At the age of 25, James Henry Anthony enlisted in August 1862 for three years service at Troy, New York, mustering into Company K, 125th New York Infantry as a private. Unfortunately during their first assignment, James and the unit would be captured as a whole following the Battle of Harpers Ferry in September 1862.

James would write later about his beginning experiences in the U.S. Army: “I was Enlisted on the 18th day of August 1862 and swore in to the United States Service the 27th day of Aug'st 1862 and then we were ordered to Baltimore to report to Gen'l Wool and we started the same day from the City of Troy N Y where we where encamped enroute for Baltimore and arrived at New York City the next morning and stayed there untill the same afternoon about 2 Oclock and then took the Boat for South Amboy and then the cars for Baltimore and arrived in Baltimore the next morning and then we lay there at the Depot untill 2 Oclock the same night and then three companies of our Regiment where armed and we where piled into Freight cars and sent to Martinsburg and arrived there the next day towards night and marched to the left of the town and there encamped and then two or three days after we were all armed and then we comenced drilling for the first time and the Sunday after we were ordered out on picket and the two best companies of the Regiment went out and we heard the first firing we ever heard on that day and then we where relieved at night and set to work on entrenchments and clearing the scrub Pine in front of our works and after we had got our work completed we were ordered to fall back to Harpers Ferry and we there see our first marching and the next Sunday following we saw our first Battle and the next day we surendred to Stonewall Jackson” (Note, James used no punctuation!)

Deemed the “Harpers Ferry Cowards” by the rest of the U.S. Army of the Potomac following their parole and exchange, James and the other New Yorkers captured at Harpers Ferry wanted to make a name for themselves on the battlefield to prove their worth as soldiers. At Gettysburg the 111th, 125th and 126th New York would get their chance. They would help repulse not only the Confederate attacks on July 2nd, but also the infamous Pickett’s Charge on July 3rd. James and the 125th New York would go on to serve in the majority of battles the U.S. Army of the Potomac was engaged in 1864 and 1865, fighting with the 2nd Corps. On April 2nd, 1865, the 125th New York was involved in the assaults to break the backbone of the Confederacy at Petersburg. At Sutherland’s Station, General Nelson Miles’ Division, which the 125th New York belonged, charged the Confederate works, ultimately achieving victory, but suffering heavy casualties in the process. James would suffer a severe gunshot wound in this action in the right elbow. He was then sent to Harewood U.S. General Hospital on April 5th, 1865. Operations were performed in the field, and they ended up being favorable because James did not lose his arm. Photographed in 1865 is James and his wound, taken at one of the U.S. General hospitals.