Biography of Benjamin L. Jacobs

Since Benjamin Jacobs was not a member of the Army, there is no biography of him in the National Archives. Below is my biography of the man.
   Benjamin L. Jacobs was born about December 1817. He was married to Catharine S. Houck, who died in 1914. An obelisk, raised by his wife, is in a Frederick, Maryland cemetery.
   Benjamin's brother, John C. Jacobs, was Superintendent of the Northern Division of the Illinois Central RR, living in Amboy, Il. He had a 12 year old child who was born in Virginia.
   A B. L. Jacobs was a Supervisor of Trains for the Baltimore & Ohio RR in the summer of 1860 and is likely the same man.
   Jacobs was a Special Transportation Agent for railroad matters who is known to us because of his involvement with the Army of Northern Virginia just before and during the Gettysburg campaign. He was captured after the battle and died at Fort Delaware.
   My thanks to Hugh Simmons, of the Fort Delaware Society, for the information from the POW Records.
November 30, 1862 Was appointed traveling Transportation Clerk by the QM General
NA, RRB 12-1B-62
December 31, 1862 Paid as traveling Transportation Agent
March 5, 1863 Ordered to assist Lt. Col. Smith
NA, QM 3-5A-63
April 14, 1863 Paid as Transportation Agent, appointed by QM General
NA, RRB 4-14-63
April 30. 1863 Ordered to handle a Subsistence problem
NA, QM 4-30-63
May 28, 1863 Assigned to help improve railroad supply support of the Army of Northern Virginia
NA, QM 5-28A-63
June 20, 1863 Assigned to work with Chief Quarter Master of the Army of Northern Virginia to remove captured railroad material
NA, ENGR 6-18-63
NA, QM 6-20-63
NA, QMR 6-20-63
July 5, 1863 Captured at Chambersburg, Penn. Was classified "Quartermaster Department, Maryland" (POW Records) (Chambersburg had a large hospital for Ewell's Corps and Jacobs may have been a patient there with the disease that lead to his death)
July 9, 1863 Forwarded from Harrisburg to Philadelphia  (POW Records)
July 10, 1863 Probable date of arrival at Fort Delaware POW compound  (POW Records)
September 26, 1863 Was to have been sent to Point Lookout on this date, but was left in the hospital at Fort Delaware (POW Records)
October 2, 1863 Died in the Fort Delaware hospital; cause of death, erysipelas (a bacterial skin infection)  (POW Records)
October 17, 1863 QM General asked head of Prisoner Exchange to retrieve him. He had been captured with the Army of Northern Virginia

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