Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Buckles, Abraham Jay 1846 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 3, 2007, 11:51 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

ABRAHAM JAY BUCKLES, Judge of the Superior Court of Solano County, California,
was born August 2, 1846, in Delaware County, Indiana. Up to the time of the war
he had received but little education. He enlisted as a private in Company E,
Nineteenth Regiment Indiana Infantry, June, 1861. This regiment became a part of
the "Iron Brigade," First Division, First Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. He
was with the regiment at the front in all the great campaigns of the army,
except the Peninsula. At the second Bull Run battle he was shot through the
right thigh and taken prisoner, but effected his escape soon after. Prior to the
Gettysburg campaign he had been detailed, at his own request, as one of the
color guard, and during the Gettysburg battle he rescued the flag of his
regiment, but was soon after struck in the right shoulder with a rifle ball,
which so disabled him that he could never after carry a knapsack. When
sufficiently recovered, although the wound was not healed, he returned to his
regiment, and was at once made the color-bearer thereof, a position he long had
sought. At the battle of the Wilderness, while carrying the flag he was shot
through the body, and when carried to the rear was informed by the surgeon that
he must die, as his wound was a fatal one, and for this reason, and owing to the
great number of wounded who would in all probability recover, but little
attention was paid to him. So certain were all that he would not recover the
report went forth "Killed in the Wilderness." In 1886 he recovered a small
Bible, carried by him in that battle and lost there, which on the fly-leaf bore
the words "Killed in the Wilderness." However, being of a strong constitution
and possessed of an iron will be recovered sufficiently to return to the front
where he found his regiment so depleted in numbers that it had been consolidated
with the Twentieth Indiana, and in this regiment he was given a commission as
Second Lieutenant, dated February 27, 1865. At the beginning of Grant's last
campaign, at Petersburg, March 25, 1865, and just fourteen days before Lee's
surrender, while leading his company in an assault against a line of rebel
picket pits, he was struck by a ball in the right leg which necessitated its
amputation a few inches from the body.

  Returning to his home at the close of the war, and having sufficiently
recovered his strength, he attended a private school for about nine months,
after which he taught several primary schools, worked at whatever he could get
to do, employing all his leisure moments in reading law; and, on being admitted
to the Indiana bar in 1875, he removed with is family to Solano County,
California, where he soon built up a lucrative practice. In 1879, during the new
constitution campaign, he became quite prominent as a public speaker in the
debates against the adoption of the consitution. At the fall election of the
same year he was elected District Attorney of Solano County, and was re-elected
in 1882, and at the election of 1884 he was elected Judge of the Superior Court
of his county, a position he has tilled with honor and distinction, and he will
be re-elected this year (1890) without opposition.

  He is a prominent Grand Army man, being now the Department Commander of the
Department of California, a member of Farragut Post, No. 4, G. A. R., Vallejo.
In 1845 he was Superior Chancellor of the order C. R. C, and in 1889 was Grand
Chancellor of the Jurisdiction of California K. of P. He is also a member of I.
O. O. F., A. O. U. W., O. B. L., and U. A. O. D. He is the second son of Thomas
N. and Rachel (Graham) Buckles. His early ancestry on his father's side came
from England and settled in Virginia long before the Revolutionary war. His
mother's people were of Irish extraction. In December, 1865, he married Louisa
B. Conn, of Muncie, Indiana, the fourth daughter of Simon and Sarah (O'Neil)
Conn, by whom he had but two children, Lola D., the wife of George B. Donaldson,
and Adda Jessie, now engaged in the millinery business in Suisun, California.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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