861 — November 7, 1862
- Burial
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
Identity status · Documented
Name, rank, company, regiment, pension notation, and burial evidence converge on the same man.
The family branch
Civil War Cousin
Published family compilations support James as a son of James Allen Womack and Susan Ann Lampton and therefore a first cousin of William’s sons Archer and Egbert.
Relationship status · Strongly supported, not closed
A primary household, probate, or family-Bible image directly securing the two brothers to their father is still wanted. The military identity is secure; this relationship is a separate evidence question.
October-December 1861
An Officer at Twenty-Six
James entered Captain Archibald Means’s company, later designated Company E. He did not begin as a private: the first surviving card names him first lieutenant.
- Enrolled
- October 15, 1861 · Ashland, Kentucky
- Mustered
- December 10, 1861 · Camp Wallace, Lawrence County
- Term
- Three years
- Age
- 26
October 20, 1862
“Totally Unfit for Duty”
James wrote that he had been suffering for six months from what he called “disease of the breast.” The condition had recently become severe and, in his words, left him “totally unfit for duty.” He tendered his commission and asked that the resignation take effect immediately. His commanding officer recommended acceptance.
This is James speaking in his own military record—not a later paraphrase.
November 7, 1862
The Official Ending
The official record makes James’s resignation effective November 7, 1862. Company and regimental returns repeat that action. One later card appears to give November 8, a one-day variance; the contemporaneous order and returns support November 7.
- Rank
- First lieutenant
- Action
- Resignation of commission
- Authority
- Special Orders No. 99 · Department of the Ohio
- Effective
- November 7, 1862
Careful wording
Resigned his commission because of illness; resignation accepted effective November 7, 1862.
May 1906
A Pension in Minnesota
More than forty years after the war, James applied in Minnesota for an invalid pension. The index carries the same rank, company, and regiment. Its certificate entry indicates that the claim was granted.
April 1912
The Burial Register
- Born
- July 14, 1835 · Kentucky
- Died
- April 14, 1912
- Cause entered
- Bronchitis
- Buried
- April 17, 1912 · Minneapolis, Minnesota
Research ledger
What Is Locked Down?
Documented
Officer, unit, enrollment, resignation letter and effective date, Minnesota pension identity, death, and burial.
Strongly supported
Son of James Allen Womack and Susan Ann Lampton; first cousin of Archer and Egbert.
Still open
Exact Louisa birthplace, complete household, marriage and children, civil death certificate, and full pension file.
Record distinctions
Commission resigned; Portland letter versus Minneapolis burial; cemetery card versus civil death certificate.
Sources
Read the Record
- National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 94, compiled military service record of James T. Womack, Company E, 14th Kentucky Infantry; microfilm M397; digital images accessed through Fold3.
- General Index to Pension Files, entry for James T. Womack, First Lieutenant, Company E, 14th Kentucky Infantry; Minnesota filing.
- Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery, burial-register card and veteran marker for James T. Womack.
- National Park Service, “14th Regiment, Kentucky Infantry,” regimental history.
- Thomas Speed, The Union Regiments of Kentucky (1897), Company E roster and unit history.
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