James B. Draggoo was born in Vermillion Township, Richland (now Ashland) County, Ohio on September 14, 1842, one of eleven children of William and Elizabeth (Reed) Draggoo.

He moved with his parents to De Kalb County, Indiana about 1853 where he and his father were farmers.

James Draggoo was recruited by Benjamin F. Culbertson and enlisted in the U. S. Army at Kendallville, Noble County, Indiana on February 27, 1864. He was mustered in as a Private in Battery A, 1st Indiana Heavy Artillery at Indianapolis on March 26, 1864. This regiment had previously been known as the 21st Indiana Infantry.

He was described as being between five feet, eight inches and five feet, ten inches tall, with a dark complexion, brown eyes, and dark hair.

On or about July 4th, 1864, Private Draggoo was with his command at Morganza Bend, Louisiana, working as a teamster or “mule driver”. While in the process of attaching a mule to one of the guns of the battery, the mule kicked him in the small of the back. He was laid up for about five weeks because of the injury and was treated by a doctor, not in a hospital, but in an old cotton press at New Orleans. While convalescing he also contracted “camp diarrhea” and fever.

Six batteries of his regiment participated in the investment of Mobile and the reduction of Forts Morgan, Gaines and Spanish Fort in April 1865.

Battery morning reports show Private Draggoo present sick on July 15-20, 1865. In December 1865 he was detailed as the battery’s cook.

At the close of active operations the batteries were assigned to duty in Forts Morgan, Pickens and Barrancas, in the works at Baton Rouge, and at other points of river defense. Private Draggoo was mustered out with the rest of the regiment at Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 10, 1866.

James then returned home to De Kalb County, Indiana, and once again took up farming. On April 30, 1866 he married Deliah Irvin at Concord, De Kalb County, Indiana. Together they had thirteen children, six boys and seven girls.

He continued to suffer with the effects of his back injury and with the chronic diarrhea that he had contracted during his service. He was under a doctor’s frequent care for the rest of his life and at times required a full-time nurse. The U.S. Government provided him with a pension as compensation.

James B. Draggoo died on October 14, 1929 at the respectable age of eighty-seven years.