Jacob W. Cagle
The following information is based on family stories about Jacob W. Cagle and was provided by Dana
Meara who is related to Jacob. For more information about Jacob, you can contact Dana at JDMeara@aol.com
Captain Jacob W. Cagle, of Greenville, S.C., Commander of the Butler Guards, Company B, Second
South Carolina Infantry, Kershaw's Brigade, Longstreet's Corps, was born at Flat Rock, N.C.,
December 14, 1832. In 1853 he made his home at Greenville, S.C., and there enlisted in the Butler
Guards, April 13, 1861. This Company was originally a part of the Fourth Regiment, but being anxious
to reach the seat of war, was, upon its request, transferred to Colonel Kershaw's command, the
Second Regiment, which was then in Virginia. With this Regiment he was associated throughout the
war, as private, corporal, sergeant, lieutenant and captain, and participated in the following battles: First
Manassas, Lewinsville, Georgetown, Savage Station, Malvern Hill, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Bean's Station, Knoxville, Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court
House, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Charleston and Cedar Creek. The brigade then being sent to South
Carolina to meet Sherman's invasion of that State, was engaged in the battles of Smithfield and
Bentonville. As Bentonville was his last engagement of the war, Captain Cagle surrendered his
Company at Greensboro, N.C. He was badly wounded in the leg at Gettysburg, and while being
removed to Virginia by ambulance train, fell into the hands of the enemy, but was recaptured by the
Confederates, and his servant, having secured a riderless horse from the Federals, he was enabled to
make his way across the Potomac. After the war, Captain Cagle engaged in business as a contractor
and builder of industrial plants and has been eminently successful in his affairs. In 1870 he was married
to Alice Sloan.
