JOB SHERMAN DRIGGS

 

 

Born in 1841 in Cold Rain, Mass., in the 1850’s his family moved from Mass. to Wisconsin and settled on a farm.  He was mustered into the Union army as a Private in Company “1” 6th Regiment Wisconsin Inf. Vols. On July 16, 1861.  He served as a Private from July 16, 1861 to November 1, 1864, distinguishing and devastating battles of the war.  He fought with the famous Iron Brigade at Gainesville, Virginia on August 28, 1862, at Bull Run, Virginia on August 29 and 30, 1862, at South Mountain, Maryland, September 14, 1862, at Antletam September 17, 1862, at Fredricksburg, Virginia, December 13, 1862, Chancellorville, April 29, 1863, at Gettysburg, July 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 1863, and at The Wilderness on May 5th and 6th, 1864.

 

In a letter from Job S. Driggs in 1898 to Gerneral Russell A. Alger, Sec. of War requesting permission to lead a light battery in the Spanish American War.  He stated that he had fired the first cannon that was fired at Gettysburg. Included with this letter to Gen. Alger was a letter from Brig. Gen. E. S. Bragg dated May 15, 1898 stating in part, “There is no one that I would rather have than you, or some of your comrades, command a battery attached to a command of mine were I engaged in this war.  You had the necessary skill under stress.  You had the nerve and the puck when those qualities were put to the severest of tests, for there was no battery in the field that ran its nose up, under and into the enemy so often and so successfully as old Battery B with her Napoleon guns.  It makes me feel young again when I think over what that battery did.” Your old commander and friend, E. S. Bragg.

 

On November 1, 1864, Private Driggs was promoted to Sergeant in Company 1 of the 66th regiment of Wisconsin Vet. Vols. And discharged March 8, to accept commission of the 48th Wisconsin Vols.

 

At this time his character was listed as excellent.  He had received a furlough of twenty-five days, a compliment from Major General Meade for soldierly conduct and efficiency on the battlefield and he was endorsed by Brig. General E. S. Bragg, as being the best soldier in the Iron Brigade.

 

On March 8, Sergeant Driggs was promoted to 3rd Lieutenant of Command 1 of the 48th regiment Wisconsin Volunteers infantry and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on October 28, 1865.

 

At the end of the Civil War, Lieutenant Driggs was sent to Kansas City and on May 27, 1865, received special orders to command of Camp Dysold and the troops occupying it.

 

On December 31, 1865, he was discharged from the army at the age of  twenty-four.

 

Some time in the 1870’s, Job and his brother Harme Driggs answered an ad requesting prospective husbands from two sisters living in Dade County on Lookout Mountain.  Two of the six daughters of William Henry and Virginia Fowler Boatman, got married.  Job married Georgia and Harme married Fannie. Job and Fannie settled in Temple, Texas, where he became a railroad engineer. He left his engine at the South line in 1889 to make the claim as a sooner in the famous Oklahoma Land Rush, opening for settlement Cherokee Indian lands to thousands of settlers.  The family moved back to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain in the 1880’s.  In 1882, March 3oth, he became a member of the American and European Secret Service Company.  Job lived out the rest of life here; he was laid to rest in the Chattanooga National Cemetery. Job and Georgia’s daughter, Katherine Driggs, married Bert Clement Moore of Lookout Mountain, this the beginning of another line in the proud clan of Moores on Lookout Mountain.

 

Information given by Kenneth Pennington.

 

 

(Used by permission HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY GEORGIA, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, 1981.)




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